“Drug Free Marshals” Day Tenth Anniversary Kicked Off

Badged with Marshal stars, pen and pledge in hand, these youth have their sights set on a drug-free future for themselves and their peers

Since the Drug-Free Marshals showed up in town a decade ago, more than three million youth have signed the drug-free pledge.

An international drug prevention youth movement, which got its start here in Los Angeles in 1993, began its 10th anniversary celebration with a flourish. As the calendar turned to 2003, so did a major page in the Drug-Free Marshals’ history, with estimates of more than three million youth having signed the group’s pledge to live a drug-free life.

Focusing on youth between the ages from 8 to 14, the Drug-Free Marshal program provides events and publications that inform children and teens throughout Southern California of harmful effects of drugs and elicits from each a pledge to be — and stay — drug-free for life.

The pledge is a staple for the Drug-Free Marshals, an offshoot of the Church of Scientology’s “Lead the Way to a Drug-Free USA” anti-drug campaign. It emerged here in Los Angeles a decade ago, when the nation’s “war on drugs” was shifting to a heavier emphasis on prevention and education programs.

Once a new Drug-Free Marshal signs on, he or she is given a badge to signify their status as role models for their peers. Each starts the program by writing essays or creating artwork that show how to make their neighborhoods drug-free. “People see the Drug-Free Marshals and recognize that it’s cool to not take drugs,” said one of the founding Drug-Free Marshals, Chris Kamar, now 20.