Bill to Screen, Medicate Kids May Hit Senate This Week...+ more IN THE NEWS

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Bill to Screen, Medicate Kids May Hit Senate This Weekby Christopher Getzan

(bio)

 

Legislation to test children for " mental health disorders " and then provide them

commercial drugs -- which would be highly controversial if people knew about it

-- could reach Congress during this month's lame duck session.

 

Nov 15 - Funding for a controversial Bush administration plan to submit the

nation's school children to mental health testing and drug treatment may end up

reaching the Senate floor this week, as GOP congressional leaders look to clear

the legislative slate in order to set the table for George W. Bush's second

term.

 

The plan, called the New Freedom Initiative (NFI), is the keystone of a package

of initiatives by the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, a

group of doctors and mental health care professionals established by the Bush

Administration in 2002.

 

As previously reported by The NewStandard, the Initiative's critics, ranging

from grassroots mental health advocacy organizations to government

whistleblowers, have said the NFI's proposals do little else but establish

state-mandated markets for the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry.

 

In 2003, the Commission published a report recommending states encourage more

mental health testing and treatment for Americans and suggested public schools

were an ideal place to access students and begin to root out undiagnosed and

" severely disruptive " mental health issues. It pointed to a program begun during

George Bush's governorship of Texas called the Texas Medication Algorithm

Project (TMAP), which set a standard operating procedure within a flow chart

allowing psychiatrists to identify and medicate possible conditions.

 

In a report posted on the website of the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights

quotes a whistleblower who says doctors staffing the Texas program had strong

links to pharmaceutical companies, and those doctors often prescribed expensive,

brand-name drugs over cheaper alternatives. The source of that claim is Allen

Jones, a former investigator for the Office of the Inspector General who says he

was fired for speaking out against a TMAP-style program in Pennsylvania.

 

The NFI plan, said Jones, does not " have the Orwellian goal of drugging the

populace for a political purpose. " Instead, " it's the Orwellian goal of drugging

the populace for an economic purpose. "

 

Another critic of the initiative, holistic mental health advocate David Oaks,

says the end result of the New Freedom Initiative's recommendations will be

nothing short of " hundreds of thousands of more kids being put on psychiatric

drugs. " Oaks is director of the mental health advocacy group Mind Freedom.

 

In Oaks' opinion, the issues of child mental health are not only more

complicated than just testing for disorders and putting kids on drugs, but are

also colored by powerful societal pressures and millions of dollars in drug

revenues. Oaks has called the president's plan " No child left undrugged. "

 

Nevertheless, the plan does have some powerful supporters. The American

Psychiatric Association, which itself receives some of its funding from drug

companies, has voiced approval for the plan, and a number of other states are

already researching and implementing their own versions of TMAP.

 

During a " lame duck " session of Congress, Senate leadership is trying to push

through unfinished appropriations measures for fiscal year 2005. The Bush

administration had requested about $44 million for states to implement mental

health screening. The House version of the bill, which has already passed,

includes $20 million in support of the New Freedom Commission's plan. It is

unclear how much the Senate will appropriate.

 

On the coattails of the bill's passage out of the House, Representative Ron Paul

(R-Texas) is now championing the " Let Parents Raise Their Kids Act, " which would

prevent federal dollars to fund any universal system of mental health screening

that does not hinge on parental-guardian consent. Previously, Paul had failed to

insert an amendment to the appropriations bill blocking federal funding of the

NFI recommendations.

 

 

© 2004 The NewStandard. See our reprint policy.

 

For a more thorough report, see " White House May Be Planning Nationwide Program

to Diagnose, Drug Kids " , also by Christopher Getzan.

 

Also in the news...

 

 

'Arrest without evidence' planned by Government

 

November 17 2004

The Government is planning a change in the law to allow police to arrest

suspects without evidence, it was claimed today.

 

The Law Society said it believed the new powers would be included in the Bill

which will create the new British FBI.

 

It warned that the cumulative effect of the Government's clampdown on crime and

terrorism would be a step towards a police state.

 

Janet Paraskeva, the Law Society's chief executive, said: " The Government is in

serious danger of overstating the threat to public order and national security

and bringing in draconian new laws, which will take away centuries of hard won

rights.

 

" If the Bill to establish the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) includes the

power to arrest someone without evidence, then solicitors could not support it.

 

" That would be a serious step in the direction of a police state.

 

" Anyone could be lifted from the streets or from their homes just on the basis

of suspicion. "

 

She added: " The threat to end jury trials for terrorism cases is another

chipping away of the centuries old rights for people to be tried before a jury

of their peers, which goes back to Magna Carta. "

 

Soca will have around 5,000 investigators to crack down on serious crime and

fraud, merging the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence

Service and the investigating arms of customs and the immigration service.

 

A Law Society spokesman said they had been told on good authority that the new

powers of arrest were being considered by ministers.

 

Let the Head and Hand Scanning Begin! Biometric Programs Growing So Fast DHS

Can't Keep Up

The Department of Homeland Security has five biometric pilots under way

including the Transportation Security Administration's Registered Traveler

program, the Transportation Worker ID Credential, and others. Various airports

are already testing traveler fingerprint authentication while elsewhere iris

scanning and facial recognition is being perfected.

 

 

 

Some Say Getting Chipped Will Earn Special Privileges

Those who have the chip will have access to special privileges. You may have to

give up your privacy; health status, personal and financial information, maybe

even your soul, but in tradeoff your sub dermal implant is like an

all-access/backstage pass, classifying individuals according to their right to

receive social services, medical care, special treatment at banks and

institutions, even access to utilities.

Get Ready for the Mark of the Beast Gates: ID Smart Cards to Replace

Passwords THEY SHOULD HAVE LEFT " THAT " VIRUS BURIED 8 Million Could Die In Next

Pandemic, 207,000 in U.S.

 

 

 

 

 

http://pets.care2.com/

 

" The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. " --

Plato

" Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing

health care to all Americans is socialism. " -- anon