The Psycho State

[Guest guest]

> r

 

> Tuesday, September 14, 2004 6:46 PM

> Pass far and wide

>

>

> The Psycho State

>

> by Rep. Ron Paul, MD

 

>

> 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?

>

> Parents must do everything possible to retain

> responsibility and control

> over their children's well-being. There is no end to

> the bureaucratic

> appetite to rule every aspect of our lives,

> including how we raise our

> children. Forced mental health screening is just the

> latest of many state

> usurpations of parental authority: compulsory

> education laws,

> politically-correct school curricula, mandatory

> vaccines, and interference

> with discipline through phony " social services "

> agencies all represent

> assaults on families. The political right has now

> joined the political left

> in seeking the de facto nationalization of children,

> and only informed

> resistance by parents can stop it. The federal

> government is slowly but

> surely destroying real families, but it is hardly a

> benevolent surrogate

> parent.

>

> September 14, 2004

>

> Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from

> Texas.

>

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