Note: The following consumer complaint was submitted to the Michigan attorney general on 9/23/2012. This is not the original; I have cleaned it up to make it easier to read. The original is here. The redactions were made by the Attorney General’s office.

In June 2018, I requested from the Attorney General’s office their response to this complaint. This is what they provided. Apparently, this polite letter to Wickstrom’s attorney is the only action the Attorney General took. The FOIA coordinator tells me there are no other documents.

In January I relapsed on drugs in Los Angeles, California. I was on probation at the time which made it a court matter for me to have on open ended leave from the state of California. I went to [redacted] and was taken off formal probation so that I could regain my sobriety at Best Drug Rehabilitation Center in Manistee, Michigan. The judge that was presiding over my case, Judge Elden Fox, also spoke with Best Drug Rehab and was told that I would have individual counseling and that I was to be going to a Holistic Rehab that would provide legitimate rehabilitation services that would take between 3 and 6 months to complete. My following court date was made [redacted]. My probation officer [redacted] was also told the same thing by intake counselor [redacted]. She was lead to believe that I was to be going to a holistic rehab that provided one on one counseling and that offered legitimate treatment services. By legitimate treatment services I am referring to anything that respects the fact that addiction is a chronic disease and that helps the addict get to a safe point in their treatment with the help of a counselor and the staff of the rehab. A safe place is crucial so that the psychological defense mechanisms will break down and the addict can see the bleak reality of their addiction. Addiction causes the user to have a split between the brainstem and frontal cortex. The frontal cortex enables choice and the addict’s mind no longer has this choice or the executive part of the brain running the show.

Never once was it said to myself, my probation or the court that I would be going to a Scientology rehab for I would have never gone as I know the Church of Scientology is in fact a cult and that they prey on their members finances. My judge and probation officer would not have okayed this if they had known either.

Once arriving at the Detroit Airport, I was driven two hours by a large black man into Battle Creek. The driver seemed slightly intoxicated and was behaving inappropriately to both myself and the other girl in the car. Then once I got to the detox center which was in fact an overcrowded run down house with few staff members and several security guards I knew that something was wrong. I was denied access to the phone. I have [redacted] and [redacted] which is a very serious Auto Immune Nervous System Disorder. I did not receive treatment by a doctor for over 24 hours, which was quite dangerous for someone in my medical state. Let me also point out that Tranquility Detox was not a medical facility and never should have taken someone in my condition to begin with as they did not have the medical staff or personel to handle much of anything. They had a generic detox protocol that was essentially the same for everyone. The doctor did prescribe me a non narcotic seizure medicine which I never received and which was not given to me. I could not use the phone and the facility failed to notify my PO that I was in fact there and had arrived safely.

I stayed in the detox for seven days. Again when I asked what the difference was between A Forever Recovery and Best Drug Rehabilitation which were the two rehabs that all clients were going to after detox, I was again lied to and told that they were owned my two separate companies that both used Tranquility Detox and again no one mentioned the Scientology aspect of the treatment. I received no treatment, groups or even having the doctor check up on me again. After 7 days I was scheduled to go to Best Drug Rehab. Best Drug Rehab, Tranquility Detox and A Forever Recovery are owned by Doug:Wickstrom and Pam Anderson, who are Per Wickstrom's father and former executive assistant at his Chevrolet Dealership. Per Wickstrom is the one that calls the shots at both places and all employees recognize him as the owner.

Upon arriving at Best Drug Rehabilitation I was submitted to abuse by the untrained staff which consisted primarily of convicts from the Nation of Islam. The female security guards who also had no training in recovery were making wise crack about my expensive clothing. [Redacted] took an interest in and later stold my Prada Sunglasses. I was then told it was a Scientology rehab and told that from 9:30 in the morning til 4:00 in the afternoon I would be doing Scientology drills to help me learn to confront, control, and communicate. I was familiar with the Church of Scientology but I tried to remain open minded which was hard and at that point. I believed that these were specific drills that were Scientology's way of curing addiction. Upon returning home I spoke to a reporter from Vanity Fair, Mark Ebner, and he let me know that these were the standard training routines that were given to anyone that wanted to convert to Scientology and that they have nothing to do with recovery. The training routines are a method to break down the recruits and teach them how to audit. That has nothing to do with being sober and few people stayed sober even while being there.

