[citation needed] It is a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

[20][21] The program operated through 43 centers across the United States,[19][page needed] with locations in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

However, Straight's practice was to enroll children without any history of drug or alcohol use, in addition to convicted felons, drug-users and addicts in need of medical intervention.

Former clients won multiple lawsuits, and settled more out of court, for abusive practices, isolation, starvation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, and other deprivations and torturous methods.

[18][30] Prior to the visit, she said she did not specifically endorse the program, but an aide told news media that Reagan was impressed with Straight because it was one of the few drug programs that enrolled adolescents, did not receive government funding (despite later evidence of insurance fraud and government grants),[citation needed] and it was "drug-free.

The two women attended a group "rap session", where Straight clients described their drug use and its sometimes-violent consequences.

As early as January 1978, Florida state officials reported concerns with the program that led it to consider withdrawing its operating license.

Straight took the matter to the Florida courts, which ruled that parents could force their minor children into drug rehab.

[36] In 1991, Straight decided to move its program from Springfield, Virginia, to Columbia, Maryland, as a result of what it considered harassment by regulators.

Maryland officials found "no truth" to "allegations of child abuse, the use of physical restraints, [or] brainwashing" leveled against Straight.

State officials cited a record of "unusual punishments" at Straight, such as denying teenagers sleep and bathroom breaks.

"[41] In May 1983, Straight was ordered to pay $40,000 in compensatory and $180,000 in punitive damages after being sued by 20-year-old Fred Collins Jr., who alleged he had been held captive by the program against his will.

[42][12][43] In October 1986, Straight settled a lawsuit with Susan White Milam for malpractice and negligence, statutory and licensing violations, false imprisonment, assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and fraud.

The lawsuit provided evidence of starvation; Straight staff placed the child on a peanut butter-and-water-only diet for months, with some days receiving no food, for refusal to admit to a drug problem she didn't have.

In 1982, while a patient in Straight's Florida facility, Norton alleged that staff members assaulted her, denied her health care and refused to give her permission to visit her dying grandfather.

During this period of isolation, Straight clients would receive constant reinforcement from peers about the negative effects of drug use and the necessity of becoming clean.

In order to be called on to speak at a rap session, a teenager would be required to practice "Motivating", a Straight tradition which the Times described as "waving your hand in the air... so hard that your arm aches and you begin to perspire.

If Straight clients progressed to the second phase, then they would be allowed to spend the night at home, and only once they had convinced staff members that they understood their dependence on drugs and wanted to change their behavior.

St. Petersburg Times reporter David Finkel described the emotional intensity of the humbling phase as follows: "Only when [a patient] is feeling worthless and miserable is he considered to be making progress.

Straight staff would schedule one or more meetings for a client and his or her immediate family, and rap sessions would be held for groups of parents to attend by themselves or with their children.

However, clients were still expected to spend their evenings and weekends at the Straight facility, where they would take on new responsibilities, such as assisting with cleaning and greeting visitors.

[49] Straight "graduates" participated in follow-up group rap sessions, called "Aftercare", once or twice a week, sometimes accompanied by their parents, for the six months following their completion of the program.

Graduates were also eligible to return to Straight as paid, part-time staff members, despite being a child with no professional counseling experience and being educated past a middle school level.

Parents were regularly asked to make small contributions to the organization, participate in fundraising activities, and recruit five families per month to the program.

Finkel observed "phenomenal changes" in the subject of his articles, and noted that the young man had stopped using drugs and that his attitude and his relationship with his parents had improved dramatically.

[52] After being involuntarily dissolved in 1989 within the Florida Department of State's Division of Corporations, the organization was reinstated in 1992[53] and renamed the Drug Free America Foundation in 1995.

hired the firm Jackson Lewis PC to lobby the federal government on issues of alcohol and drug abuse, law enforcement, crime, and criminal justice.