Summary of a Presentation Made to the American Academy of Environmental Medicine

Presented by David R. Root, MD., 1989

Dr. David Root is a physician specializing in occupational medicine with a private practice in Sacramento. California. He has treated numerous patients who had accumulated lipophilic chemicals through occupational exposure, using the method of detoxification developed by L. Ron Hubbard. In the course of his work, he has also treated approximately 75 drug abusers with this detoxification program. He recently reported the results of a follow-up study of these drug abuse patients at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine.

The long-term success rate for drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs is not extremely high. Abstinence from drugs for 2 years after undergoing rehabilitation treatment by 30% of the patients is considered quite acceptable. This means that 70% of the patients are not succeeding in staying off of drugs. Such a recidivism rate is cause for deep concern. One hypothesis is that a hidden cause of recidivism amongst drug abusers is the presence in their bodies of residual levels of drugs and their metabolites. This led to the proposition that removing these compounds from the body would assist in the recovery of the drug abuser.

One program documented to reduce levels of fat-stored xenobiotics is the detoxification method developed by Hubbard. This program was originally developed to assist in the recovery of drug abusers. The program aims to mobilize and eliminate fat-stored xenobiotics. We have treated drug abusers using this detoxification procedure as the chief component of a drug rehabilitation program.

This program consists of the following components:

1. Initial interview.
2. Drug withdrawal (no drugs are administered).
3. Detoxification with Hubbard's method.
3b. Stress handling as required.
4. Follow-up.