Narconon's success rate is not nearly that high

I couldn't read Helen Campbell's mention ("In Rebuttal: Scientology Helps People" Aug. 15) of Narconon's success rate without responding.

She stated that Narconon has "a documented success rate of nearly 80 percent of graduates never returning to lives of addiction."

They have sometimes increased it to as high as 86 percent, without independent verification. But source data from studies is often hard to come by.

Independent researchers have concluded that the actual results of the Narconon studies are far less flattering than you would be led to believe. In a Swedish study, 6.6 percent of Narconon enrollees reported they were drug-free for one year after they were in the program. Numerous independent examiners have found similar results.

There is the issue of Narconon's detoxification program. Exercise is advocated, though heart rates can change dramatically during detoxification. Long periods in saunas are used; Narconon advocates five hours when no more than 15 to 30 minutes is recommended. There are mega-doses of vitamins recommended at a level that the state of Oklahoma (the location of one Narconon center) has called, "potentially dangerous ... according to the more credible medical evidence."

No method of treatment is foolproof, which makes it important to acquire good and objective information about your options.

FRED HETZEL JR.
Penn Hills
Editor's note: The writer is a social worker with experience in drug and alcohol addiction.

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Lost years

Browsing through the Post-Gazette, I happened to read the Thomas Doswell piece about wrongly convicted people receiving no compensation in Pennsylvania ("State Doesn't Give Dime to the Innocent," Aug. 7). Then a recurring thought about the raise the Pennsylvania legislators voted themselves popped into my head.

What better way could there be for our greedy legislators to redeem themselves for taking raises that they truly don't deserve?

I now urge them all to take the unvouchered expense money and donate it to Thomas Doswell and those like him who walk out of prison with their freedom and 19 years of lost dreams and wages.

JEFF SMITH
Cranberry

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Drug ads educate

In the Aug. 15 editorial "Hooked on Ads," the Post-Gazette glosses over the role that appropriate advertising can play in educating patients about diseases and treatment options.

Advertising has an important role in informing patients about treatment options they otherwise may not ever know about.

A recent nationwide poll by Prevention Magazine and Men's Health found that 28 million patients talked to their doctor for the first time about a health condition after seeing ads for prescription medicines. Also, for every 1 million men who went to the doctor requesting a prescription for Viagra, doctors found previously undiagnosed diabetes in an estimated 30,000, high blood pressure in 140,000 and heart disease in 50,000. Clearly, early detection saves lives. That is the real power of education and information.

The survey also found that consumers continue to rely on direct-to-consumer advertising as an informational resource, with 95 million checking magazine ads for risk and benefit information.

How patients can best be informed about their prescription medicines is an important question and one that should be discussed thoroughly. That is why 25 of the member companies in Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America have adopted new guiding principles on the direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines. The drastic solution of ending prescription drug advertising or having a government agency regulate speech doesn't further that debate -- and it doesn't help to save one additional life.

BILLY TAUZIN
President
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America

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Pay their own

When I retired from LTV with a small pension, the judges made us pay our own hospital health insurance. My question is, why don't the lawmakers pay their health benefits like I do from their pensions?

I lost mine, but now my taxes are helping to pay their benefits. Something is wrong here.

JOHN SEARA
Hopewell

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Send decoys instead

One way to help save lives from roadside bombs in Iraq would be for a truck convoy to be led by an expendable unmanned vehicle. This vehicle could be used to detonate roadside bombs in advance of trucks that carry the troops.

Depending on various parameters, such as the strength of the blast and the resilience of the unmanned vehicle, it might even be able to continue performing its mission. If it is totally destroyed, a delay might be necessitated for removing the vehicle from the road.

The vehicle would be controlled by a soldier responsible for leading the entire convoy. She/He would sit in the truck behind it, and the driver of that truck would then simply follow the unmanned vehicle, which should be low enough for the convoy leader to see over it.

The technology needed to control the expendable unmanned vehicle would be primitive compared to what they are now doing at Carnegie Mellon University. Also, the vehicle should have extra wheels and axles for when the regular wheels and axles are blown off.

In case rolling over a roadside bomb is not the way to set it off, the vehicle would need to be equipped with more effective detonating means (maybe electromagnetic) that would be in operation throughout the journey.

JOHN C. SCHMERTZ
Wilkinsburg

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Social Security should offer several options

For once Republican John Snow is completely honest about the Social Security mess when he writes, "Perhaps worst of all, extra dollars that are collected by Social Security while it has been solvent -- the Social Security "surplus" that you've heard about -- are spent on other government programs, not saved for future beneficiaries of Social Security!" ("Happy Birthday ... and Many More?" Puts & Calls, Business, Aug. 14).

And although I'm a Pennsylvania member of AARP, I agree that Social Security money must be taken away from Congress' reach. At least one of my sons would like to divert his Social Security money to a private account, and that should be one option allowed by any revision made to Social Security. The percentage to be diverted should be any amount up to 100 percent.

I also agree with Shane Creamer that those future retirees who want to remain in the present Social Security system should be allowed that option. Everyone can be satisfied by allowing sufficient options to cover all possible cases. I propose four options: (1) stay in the present system, (2) choose to self-manage your own private account through Scottrade or another discount brokerage, (3) choose to have a private account managed by one of the many brokerages or (4) choose to be included in the same plan as government employees and civilian employees of the U.S. government.

The fourth option is known as the Thrift Savings Plan, and it is managed by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board. There are five funds available through this plan. A retiree under Social Security should be able to choose any of the five funds and switch at the same intervals available to government employees.

MIKE MESTER
Lower Burrell