This week, Narconon Suncoast celebrated National Prevention Week with drug education and a spectacular community dinner and graduation. The graduation was the culmination of a week of community addiction awareness and drug prevention activities. Community leaders, family, and friends gathered in the packed auditorium to hear participants share their remarkable stories of recovering their lives from addiction.

“In the midst of daily news of overdoses and loss, we think it’s important to share that addictions can end and families can be restored,” said Narconon Suncoast Director of Community Services, Yvonne Rodgers. Ms. Rodgers who hosted the graduation event went on to say, “Most people now think that addiction is an incurable disease, but at Narconon, we get people clean every day, without the use of replacement therapies. It’s more important than ever to support all forms of effective treatment.”

One long-term supporter of recovery and prevention efforts, Florida Representative Chris Latvala, was impressed seeing and hearing what the Narconon Students and graduates shared about their results in this long-term, holistic addiction treatment program.

Erica F., who graduated the Narconon program 25 years ago, shared how her life had gone south with heroin addiction. “I was strung out on heroin for years. I had been to every type of treatment facility possible; 12-steps, psychiatric facilities, taking cocktails of pills, and nothing worked. I thought Narconon would be one in the same, and it definitely wasn’t. Now I’m sober 25 years! She continued, “There were always those people, growing up, who never did drugs and never had that struggle and I was always a little jealous of them. And now, I’m one of those people!”

Another powerful speaker was a father of two sons, both of whom had addictions and both successfully completed the Narconon program. “I never would have dreamed that I would have a son who got involved in drugs. They were both great students, liked in school and participated in life. The oldest went to treatment first and let us know that his young brother needed help too. Narconon saved them both by ending the physical addiction and helping them get to the underlying reasons they were using drugs. Both of them are doing well now and back to being sober, working participants in life and our family. No parent of an addict could wish for more.”

The graduation ceremony ended with the two latest graduates sharing their stories and focusing on how each of the steps of their individualized treatment program got them to a point where they knew they could live a drug-free, productive life again.

The underlying prevention message of the evening was that prevention is critical to ending the addiction crisis and that long-term holistic treatment like the Narconon program is key to ending an addiction once it starts. The “drug-free, for good” message was echoed throughout the evening with long-term graduates and family members sharing the inspiring results Narconon created in their lives.

For more information about Narconon Suncoast call 877-841-5509 or visit https://narconon-suncoast.org.