On my first day there I was threatened to be taken to a homeless shelter If I did not want to stay there but I know my rights and I have attorneys so I knew that would not in fact happen to me. I called my probation officer and she was horrified that this was a Scientology rehab and told me she would look into getting me into another treatment program and contact the judge. She made me promise to call her every day. I then tried to call my mother and was denied access to the phone. They had a policy that you could only use the phone supervised in the case management office for the first week that you were there. I then talked to [redacted] the executive director and found out that Best Drug Rehab was staffed by former graduates and that not a single one of them had more than 2 months sober: I also found out that many of them were working there to pay for their treatment This seemed extremely odd to me and very cultish. Every other rehab that I have known of requires a minimum of a year sober to work  there and requires licensing and certification for case managers and counselors: The core of the staff were in fact Scientologists that had no training what so ever in terms of addiction.

My [redacted] worsened from having to walk up the stairs frequently and I was extremely depressed and felt suicidal. I mentioned this to the staff and [redacted] and was told I was being dramatic. When I asked her what kind of training she had to make such an assessment she told me that she was a highly trained Scientologist and that she saw pictures which made her not only trained but gifted as well. I was horrified and made up my mind to do something about this. I figured that I was there and that it would be extremely hard to find another treatment program with my medical issues and that I would alert the court. I wanted more than anything to get sober and I figured I could use this as an experience for the book I planned on writing. [Redacted] the publicist for Per Wickstrom and. [redacted] was a friend of his. I still at this time felt that the place offered some legitimate recovery and thought the training routines were Scientology's answer to addiction; if I had known that they were just the simple training routines for any Scientology recruit I would have left on the spot. Instead I agreed to stay and that said amount was six months. Those six months were the worst six months of my life and after two months of being a client I was asked to work there as I have a degree and that was more education than anyone there had but still it is not licensing or training for drug treatment.

I found out many horrible things about the place when I started working there in April of 2012. While I was still a client there I found it very odd the way [redacted] spoke of about addiction and because of the relationship with [redacted] she considered me a friend and confided in me and let me have special privileges such as the use of my phone in her office and bending of the rules. [Redacted] let me know that Best Drug Rehab had comped my stay there in hopes that I would refer my celebrity friends to come to Best Drug Rehab and she was extremely interested in the celebrities I had dated and partied with. Then when she was unhappy with my distaste for Scientology she would throw that in my face. She also told me that she believed that addiction was the result of past lives and the state that your soul died in and that it was not a disease.

While I was a client there all of the staff relapsed on alcohol and a few did drugs. They were still permitted to work there. I was forced to sit in a chair for 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes and 120 minutes respectively to graduate. I am considered disabled from the [redacted] syndrome and was still forced to do this. It was one of the hardest and most painful things I have ever done but I tried because I did not know that this place was a scam and they claimed that 80 percent of the people who did this stayed sober so I was willing to try. l also had to sit without moving and stare into the eyes of someone saying degrading and sexually inappropriate remarks to me for 15 minutes, 30 minutes and 1 hour. It was awful but again I was under the impression this helped people stay sober and was willing to do this. I was extremely depressed and sometimes felt suicidal and was chastised for complaining about and was told to confront it, which l do not know what that means. Again none of the staff were licensed or trained and I have had a history of suicide attempts and depression.

In April l started working there and made after care calls for two weeks. I called about 70 students and found that maybe ten of them were sober. [Redacted] though told me that unless they had reverted to their drug of choice I was to count them as sober. So a heroin addict that had told me they used coke was sober and one that said they had slipped on heroin 4 times was also sober. She let me know that these statistics were used for licensing with Narconon International and told me that I had to do them as she said. I was alarmed to say the least. Then, around April 6th, [redacted] and [redacted] came back to Best Drug Rehab to work there. They lived at [redacted] house and I became friendly with them. I found out that while they were getting trained for Scientology courses to work there with higher pay and were at the lime considered employees of Best Drug Rehab they relapsed on crack cocaine and heroin. [Redacted] had been the former Director of Case Management and he had relapsed on Adderal and had a sexual relationship with the cook [redacted]. While he was in Battle Creek he had sexual relations with a [redacted] staff member [redacted]. On June 1st, [redacted] told me that he was [redacted] sex with [redacted] while they were both on drugs. [Redacted] was my boyfriend and we had started dating while I was still a client there which meant I had been subjected [redacted] well. Also staff member should not have sexual relations with the clients and that happens there a lot. [Redacted] knew all of this information and what [redacted] was doing and that he had slept with at least 4 people without protection while [redacted] and failed to see that as a reason to terminate him. On April 6th when [redacted] and [redacted] came back to Best Drug Rehab they were asked to create fraudulent client folders for the CARF accreditation. I know they were in fact doing this because when they got into a time crunch right before CARF members actually came I was asked to participate in this fraud as well and I did. I fraudulently filled out a folder for [redacted] and [redacted]. I made fraudulent case notes and fraudulent medical files and anything else that [redacted] asked of me. Every folder for every client was fraudulently created as they did not have the correct paper trails to even bill insurance. After my participation in this I was promoted to [redacted] and given an office. I was almost three months sober. Around this time I started hearing rumours that case manager [redacted] was selling methadone to clients and sleeping with female patients. When I mentioned this to [redacted] I was yelled at and verbally abused. This is when I contacted my attorney and told him everything. He advised me to gather evidence and to go to Dateline NBC. I am working with several investigators right now and am contacting Dateline NBC as well. I wanted to give your office the courtesy of notifying you guys first. I was told that Scientologist were very dangerous and to be concerned for my safety.

