Narconon Director Asks, "Could the 1996 Olympic Games Have Prepared Atlanta to be a New Illicit Drug Distribution Center?"

NORCROSS, GA, November 18, 2010 (Press-News.org) Before the Olympic Games came to Atlanta, it was still somewhat of a sleepy Southern city with a downtown that needed some serious urban renewal. But the investment money that poured in - in excess of $500 million - transformed the city into one that was ready for the 21st millennium. Improvements to telecommunications, transportation, housing, highways and much more resulted from the games. Investors and businesses flocked to the newly improved area. Immigrants, legal and illegal both, were attracted to the job availability.

All of which made the city desirable for international drug cartels looking for a new foothold in the East. Atlanta lies at the center of a complex web of interstate highways that serve those wanting to move drug shipments. With a higher immigrant population, Asian, Mexican or other cartel members would blend right in.

In the last few years, increased drug trafficking activity has centered around the Atlanta Metropolitan area. Finally, in 2010, a huge drug investigation resulted in the arrest of 45 members of a prominent Mexican drug cartel and the seizure of thousands of pounds of illicit drugs from suburban Atlanta homes.

To Mary Rieser, Director of Narconon of Georgia, it comes as no great surprise. "If these people were not aggressive, ruthless businesspeople, they would not have been able to establish strongholds in this country. They saw a developing region and seized the chance to grab control." Narconon is an international organization that is dedicated to preventing drug abuse and addiction and to the rehabilitation of those who have become addicted.

"Things escalated to the point that we had a major methamphetamine lab dismantled in a beautiful American town outside Atlanta," added Rieser. "Law enforcement officials found more than 170 pounds of finished methamphetamine in a house destined to be distributed to our neighbors and our children. More than 4,000 pounds of marijuana and 80 pounds of cocaine were found in other locations."

While law enforcement did an excellent job of dismantling this drug ring, the demand for drugs by Americans, one of the essential components that drives the entire industry, must be addressed.

Rieser observed, "When a person is addicted, the harm he or she does to oneself or others is not a strong enough deterrent, compared to the urgency of the craving for drugs. Only thorough, effective drug rehabilitation programs can break that cycle." The Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation program helps addicts break free of their addictions with a long-term residential program located in cities across the U.S. and in forty other countries. Seven out of ten Narconon graduates go on to live clean and sober lives after they go home.

For more information about Narconon visit www.narconon.org.