Straight, Inc was founded in 1976 by Mel and Betty Sembler in Florida after their son attended a Synanon spin-off program called The Seed.” It was created as a drug treatment program for children aged 12-21. Straight, Inc modeled much of its program after The Seed. It expanded quickly and throughout its operation, it had a total of 43 locations in various states such as California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. Straight. Inc would engage in “rap sessions” similar to Synanon’s Game and use “positive peer pressure” techniques to try to pressure members into giving up drugs.

Throughout its years of operation, Straight was plagued by lawsuits and abuse allegations. In fact, a total of $15 million dollars in lawsuits were settled against Straight throughout its existence until it finally closed in 1993. KIDS Center of America was a later spinoff of Straight, Inc and utilized much of the same Synanon-tactics as its predecessors.