OKLAHOMA CITY -
As the
investigation into a Scientology-run drug treatment center continues more
people who attended the center are coming forward.
Three people have
died at the facility in the past nine months, the most recent last week.
The OSBI has now turned
the results of its investigation into the recent death over to the District
attorney in Pittsburg County. This, as News 9 is learning more about exactly
what happens inside the facility.
"It was a way to
get you kind of weak and vulnerable and trust whatever they're telling you,"
said a former patient who asked not to be identified.
She checked into
the Narconon drug rehab facility about a year ago and was there at the same
time as Gabriel Graves, who died in October after she left. The medical examiner
could not determine a cause of his death.
"He was very
excited about getting home to his family. When I heard that he died it shocked
me," said the woman.
The woman says
patients at the center would first go through detox, then a course written by
Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
7/22/2012
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Preventable
"One thing I had
to do was talk to an ash tray, you had to tell it to stand up and then you have
to tell it to sit down."
After patients
pass the course, the next step is called "sauna" where they are given high doses
of vitamins and told to sit on a sauna for 5 hours a day: 20 minutes in, 5
minutes out, to "sweat out" the drugs.
"People got sick,
people had serious diarrhea, things like that," she recalls. "Basically I was
told that was because of the vitamins."
The woman says
most of those working at the facility were not medical personnel, but former
patients.
"They're kind of
just people like me that have been through the program and decided to stay and
work,"
And many patients
would stay. This woman says she wanted to leave her husband and kids,
after those at the facility convinced her that her family was the reason for
her addiction.
"I need to detach
myself from them in order to remain sober and live a happy life."
News 9 has talked to other people who have worked in other
treatment facilities and they tell us this method of treatment is not
typical. Administrators at Narconon say they are cooperating with
investigators.
The Oklahoma
Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse is also investigating the
facility.
Three people have died at the facility in the past nine months, the most recent last week.
