Council on Mind Abuse

The Council on Mind Abuse (COMA) was a Canadian non-profit organization promoting education about "cults" from 1979 to 1992.

Beginnings
COMA's Founder and President was Ian Haworth, an international anticult activist from the U.K. Haworth also co-founded FOCUS Network in 1982 in Dallas, Texas. The September 10, 1983 article "Cults" in the Toronto Star by Haworth attracted the attention of Rob Tucker, a psychiatric counselor. In 1984, Haworth wrote to the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons to warn doctors in Ontario about a mass-mailing from Narconon, Scientology's drug and alcohol program. Tucker assumed the role of Director in 1987 when Haworth returned to London to found the Cult Information Centre, a non-sectarian, educational charity.

Litigation
COMA was a target for lawsuits as early as January 1983. COMA remained actively involved in co-operative efforts with other agencies to end ritual child abuse. Litigation aimed at revealing the sources of COMA's funding proved problematic. In 1992, Director Rob Tucker announced the end of COMA after his seven year involvement, noting the damage that lawsuits by Scientology and others had done. He also described the merging goals of cults and corporations: "We have to recognize that cults are successful organizations with techniques now being borrowed by other successful organizations: corporations and others in the power structure interested in how to get people into working for free, and totally motivated."

After Dissolution
Haworth continues as General Secretary of the Cult Information Centre, focusing on exposing the dangers of cults as a public speaker, expert witness and consultant, as well as publishing articles in the national and international media. As late as 2000, Rob Tucker was still an active speaker and writer on the subject, attending the ICSA 2000 Conference in Seattle, Washington and talking about his book An Age For Lucifer which postulated an emerging spirituality of Social Darwinism. Robert Tucker died on March 15th, 2003 in Mexico of a heart attack.