Bush, Legislation Prohibiting Forced Psychiatric Drugging

[Guest guest]

>...With Bush's finance director the former PR man for the

>manufacture of Prozac that made 25% of his profits from that one drug, the

>congresman who got Medicaide funding for drugs now the lobbyists for the

>association that prepresents their interests, Congress planning to protect

>medical victims from malpractice lawsuit settlements over $250,000 and

>Congress continuing to allow the FDA to approve antidepressents that they

>know are causing CHILDREN to commit suicide and don't take them off the

>market as has Britian, I wouldn't heave too big a sign of relief if I were

>you.

>Dr. Sandra Lance, D.C.

>Daughter of Alma Virginia Sanders

>January 14, 1927-February 6, 2002

>Antidepressent Suicide Victim

 

No, let's not heave too big a sigh of relief.

 

The description posted by me seems to have been

somewhat skewed to one side. Here is one that

perhaps more closely reflects the truth.

 

Kind regards

Sepp

 

 

-

<edactionEdAction

<edwatchEdWatch

Monday, December 13, 2004 1:37 PM

Children’s Mental Health in the 108th Congress

 

 

EdAction

105 Peavey Road, Suite 116

Chaska, MN 55318

952-361-4931

http://edaction.org

 

December 13, 2004

 

 

Children’s Mental Health in the 108th Congress:

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Karen R. Effrem, MD

EdWatch Board of Directors

 

Both universal mental health screening and the

coercive drugging of children were hot topics in

the after-election “lame duck” session of

Congress, completed just before Thanksgiving.

These issues were prominent in the consideration

of both the omnibus budget bill and the

reauthorization of the special education law, the

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

(IDEA). The following is our analysis of these

issues along with implications for the next

session of Congress.

 

THE GOOD: The good news on these issues comes

from the reauthorization of IDEA. Several hundred

of you contacted Congress via the e-action alert

about these special education issues and we thank

you. Education and Workforce Committee Chairman

John Boehner and the Committee staff also deserve

kudos and thanks for the following:

The Senate language to fund grants to screen

children “at risk for emotional and behavioral

difficulties” was struck from the final bill.

Given all of the other places that mental health

screening is rearing its ugly head and being

funded by the federal government, this is truly

good news.

The House language stating that academic

screening does not constitute a special education

evaluation survived in the final bill. Perhaps

now the epidemic of reading problems that

constitute 90% of special education referrals

will be dealt with by teaching systematic phonics

before children are mislabeled with a specific

learning disability and unnecessarily placed in

the special education system.

Parents and special education students are

protected against coercion by the schools to take

some of the psychiatric medications – those on

the Controlled Substances list, meaning drugs

like Ritalin, Adderall, and Dexedrine, the potent

and dangerous stimulant drugs used with

frightening frequency to treat children labeled

with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

The language, authored by Congressman Max Burns

and passed by the House as an amendment to IDEA,

also survived the conference committee. This is

an important precedent and a very good step in

the right direction. Contrary to reports by other

groups, however, this amendment to IDEA does NOT

cover any of the antidepressant medications that

have been the subject of FDA and congressional

hearings, and which are now required to carry the

most serious black box warnings due to their

tendency to cause suicidal thoughts and actions.

The amendment also does NOT cover the

antipsychotic medications used to treat the

growing epidemic of children labeled bipolar.

Side effects of those drugs include obesity,

diabetes and neurological problems.

THE BAD - Sadly, despite media coverage by Dr.

Laura, G. Gordon Liddy, World Net Daily, News

Max, many talk radio interviews across the

country, and thousands of calls and emails to

Congress, grants to fund the New Freedom

Commission (NFC) recommendations, which include

universal mental health screening and treatment

with ineffective and dangerous medications, were

not stopped. $20 million was appropriated for

state grants to implement the NFC

recommendations. Physician and Congressman

Paul’s excellent language that required parental

consent for screening before these programs were

funded was not included. Dr. Paul wrote a letter

signed by more than twenty Members urging the

parental consent language. House leadership,

including Speaker Hastert, Majority Leader DeLay,

and Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Regula

accepted the Paul language. All of these House

Members and those that voted for the original

amendment in September deserve our thanks. (See

our

<http://www.edaction.org/2004/091004.htm>update.)

Sadly, that language protecting the basic right

of parental consent was dropped in the Senate.

 

Despite great disappointment at this setback,

there were a few silver linings that this issue

has brought. First, the amount funded ($20

million) was less than half of what was requested

($44 million) by the Senate and the

administration. Thanks to the excellent work of

Congressman and physician Ron Paul and his staff,

and his Liberty Committee directed by Kent Snyder

and their excellent alerts, media coverage, many

other groups and your dedication and response to

our e-alert, at least 19,000 people contacted

Congress to oppose universal mental health

screening, the dangers, and the loss of parental

rights that these programs entail. Thank you.

 

Finally, please know that your actions are still

having an impact. Congressional staff in the

offices of Members who support these

freedom-robbing programs are complaining bitterly

about Congressman Paul and the groups that are

standing for liberty to protect their children

from labels and drugs, saying that their national

screening programs are put in jeopardy by our

work. We must continue the fight to destroy this

program before it takes full root.