The Nation of Islam guys were extremely abusive to the male clients while I worked there. They broke and [redacted] and roughed up or used intimidation tactics on the other male clients. Calling them faggots and ganging up on them in a prison manner. [Redacted] spent 20 years in prison for bank robberies and was a high ranking soldier in the Hoover St. Crypts. Because I work in the entertainment industry and know the people that [redacted] used to work with the [redacted] I knew how dangerous he was. He was sexually inappropriate with me and many other clients as he would talk about sleeping with girls and sucking on their genitals in front of them. He would allow clients to have sexual relationships in the van and threatened me if I were-to report him. [Redacted] loved using him to scare people into silence. [Redacted] continued to use and sell drugs at Best Drug Rehab for about a month before [redacted] decided to take action and forced him to quit. She made sure that he quit and not that she fired him so there would be no paper trail for lawsuits.

On Mother’s Day, [redacted] Ieft Best Drug Rehab in the hands of [redacted] and [redacted]. They ganged up on a boy named [redacted]. They both went up to where he was sitting and watching tv and asked him to come downstairs with them. When he told them to wait a minute [redacted] and [redacted] told him he was to do an ethics cycle or be driven to a homeless shelter. An ethics cycle is cleaning the whole building which is something they force students to do that have had disciplinary problems so they do not need to hire cleaning staff. While the clients are doing this they are not getting any treatment and if they are there on insurance their insurance company is being charged for groups, counseling and an inpatient hospital stay 800 dollars a day. Some clients are forced to do this for up to two weeks. [Redacted] was sold heroin and given a needle by [redacted] and she cleaned the entire premise for three weeks. Three weeks without any treatment or meetings and at an exorbitant amount of money. [Redacted] paid 23 thousand to go there. If the clients did not want to do ethics, they were driven to a homeless shelter in a bad part of town. The security and [redacted] and [redacted] would send people there for no legitimate reason. A rehab is not allowed to force people to clean and bill insurance as a medical facility that is fraud. While I worked there I found out that they were committing all sorts of insurance fraud such as billing after the clients had already left and billing for services that they did not offer. I thought the drug education classes which composed of putting in a Narconon propaganda video that told of the horrors of psychiatry and doctors. I was not allowed to discuss addiction as a disease or even mention neurotransmitters or the reaction that drugs had on the brain. I knew a lot about this from-my education [redacted] and the psychology classes I was taking. Best Drug Rehab was charging for drug education and no one was receiving it

Counselors were provided by the middle of April for CARF. I found out that few of these counselors were actually certified substance abuse counselors. I also noticed that the clients who were taken off their psych meds were not doing well. Many were acting out sexually and impulsively running to Glenn's market and stealing alcohol out of sheer frustration. When I brought this up to the owner Per Wickstrom and executive director [redacted] I was told that in Scientology productivity is what is important and if people are doing their Scientology work: it does not matter if they drink and use drugs, And if people were showing up to work it did not matter about that either. When I mentioned about [redacted] having unprotected sex with staff and clients [redacted] was told that it was not my problem but that it was the fault of the person having unprotected sex. I tape recorded this conversation because it was so mind blowing. I was also asked to lie to people's family members which I refused to do and was instead verbally abused. In the middle of June after [redacted] found out that I taped recorded her and sent info to my attorney she made me do dishes for 12 hours straight or threatened me with my court. I was in the midst of great depression with what was going on here. I often felt suicidal and just didn’t feel that I could take on the injustices, fraud and abuse that went on here daily and what I saw being done to the clients. It really upset me. I had a grand mal seizure and went to the hospital. I have [redacted] and was denied my medication. The ER doctor urged me to go back on my medication. I am supposed to take phenobarbital and kIonopin for my seizures, I was prescribed this and [redacted] another employee took me to fill them. This was Saturday June 10th and on Tuesday Per Wickstrom accused me of being suppressed and that epilepsy does not exist and said I had to stop taking the medication. I stood my ground and was driven to a motel in Detroit Michigan at 5:00 o’clock in the morning, it is a wonder I am still alive.

