Talk:Drug Free America Foundation

Untitled
I removed a tag placed by CorenSearchBot; the text is fairly short, quoted, and referenced. --Joel7687 (talk) 20:59, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ Accepted as a non-violation. &mdash; madman bum and angel 19:18, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Apparent whitewashing
User:Jojenn appears to be whitewashing this article. He/she has not declared a conflict of interest here or on his/her talk page as required by our WP:COI guidelines. Indeed, perhaps no conflict exists, but these edits are so strongly non-neutral that such a conflict can be surmised. As a result of these edits, I have invited Jojenn to explain these edits here on the article's talk page. Rklawton (talk) 18:16, 25 January 2012 (UTC)


 * I agree with you. Once I read that Sembler is behind this group, I now have strong doubts about their real agenda. I'm not going to get into anything here, just Sembler is worse than the drugs. 68.229.40.204 (talk) 19:01, 24 May 2015 (UTC)

Merge articles?
The corporation Drug Free America Foundation, Inc is The Straight Foundation, Inc. They changed the name in 1995. (A primary but definitive source.) Straight, Incorporated and this article are both about the same organization. Perhaps they should be merged? AndroidCat (talk) 19:31, 1 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Support. They are the exact same organization. This would also be a good opportunity to do away with the WP:NPOV and WP:COI content (i.e., most of this article...) To be clear, I am referring to the blatant whitewashing and promotional tone of this article, I am not agreeing with the bizarrely numerous editors on Mel Sembler-related talk pages and histories that seem to be invested in making these articles friendlier towards the organization. Although, perhaps the Straight, Incorporated page was less encyclopedic when those debates were occurring. Anyways, agreed. Gmarmstrong (talk) 05:03, 19 February 2022 (UTC)
 * ✅ Gmarmstrong (talk) 03:58, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

History and origins
That section in an unreferenced mess. AndroidCat (talk) 07:06, 18 December 2016 (UTC)

Articles to read/reference
Just making a list here of articles that haven't been (fully) used yet in this page or at the Straight, Incorporated page. The Salon articles shouldn't be directly referenced without inline attribution, per WP:RSP, but they do link to other sources, some of which may be used. The Reason articles should be good to use. Szalavitz authored articles in both magazines, but I'm gonna stick to the "canonical" list of reliable sources for facts since they include some heavy allegations.
 * Salon.com - Romney advisor's reefer madness
 * Salon.com - Behind Liz Cheney's group, a weird legacy of torture
 * Reason - Romney, Torture, and Teens
 * Reason - The Trouble with Troubled Teen Programs Gmarmstrong (talk) 02:44, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

Making progress
I'm pretty happy with how the cleanup has gone so far. The number of aliases DFAF has is mind-boggling, which has made this difficult. Here's a quote from a 2005 congressional record, I'm pretty sure at least half of these are different names for DFAF or its own programs:

"And then in addition to all these medical groups, are almost all the major anti-drug groups in America, including the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, Drug-Free Schools Coalition, Drug Free America Foundation, the Save Our Society From Drugs, Drug-Free Kids, America's Challenge." Gmarmstrong (talk) 01:06, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

✅ Cleanup in progress. Gmarmstrong (talk) 20:48, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

List of claims needing citations
There are some claims needing citations but which are reasonable enough to keep in the text with a "citations needed" note inline. I've removed some others for which I have been totally unable to find sufficient citations.Gmarmstrong (talk) 21:19, 26 February 2022 (UTC)


 * The claim that this 1974 US Senate report compared The Seed's methods to North Korean brainwashing techniques used on POWs during the Korean War. I have seen this in several places, but after reading the referenced sections of the report, it's not entirely clear that the comparison was ever that explicit. For reference, see in the report the pages which have been cited (not all of them appear to be relevant) pp. 14-16,  p. 23, and p. 633 . The most I can reproduce of the claim is that: The Seed is "based on a similar philosophy" to that of Edgar Schein's (pp. 15-16), and that much later in the report (p. 633), it is mentioned that Schein "got most of his ideas from studying brainwashing techniques used by North Korean and Chinese Communists on GI prisoners of war [...]". The report is over 651 pages long, and I have only given it a cursory reading, but I would ask that someone clarify how the original interpretation was constructed before we include it again. Gmarmstrong (talk) 21:19, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
 * I haven't removed it (yet), but the claim that Straight held clients "incommunicado" (with a wikilink to solitary confinement, which I did remove) needs citation. None of the citations it originally pointed to substantiated that claim except possibly ABANDONED, to which I have added a "page needed" note. Gmarmstrong (talk) 21:23, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
 * The age of the youngest client is unclear. The article suggests both 10 and 13, and it previously claimed 11. Gmarmstrong (talk) 05:28, 27 February 2022 (UTC)

If anyone is looking for references, I might have some. https://umbraxenu.no-ip.biz/mediawiki/index.php/Category:Drug_Free_America AndroidCat (talk) 06:33, 27 February 2022 (UTC)