President's Bogus Mental Health Screening Initiative Is a Thinly Veiled Scam to Boost Pharmaceutical

[Guest guest]

Thursday, March 24, 2005

President's Bogus Mental Health

Screening Initiative Is a Thinly Veiled Scam to Boost Pharmaceutical

Profits

The latest act of

state-sponsored medical insanity has been announced by the Bush administration

with their so-called New Freedom Commission on Mental Health that plans to

conduct mental-health screening on all children and adults in the United States.

As people are screened under this plan, they will of course be put on

highly-profitable and extremely expensive psychotic drugs and anti-depressant

drugs,

which are manufactured by the very same companies that have donated heavily to

the Bush administration and Bush re-election efforts.

 

 

This New Freedom Commission plan is based on the

Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP), a medication treatment plan that also

screened people for mental

health problems and prescribed high-profit prescription drugs to them. But

the Texas plan has come under great criticism. A whistle-blower named Allen

Jones, who was an employee of the Pennsylvania office of the Inspector General,

published a document revealing that medical leaders who controlled the

medication plan in the state of Pennsylvania received payment from drug

companies who stood to benefit from the mental health screening plan.

 

 

 

 

In response, Allen Jones was, of course, fired.

Similarly, the Texas plan has been formulated by drug companies. Allen Jones

described the joint effort as " a political/pharmaceutical alliance " that was

" poised to consolidate the TMAP effort into a comprehensive national policy to

treat mental illness with expensive patented medications of

questionable benefits and deadly side effects. " So, at first

glance, it certainly appears that this is no more than a good old boy strategy

for boosting the profits of pharmaceutical companies

through political influence -- it's the same old game.

 

 

 

Not surprisingly, an alarming number of the Bush

administration's recent regulatory advances have been thinly veiled attempts to

promote the profits of the pharmaceutical industry. The so-called Medicare drug

discount cards were nothing more than a handout to pharmaceutical companies that

created the illusion of discounts, where in reality people could buy drugs at

much lower prices by simply shopping around on the internet. They could get them

at lower prices still by buying them from Canada or other countries. Similarly,

this mental health screening initiative is nothing more than a grand political

scam designed to sell prescription drugs that benefit the pockets of companies

who have supported the Bush election campaigns.

 

 

 

Just how much support has come from these

companies? The Bush administration has very close financial ties to the

pharmaceutical industry. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who was appointed

by Bush, served as the CEO of one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the

United States. George Bush, Sr. was also a member of Eli Lilly's board of

directors, and George Bush, Jr. appointed Eli Lilly's Chief Executive Officer to

a seat on the Homeland Security Council. In what looks like nothing more than

blatant political bribery, Eli Lilly made $1.6 million in political

contributions in 2000. Four-fifths of that went to the Republican party and

presidential candidate Bush. It is, in fact, the same company that started up

the Texas project. And now, many members of the New Freedom Commission have also

been found to have ties with pharmaceutical companies and have served on their

advisory boards.

 

 

 

Under the Bush administration, the pharmaceutical

industry has done extremely well in terms of boosting sales and generating

profits. And it looks like the Bush administration is determined to continue the

drugging of America, no matter what the cost to American taxpayers. They won't

stop, it seems, until every American is dosed up on a dozen simultaneous

prescriptions that generate tens of billions of dollars in profits for the

pharmaceutical industry each year. Of course, to those who are familiar with the

behavior of the Bush administration, none of this comes as much surprise. The

Bush administration seems to be willing to engage in any sort of activity, no

matter how lacking in ethics or how unfounded, in

order to gain more power and enhance the financial position of its supporters.

The Bush administration stands for war, for drugs, and for keeping the rich rich

and the poor poor. And one of the easiest ways to keep the poor poor is to dose

them on high-priced prescription drugs to the point where they can't think

straight enough to vote with any measure of intelligence.

 

 

 

Similarly, war is a windfall for companies who

manufacture bombs and weapons, and when there's war over oil, as we've seen in

Iraq, it also serves the interest of the oil-producers and distributors. All of

these industries have close ties to the Bush administration. War industries, big

oil, and of course Big Pharma, and all of them are doing extremely well with

George Bush in the White House.

 

The problem is that none of these industries actually enhance the lives of

human beings. In fact, all of them harm human beings. There's a lot of

money changing hands these days, and a lot of it is strongly influenced by the

Bush administration, but very little of it actually goes to enhance the quality

of life for everyday people.

 

 

 

 

People don't need mandatory screening for mental

health disorders. They don't need to be put on multiple prescription drugs that

turn them into zombies and may, in fact, cause them to commit suicide or engage

in violent acts. We don't need ten times as many weapons as we have right now,

since we already have the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, with enough

firepower to destroy the planet a dozen times over. We don't need more bombs,

more drugs and more government-mandated health initiatives that masquerade as

good science while in

reality only offer another financial trap that will push Americans even further

into household debt and poverty.

 

 

 

 

As far as I can tell, the mental illness in this

country lives in the White House. If there's any mandatory mental health

screening that should be taking place, it should start with the officials

running the Bush administration, and then continue on to take a look at the

people running the FDA,

and those in charge of the pharmaceutical companies. Because from all the

available evidence, it appears to me that these people have lost their minds in

a mad attempt to generate obscene profits regardless of the cost to human life,

individual privacy, and human rights.

 

 

 

 

Above all, to call this new plan the " New Freedom

Commission " is perhaps the ultimate insult to the intelligence of the American

people. Beware of any big government mandate that has the word " freedom " in it,

because chances are it's more about taking away your freedom than ensuring it.

Forcing people to undergo mental health screening is not freedom. Dosing people

up with prescription drugs that alter their brain chemistry and take

away their normal healthy brain function is not freedom. In fact, it is

chemical enslavement, and the perpetrators behind this diabolical plan

are truly the enemies to freedom, democracy, and the ideals that

America historically stands for. The next thing you know, they're going to be

claiming that terrorists

are causing mental health disorders in this country, and everybody needs to be

screened for mental health disorders as defense against terrorism. Don't be

surprised

if you hear that initiative launched in the months ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overview:

 

 

 

 

 

 

A sweeping mental health initiative

will be unveiled by President George W Bush in July.

The plan promises to integrate mentally ill

patients fully into the community by providing " services in the community,

rather than institutions, " according to a March 2004 progress report entitled

New Freedom Initiative

(www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/newfreedom/toc-2004.html).

While some praise the plan's goals, others say it

protects the profits of drug companies at the expense of the public.

The commission issued its recommendations in July

2003.

Bush instructed more than 25 federal agencies to

develop an implementation plan based on those recommendations.

The president's commission found that " despite

their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed " and recommended

comprehensive mental health

screening for " consumers of all ages, " including preschool

children.

Schools, wrote the commission, are in a " key

position " to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the

schools.

The commission also recommended " Linkage [of

screening] with treatment and supports " including " state-of-the-art treatments "

using " specific medications for

specific conditions. "

The commission commended the Texas Medication

Algorithm Project (TMAP) as a " model " medication treatment plan that

" illustrates an evidence-based practice that results in better consumer

outcomes. "

He said the association has called for increased

funding for implementation of the overall plan.

He was sacked this week for speaking to the BMJ

and the New York

Times.

Lilly made $1.6m in political contributions in

2000---82% of which went to Bush and the Republican Party.

Bush plans to screen whole US population for

mental illness: Summary of responses Birte Twisselmann BMJ 2004 329:

292-293.

 

 

 

 

 

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