11. Freedom Commission Roadmap Awaited
The release of the first iteration of the roadmap to
operationalize the findings of the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health is imminent. We will disseminate the document when it is unveiled. On a related note, the British Medical Journal, in anticipation of the roll-out, alleged in a disjointed story that the Bush administration will announce a plan to screen all Americans for mental disorders and promote antidepressant and antipsychotic drug use – allegations which we are told are well beyond the scope of anything the administration has planned and which seem to stem from a psychiatric survivors group.
The BMJ story has gained some traction in derivative reports on the Internet, though mainstream media have not touched the story, in part thanks to APA’s work, for which the administration is appreciative. http://www.psych.org/join_apa/mb/newsletters/advocacy/AdvNewsJuly2004.htm#21The Psycho Stateby Rep. Ron Paul, MD (R, Texas)
A presidential initiative called The “New Freedom Commission on Mental Health” has issued a report recommending forced mental health screening for every child in America, including preschool children. The goal is to promote the patently false idea that we have a nation of children with undiagnosed mental disorders crying out for treatment.
One obvious beneficiary of the proposal is the pharmaceutical industry, which is eager to sell the psychotropic drugs that undoubtedly will be prescribed to millions of American schoolchildren under the new screening program. Of course a tiny minority of children suffer from legitimate mental illnesses, but the widespread use of Ritalin and other drugs on youngsters who simply exhibit typical rambunctious, fidgety, and impatient behavior is nothing short of criminal. It may be easier to teach and parent drugged kids, but convenience is no justification for endangering them. Children’s brains are still developing, and the truth is we have no idea what the long-term side effects of psychiatric drugs may be. Medical science has not even exhaustively identified every possible brain chemical, even as we alter those chemicals with drugs.
Dr. Karen Effrem, a physician who strongly opposes mandatory mental health screening, warns us that “America’s children should not be medicated by expensive, ineffective, and dangerous medications based on vague and dubious diagnoses.” She points out that psychiatric diagnoses are inherently subjective, as authors of the diagnostic manuals admit. She also is concerned that mental health screening could be used to label children whose attitudes, religious beliefs, and political views conflict with the secular orthodoxy that dominates our schools.
The greater issue, however, is not whether youth mental health screening is appropriate. The real issue is whether the state owns your kids. When the government orders “universal” mental health screening in schools, it really means “mandatory.” Parents, children, and their private doctors should decide whether a child has mental health problems, not government bureaucrats. That this even needs to be stated is a sign of just how obedient our society has become toward government. What kind of free people would turn their children’s most intimate health matters over to government strangers? How in the world have we allowed government to become so powerful and arrogant that it assumes it can force children to accept psychiatric treatment whether parents object or not?
Con't-
September 14, 2004
Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul203.html---------
Chief Inmate declares nation an asylum Prozac-popping prez recommends mandated mental health screening for all Americans http://proliberty.com/observer/20040806.htm----------
How about Just dosing the general public directly?
Anti-Depressant 'Found in Drinking Water' Sun 8 Aug 2004
By Jennifer Sym, PA News
Britons could unwittingly be swallowing traces of anti-depressant Prozac and other drugs in drinking water, according to a report released today.
Environmentalists have labelled the situation “hidden mass medication of the unsuspecting public” after the study states pharmaceutical residues can travel through the sewage system and end up in the “aquatic environment”.The levels of any such residue is unknown, and the Environment Agency has called on the drugs industry to prove its products are unlikely to cause significant harm to the environment.
According to the study by Norman Baker MP, Liberal Democrat shadow environment secretary, Prozac has been found by the EA to be “both toxic and persistent” and “a substance that could be of potential concern”.
There has been a 166% increase in prescriptions for anti-depressants in England since 1991 – up to 24 million a year.
Con't-
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3310754BBC Article-Prozac 'found in drinking water'http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3545684.stm___________
LLINOIS launches compulsory mental health screening -WHY YOU NEED TO BE CONCERNEDCommentary by Laura Dawn Lewis
http://www.couplescompany.com/Features/Politics/2004/BigBrotherPregnancy.htm If you haven't noticed yet, the majority of new laws and policies being implemented are sold on fear through the necessity of good intentions and as a way to protect you by allowing your government to take care of you, as if the government is a better steward of your body, soul and mind. Each is euphemized to seem harmless and necessary. Every time a law is passed, you give up a portion of your freedom. This is a fact. Some laws are necessary to allow society to function toward a common good. Laws like murder is bad. Stealing is unjust and beating a child unacceptable. These create the commonalities that define civilization.
Since September 11th, 2001 our governments, state, local and federal continue to push through resolutions, legislation and ideas directly in contradiction to the rules we've already established for America, set forth in our Constitution. In effect, each of these chips at our civil liberties, forcing us further away from our values and principles. This law in Illinois represents one such example. Without a doubt the women pushing it through created it with the best of intentions; yet anytime something becomes mandatory, intentions become abuses. The following are the key reasons I believe the citizens of Illinois and the rest of us in the United States must object to this legislation. If we allow it to pass in one state without confronting it, others will follow.
http://www.couplescompany.com/Features/Politics/2004/BigBrotherPregnancy.htm 
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