Amazon Is Collecting Donations For a Scientology-Linked Anti-Drug Charity

An anonymous reader quotes the Guardian:
Amazon has agreed to channel funds to a controversial drug rehabilitation charity linked to the Church of Scientology, the Guardian has learned. The web giant will make donations to Narconon — which runs programmes for drug addicts based on the teachings of the Scientology founder, L Ron Hubbard — when supporters buy products through the site, with shoppers able to pledge 0.5% of purchases to selected charities under Amazon’s “Smile” feature… Experts have warned the charity’s methods have no scientific basis and its link to Scientology has prompted criticism that it is a front used to convert people to the religion, which some former devotees have labelled a cult… The Guardian discovered that Amazon US allows shoppers to donate funds to more than a dozen Narconon-related charities, including its international branch based in Clearwater, Florida, near Scientology’s “spiritual headquarters”. “The Narconon treatment invokes concepts of residual drug in body and brain which have no scientific validity,” complains professor David Nutt, who formerly chaired the government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. And he also tells the Guardian Narconon’s anti-drug talks in schools aren’t “truly scientifically or evidence based. “Sadly we have known for years that Scientology is the main provider of ‘teaching’ materials on addiction to schools, as the UK government doesn’t fund any alternative sources.”