Earlier this month WhiteHouse.gov announced several new Trump administration appointments. Trump’s pick to head up the DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Assistance is  Jon Adler who previously was president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. It was reported in WIRED that Adler sat on the advisory board for a controversial detoxification program based on pseudoscience invented by L. Ron Hubbard and pushed by the Scientology cult under various names over the years.

This current incarnation of the detox program once known as Narcanon is called Heroes Health Fund (HHF).

Adler spent a number of years on the advisory board of the Heroes Health Fund, a group that purports to offer support for “firefighters, police, EMTs, veterans, and others harmed by toxic exposures in the line of duty” using a detoxification program developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

That program has existed under a variety of names over the years, including Purif, the Purification Rundown, Narconon, and the Hubbard Method. It posits that bodies and spirits can be “purified” through a combination of extensive sauna-induced sweat sessions, a niacin-heavy multivitamin, light exercise, and the consumption of pure vegetable oil. Hubbard, of course, had no medical training of any kind, and his detoxification method has been denounced by countless institutions and medical professionals, such as the Los Angeles and San Francisco school districts, the California Medical Association, the National Council Against Health Fraud, and a former Surgeon General of the United States.

It seems as though the cult changes the name of these programs every so often once people catch on that it is L. Ron Hubbard based bullsh*t and not real medical treatment. This version looks like a play to make some money from the increased recognition of first responders in the post 9/11 era.

The HHF site doesn’t even make much of an effort to appear legitimate. It claims to be a program based on the work of an “International Academy of Detoxification Specialists” which turns out to be just another L. Ron Hubbard Scientology front organization.

The International Academy of Detoxification Specialists was created by a group of environmentalists, writers, physicians and other health specialists who shared an interest in the use of the detoxification procedure developed by L. Ron Hubbard to address the effects of occupational and environmental chemical exposures.

The first major initiative of this Academy was the sponsorship of an International Conference on Human Detoxification, held in Los Angeles in December 1995. A second conference was held in Stockholm, Sweden in the fall of 1997. A 2005 conference at Hunter College in New York City focused on results from delivery of detoxification services to men and women affected by exposures during the rescue and recovery operations following the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.

The HHF site links to the site of this so called academy and guess whose name is right up front.

Over the last two decades environmental and occupational health professionals, rehabilitation specialists, and government officials on several continents have been involved in collaborative work relating to a detoxification program developed by L. Ron Hubbard.

They’re using multiple websites to appear as if there is more than one organization corroborating their quackery, but it is all under the umbrella of the cult of Scientology.

So what’s the big deal, you might ask. It’s a big deal because as head of the BJA, Adler will have authority over a lot of contracts and grants that cover problems exactly like the ones Scientology witch doctors like to exploit.

Here’s how the Bureau of Justice Assistance website describes its mission:

BJA Mission

BJA’s mission is to provide leadership and services in grant administration and criminal justice policy development to support local, state, and tribal justice strategies to achieve safer communities. BJA supports programs and initiatives in the areas of law enforcement, justice information sharing, countering terrorism, managing offenders, combating drug crime and abuse, adjudication, advancing tribal justice, crime prevention, protecting vulnerable populations, and capacity building. Driving BJA’s work in the field are the following principles:

• Emphasize local control.
• Build relationships in the field.
• Provide training and technical assistance in support of efforts to prevent crime, drug abuse, and violence at the national, state, and local levels.
• Develop collaborations and partnerships.
• Promote capacity building through planning.
• Streamline the administration of grants.
• Increase training and technical assistance.
• Create accountability of projects.
• Encourage innovation.
• Communicate the value of justice efforts to decision makers at every level.

BJA has four primary components: Policy, Programs, Planning, and the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) Office. The Policy Office provides national leadership in criminal justice policy, training, and technical assistance to further the administration of justice. It also acts as a liaison to national organizations that partner with BJA to set policy and help disseminate information on best and promising practices. The Programs Office coordinates and administers all state and local grant programs and acts as BJA’s direct line of communication to states, territories, and tribal governments by providing assistance and coordinating resources. The Planning Office coordinates the planning, communications, and budget formulation and execution; provides overall BJA-wide coordination; and supports streamlining efforts.

(emphasis added)

The potential problems here are two-fold. First, a position of authority is being given to someone who is willing to lend his name and reputation to pseudo-science invented by a known charlatan. Second, that person may be in a position to funnel taxpayer dollars to an organization that is scamming first responders who may be in need of real medical treatment.

We’ve seen how some Scientology treatments work in recent news.

Appointing anyone with ties to this cult or who supports its fake treatment programs shows incredibly poor judgement.