Fwd: [drugawareness] House Passes the Child Medication Safety Act!!!

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drugawareness

atracyphd2

Thu, 22 May 2003 10:21:21 EDT

[drugawareness] House Passes the Child Medication Safety Act!!!

 

 

 

 

In an absolutely overwhelming majority vote of 425 to one the House yesterday

passed the Child Medication Safety Act preventing school personnel, who are

not licensed to prescribe medication anyway, from forcing children to take

mind altering medication. Clearly, miracles have not ceased!!

 

In September of 1999, four months after the Columbine tragedy, I was invited

by Patti Johnson of the Colorado State School Board to testify as one of three

on the adverse effects of mind altering medication upon children. The Board

passed a resolution that they had hoped would set an example for the rest of

the country to prevent another tragedy like Columbine. They declared in their

resolution that schools had no right to mandate medication and should stick to

academics rather than diagnosing and prescribing medications to children.

 

Since that time several more states have followed the example set that day in

Colorado. And then yesterday the House confirmed those same concerns as they

passed the Child Medication Safety Act.

 

The original concern of the Colorado State School Board was Eric Harris' use

of SSRI antidepressants leading up to the Columbine High School shooting April

20, 1999, which left 15 dead.

 

Eric had been started on Zoloft for depression the year before Columbine.

Within six weeks on the drug he reported having obsessive homicidal and suicidal

thoughts.

 

He was taken off Zoloft and the thoughts began to subside. He reported he was

feeling much better off Zoloft. After a two week wash out period it was

planned that doctors would give him a new medication. And Eric stated that he

was

looking forward to the new medication working better for him than the Zoloft

had.

 

Tragically Eric was taken from the frying pan into the fire as he was

switched from one brand of SSRI to another. He was given Luvox for the obsessive

homicidal and suicidal thoughts he was having. Going from Zoloft to Luvox is

about like switching from Coke to Pepsi.

 

In the package insert for Luvox we learn that one out of 25 patients become

manic as an adverse effect of the drug. Interestingly last fall when Eric's

records were finally released the Denver Post had four independent experts

review

them. They concluded that Eric had clearly gone manic - an admitted side

effect of one-fourth of the patients.

 

Keep in mind that developing brains have a much higher incidence of adverse

reactions to mind altering medications. And until the brain is fully developed

we will not know the full impact the drugs have had on these young developing

brains. What might we witness a generation from now as a result?

 

Medical research has demonstrated for decades that increasing serotonin

produces mania (bipolar), psychosis, violence, etc. Considering the extremely

widespread use and the lack of caution in prescribing these drugs, why are we

surprised to see before us the most violent and insane society America has ever

witnessed? I have cases of children as young as ten committing extremely violent

murders on these drugs and reports of children as young as five committing

suicide on them - a situation unheard of before these drugs hit the market!

 

This move by the House is a clearly a move in the right direction. For the

sake of us all I pray it will grow from here!

 

Dr. Ann Blake Tracy, Executive Director,

International Coalition for Drug Awareness

www.drugawareness.org & author of Prozac: Panacea

or Pandora? - Our Serotonin Nightmare (800-280-0730)

 

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Congress-Child-Medication.html

 

House OKs Ban on Forcing Kids' Medication

 

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

Filed at 4:50 p.m. ET

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House voted Wednesday to prohibit schools from making

children with behavioral problems take medication in order to attend class.

 

Under the bill, passed 425-1, states receiving federal education money must

make sure schools do not coerce parents into medicating their children.

 

``School personnel may have good intentions, but parents should never be

required to decide between their child's education and keeping them off

potentially harmful drugs,'' said Rep. Max Burns, R-Ga., who sponsored the

legislation.

 

In recent decades, more children have been diagnosed with attention deficit

or hyperactivity disorders and prescribed drugs such as Ritalin or Adderall.

 

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., a former schoolteacher, said he

sympathizes with the need for orderly classrooms but said, ``School personnel

should

never presume to know the medication needs of a child.''

 

The prevalence of forced medication as a precondition for attending class has

never been established. The bill, called the Child Medication Safety Act,

provides for a congressional investigation into the use of psychotropic

medication in schools.

 

Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., who voted against the bill, ``believed it was a

solution looking for a problem,'' said her spokesman, Aaron Hunter.

 

Several states have already moved to ban schools from requiring medication.

 

Mary Crosby, governmental affairs director at the American Academy of Child

and Adolescent Psychiatry, called the bill unnecessary and thinks the issue

could be better resolved at the local level. She condemned the practice but

questioned the necessity of federal legislation until the extent of the problem

becomes clearer.

 

Addressing concerns that such a law would stifle communication between

schools and parents about a child's behavior or mental health, lawmakers added a

provision that allows teachers to bring up any problems they observe.

 

^------

 

On the Net:

 

Information on the bill, H.R. 1170, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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