In evaluating the Narconon Drug Prevention & Education program, panel leader Steve Heilig, director of health and education for the San Francisco Medical Society, said that the program "often exemplifies the outdated, non-evidence-based, and sometimes factually inaccurate approach, which has not served students well for decades."

According to the panel, the Narconon lectures disseminate information to students that is widely dismissed by mainstream medical experts. For example, the Narconon program teaches students that drugs can be sweated out of the body through saunas, and that drugs accumulate indefinitely in body fat and cause recurring drug cravings.

"One of our reviewers opined that 'this curriculum reads like a high-school science paper pieced together from the Internet, and not very well at that,'" said Heilig. "Another wrote that 'my comments will be brief, as this proposal hardly merits detailed analysis.' Another stated, 'As a parent, I would not want my child to participate in this kind of 'education.'"

The panel compared Narconon's program to a recent study conducted by Rodney Skager, a professor emeritus at UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, that identified what effective anti-drug programs should offer students.

"We concurred that the Narconon materials focus on some topics of lesser importance to the exclusion of best knowledge and practices," said Heilig. He added that the curriculum contained "factual errors in basic concepts such as physical and mental effects, addiction, and even spelling."

Clark Carr, president of Narconon International, questioned the panel's findings and accused the reviewers of preferring programs that rely on a "drug-based medical solution."

"We have the results. The 'review' from biased sources shows that people who endorse so-called controlled drug use cannot be trusted to review a program advocating totally drug-free living," said Carr. "We will continue to work to help the children of San Francisco to learn factual and important truths about drugs."

The Narconon program has been used in at least 34 schools in California and in 39 school districts throughout the country.

California school administrators will decide whether to continue with Narconon in schools once they complete their review of the panel's analysis and other materials provided by Heilig.

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