Religion is banned in public schools, but some Bay Area students may have been exposed to Scientology -- and in an unexpected way.
Enter anti-drug education.
An anti-drug program called Narconon relies on teachings of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard for some of its scientific tenets -- which have been debunked, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Recent Narconon presentations were given at schools in Fremont, Los Altos, Morgan Hill, San Jose, San Ramon, Santa Clara and Santa Rosa, the newspaper reported.
Narconon teachers say that drugs reside in body fat "for years," the newspaper reported, and "cause people to feel high during times of stress."
That's been found to be scientifically unsound by the state, which has warned schools but cannot place an outright ban on Narconon presentations.
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In 2005, a state review also found that Narconon presentations erroneously state that drugs burn up vitamins and nutrients, which leads to relapse as well as the "munchies" in marijuana smokers.
The same purification process that Narconon drug treatment centers use to purify users, a sauna, is used in the Church of Scientology, the newspaper reported.
