Fwd: HR 1170, the Child Medication Safety Act.

[Guest guest]

SSRI-Research , JustSayNo wrote:

Following is the info on HR 1170, the Child Medication Safety Act.

 

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108th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 1170

 

To protect children and their parents from being coerced into

administering

psychotropic medication in order to attend school, and for other

purposes.

 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

March 11, 2003

 

Mr. BURNS (for himself, Mr. HASTERT, Mr. BOEHNER, Mr. CASTLE, Mr.

BALLENGER,

Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. ISAKSON, Mr. TIBERI, Mr. WILSON of South

Carolina, Mr. COLE, Mr. KLINE, Mrs. MUSGRAVE, Ms. WATSON, Mr. BURTON

of

Indiana, and Mr. TANCREDO) introduced the following bill; which was

referred

to the Committee on Education and the Workforce

 

A BILL

To protect children and their parents from being coerced into

administering

psychotropic medication in order to attend school, and for other

purposes.

 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United

States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 

This Act may be cited as the `Child Medication Safety Act of 2003'.

 

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON REQUIRING THE USE OF PSYCHOTROPIC MEDICATION.

 

As a condition of receiving funds under any program or activity

administered

by the Secretary of Education, each State shall develop and implement

policies and procedures prohibiting school personnel from requiring a

child

to obtain a prescription for a controlled substance in schedule II

under

section 202© of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812©) as

a

condition of attending school or receiving services.

 

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

(1) CHILD- The term `child' means any person within the age limits

for which

the State provides free public education.

(2) STATE- The term `State' means each of the 50 States, the District

of

Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

 

It is absolutely fantastic that they are willing to deal with this

issue and

the list of authors includes the Speaker of the House and the

Chairman of

the Education Committee, so it will move in the House. There is also

one

Democrat that has signed on for sure and 4 or 5 more that will

shortly sign

on or are thinking about it that include Mr. Case of Hawaii, Mrs.

Sanchez of

California, Mr. Grijalva of Arizona, Mr. Peterson of Minnesota, and

Mr. Holt

of New Jersey. Mr. Ramstad of Minnesota, a moderate Republican, has

also

signed on.

 

There are two weaknesses of the bill:

 

1) It only covers schedule II drugs, which means only Ritalin and the

other

stimulants, not the antidepressants and the antipsychotics. Not that

trying

to protect 6 million kids is a bad thing, but kids are being coerced

to take

the other ones as well that have lots of problems.

 

2) There is no penalty. There has to be teeth in these prohibitions

or they

will be ignored

 

Here is what I recommend doing:

 

1) If you know your Member or want to thank a specific Member on the

list

that is in the bill language, go to www.congress.org and click on US

Congress on the left side of the home page, then enter their last

name.

Click on staff and look for the education staffer. If you call or

fax, the

numbers are at the bottom of that staff page. If you wish to email,

email

the education staffer and ask them to make your views known to the

Member.

The email address is always first name.last name@m...

 

2) If you want to call or email or fax your own Member and you don't

know

who it is, enter your zip code right in the center of the home page

and it

will tell you, then you can click on " info " under the Member's

picture and

then on " staff " on the left side and proceed as above.

 

3) PLEASE call, fax or email and thank as many of the list in the

bill as

possible and thank them for carrying this bill, especially if you are

a

constituent. At the very least, please consider calling Mr. Hastert,

the

Speaker, Mr. Boehner, the Chairman of the ed. committee and Mr.

Burns, the

author. Then suggest that there are two ways to make this bill

stronger: a)

Change the language to " psychotropic drugs, including... " , because

although

the schedule II drugs are a big problem, the other drugs are also very

dangerous, especially for kids, and then give one or two pertinent

facts

about how these other drugs are dangerous. b) Suggest that there

needs to

be a penalty to make sure that this is enforced.

 

3) PLEASE call, fax, or email the ed staffer of at least your own

Member

and any others that you have dealt with that haven't signed on and

politely,

but firmly ask them to do so. Any professional status and groups

that you

belong to that deal with this topic, like ICSPP would be helpful.

Here are

some talking points:

 

a) For social conservatives, you can bring up that this supports

parents'

rights and that it will help prevent the unjust drugging of the poor

and

minority groups.

 

b) For fiscal conservatives, point out that no matter how much money

Congress adds for IDEA, if labeling and drugging doesn't somehow

stop, no

amount of money will be enough in this time of war and recession.

 

c) For moderates/liberals, remind them that the groups that they are

supposed to care about the most about, poor and minorities, are the

ones

most often labeled and drugged, and that there are liberals on or

about to

be on the bill like Watson, Sanchez, Case, and Grijalva.

 

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And, here are a few additional links on the ADHD problem. Please

inform

your family and friends:

 

The Myth of ADHD - Exposed

 

Attention Deficit Disorder - A Dubious Diagnosis?

The Merrow Report

http://www.pbs.org/merrow/repository/Television/Past/_attn/add.html

 

Children's Drug is More Potent Than Cocaine

Original Source: The Observer by Jean West September 9, 2001

http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicalscience/story/0,1129,549073,00.html

 

Pharmaceutical Executives Created the Diagnosis of ADHD

Townhall.com - July 16, 2002 - By Armstrong Williams

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/Armstrongwilliams/aw20020716.shtml

 

Ritalin May Cause Brain Damage In Children

Reuters: Monday, November 12, 2001

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12922-2001Nov11.html

 

Scientists Find No Proof That Ritalin is Effective

Cosmiverse Science News - February 7, 2002

http://www.cosmiverse.com/science02070205.html

 

Blackmailing Parents to Keep Kids On Drugs

By Vin Suprynowicz

http://www.issues-views.com/index.php/sect/2001/article/2009

 

The Great A.D.D. Hoax

David Keirsey, Ph.D.

http://keirsey.com/addhoax.html

 

The Myth of ADHD, by Thomas Armstrong

http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/myth_add_adhd.htm

 

Alternative Approaches for ADHD

http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/weblinks.htm

 

The Truth Behind ADHD

http://www.ritalindeath.com/

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