This place is dangerous and will cause people to die. Per Wickstrom operates as the owner for Narconon Freedom Center, Best Drug Rehab, Tranquility Detox and A Forever Recovery. They use internet fraud and telemarketing clients to recruit and exploit people seeking drug rehab. No one is told that the rehab is in fact a Scientology rehab. Many of the clients are lower middle class or poor. They come on insurance and once there do not have money for a plane ticket to return home. Best Drug Rehab which is operated by Life Solutions will pay to get them there but not pay for them to return home. If a client does not want to do the Scientology drills they are driven to a motel in a bad part of town with ten dollars. In order for the insurance to pay, the clients sign over a power of attorney and a change of address. Best Drug Rehab doesn’t have the ability to directly bill insurance so they have to send forms saying that the actual client paid for the services and then the insurance company issues a check for a reimbursement to the insured. Because the insurance company is notified that there is a change of address and the power of attorney paper work goes through, the check is sent to Division 6 in Battle Creek Michigan and put in either a Best Drug Rehab or Life Solutions account.

The Nation of Islam staff are for the most part convicts recently released from prison [redacted] 20 years, [redacted] 19 years, [redacted] in and out of jail. They are not trained and are there because the Nation of Islam Malick Pheracon made a deal with David Miscavage, the head of Scientology. They are verbally abusive to male clients and use threatening gang tactics with clients. Often putting hands on them. They are sexually-inappropriate with the female clients. [Redacted] still does drugs. [Redacted] is verbally abusive with clients, allows the staff to drink and do drugs and get physical, both sexually and aggressively with clients. It is a terrifying experience. Also the facility is filthy, disease rampid with the unprotected sex. Lot of alcohol and drugs provided by staff or stolen from Glenn’s Market. A person died at Tranquility Detox in May of 2012. This type of treatment is dangerous and a scam to both insured and the cash paying. The patient folders are falsified. The CARF accreditation was falsely acquired, I let CARF know as well. Many people have lost their lives from Per Wickstrom’s method of dumping people at homeless shelter or motels. Or they have denied people access to pysch meds which has caused several staff member to kill themselves. This practice has been going on for ten years and was once Narconon Stone Hawk. Best Drug Rehab has only been open for less than a year.

Please take action and help close this place down. I am helping attorneys and bringing this to media attention. I have had a lot of interest because Scientology is a hot topic right now as more has come to light regarding the abuse they subject their members to and horrific cleaning rituals for ethics and because of my family connections. I hope that this place gets closed down. I am saddened by the damage it causes to people. Of the 70 people I know that went there and graduated 4 are sober, some are worse than when they arrived and many will be reluctant to ever ask for help again. Addiction is a chronic progressive disease and this type of treatment is the antithesis of treatment, People are broken down and abused when they ask for help for a condition that is out of their control. I just read an article in the New York Times that says addiction is officially recognized as a chronic and progressive disease that requires medical treatment and that laws and legislation will be passed to stop these treatment centers from operating. The following people will also comment on what happens at Best Drug Rehab and they were also staff there. [Redacted] she was my counselor, she isn’t an addict or alcoholic. She is from Manistee Michigan. She quit when she realized what went on there and after being asked to bend HIPPA rules and her ethic and commit fraud, you can contact her at [redacted]. [Redacted] who worked with Per Wickstrom at the numerous rehab facilities [redacted]. He has a lot of inside information on how Per Wickstrom distributes the money and how he operated this scam.

Also I feel that any place that fails to validate serious illnesses should be shut down. I have [redacted] that are documented. I am permanently disabled and I was given advice that put me in jeopardy and refused medical attention. I also forgot to mention the work hours there were sometimes 16 hours and that I did not have a day off until the end of May. So I worked 16 hours seven days a week from April to the end of May. I am disabled and was newly sober so this was terrible conditions for me but if I took a day off people’s court things were not handled. And if you are not on probation you need court permission to leave the state which many of these clients did not know about or have. Also the staff that are on parole, I am curious how they were allowed to work out of state? Fraud on many levels. Thank you for reading this, I would appreciate some feedback. You can contact me at [redacted] hours ahead of you and [redacted].