 

In addition to the $20 million for the New

Freedom Commission grants, the omnibus

appropriations bill also provides via HHS “$2

million for grants to local educational systems

or non-profit entities to identify and test

evidence-based practices to treat teenagers

suffering from mental, emotional or behavioral

disorders,” which will result in more psychiatric

drugging. It also provides $7 million for “grants

and cooperative agreements to develop early

intervention and prevention strategies to address

the growing problem of youth suicide” via the

Garrett Lee Smith suicide prevention law, which

will also result in more screening and drugging

of children and adolescents. (See our

<http://edaction.org/2004/072604.htm>July 26th

update)

 

The Department of Education is spending $5

million on “Mental Health Integration in Schools”

that we are still investigating, as well as $1

million for Senator Kennedy’s disastrous early

childhood mental health program called

Foundations for Learning. (See our

<http://www.edwatch.org/updates/071404.htm>update.)

 

THE UGLY - The ugliest parts of this situation are:

The apparent complete capitulation of the

administration and the Senate leadership to the

pharmaceutical industry and mental health

bureaucracy to the point that they cannot even

support the basic right of parental consent.

These screening programs will subjectively label

a child with a vague and dubious mental diagnoses

based on political and/ or religious beliefs that

will follow them for the rest of their lives.

They will lead to increased drugging with

ineffective and dangerous medications that can

cause suicide, violence, cognitive toxicity, and

diabetes.

That the White House would even consider former

Food and Drug Administration chief Mark McClellan

as Secretary of the Department of Health and

Human Services (HHS). HHS will administer the

grants to implement the New Freedom Commission

recommendations of universal screening and

drugging. The FDA has completely failed in its

mission to protect the public from ineffective

and dangerous medications. The two most recent

disasters are the antidepressants in children and

Vioxx in adults. Physicians and the public are

completely unable to make informed decisions

about pharmaceuticals, because for years, the FDA

has allowed the industry to cover up evidence of

dangerous side effects. Only positive studies of

drug effectiveness have been published. There is

no evidence that the cozy relationship with the

pharmaceutical industry will end with someone

from the FDA in charge at HHS, especially since

the pharmaceutical industry is already profiting

enormously from the New Freedom treatment

recommendations. McClellan, and anyone else from

the FDA, should be sent packing in disgrace, not

considered for a promotion.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? – Protecting children

from arbitrary labeling and drugging while

maintaining the right of parental consent and the

protection of parents from coercion to drug their

children will require action on three levels –

federal, state, and family.

In Washington DC, EdWatch will work with other

groups to educate Congress and other groups about

the dangers of mental health screening. EdAction

will work to pass Dr. Paul’s “Let Parents Raise

their Kids Act” which requires parental consent

for these screening programs. EdWatch will also

work to educate Congress and other groups on the

limitations of the Child Medication Safety Act

amendment passed in IDEA. EdAction will, at the

same time, work to expand the stand-alone bill.

This stand-alone bill contains the same language

as the IDEA amendment to prevent coercion of

parents to drug their children with medications

on the controlled substances list. The

stand-alone bill passed the US House 425-1, but

was stalled in the Senate by Senator Edward

Kennedy. The goals for this legislation in the

new Congress are to protect all children in

school, not just those in special education. It

would also protect their parents from coercion by

schools to take any psychiatric medication, not

just those covered by the Controlled Substances

Act. Finally, we will work to decrease or

eliminate funding for the other mental health

screening and labeling programs in federal law.

These screening programs are based on vague and

dubious diagnoses and criteria, they do not

prevent suicide, and they can be based on the

student’s worldview.

In the states, educating state legislators about

the mental health screening programs will be very

important. States must oppose changes in their

laws that would accept the federal New Freedom

Commission grants that Illinois accepted. States

would also be wise to consider a law similar to

New Jersey’s for personal student surveys. The

New Jersey law strengthens the federal Protection

of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) that applies to

mental health screening. Finally, strengthening

the state special education laws would be very

helpful, so that parental refusal of a special

education evaluation that includes mental health

screening, for instance, cannot be overridden by

the schools.

States may already have some protections for

parental consent in mental health screening in

schools, but it is unclear how these protections

will apply to screening programs funded by HHS

grants. IDEA requires parental consent before any

evaluation or re-evaluation, including those done

for mental health in special education. According

to the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment

(PPRA), active parental consent is required and

“no student shall be required, as part of any

applicable program, to submit to a survey,

analysis, or evaluation that reveals information

concerning…mental or psychological problems of

the student or the student's family.” PPRA

applies to surveys done under Department of

Education funds. What is not clear is whether

PPRA will also apply to the screening New Freedom

Commission grants under the Department of Health

and Human Services. That is why we strongly

supported and continue to support Congressman

Paul’s attempts to protect parental consent in

the appropriations process as well as in

stand-alone legislation, The Let Parents Raise

their Kids Act. While this is being sorted out,

we recommend that parents use

<http://psychrights.org/Issues/Screening/PPRAltrv2.htm>this

letter drafted by the Law Project for Psychiatric

Rights or

<http://www.beverlye.com/consent_20000920.html>this

one from the National Education Consortium to put

your child’s school on notice that you will not

accept any mental health screening.

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--

 

 

The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition.

 

Sepp Hasslberger

 

 

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