Bush Puppets Push For New Law To Protect Drug Companies

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[sSRI-Research] Bush Puppets Push For New Law To Protect Drug

Companies

 

 

 

http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=10629 & fcategory_desc=Under%20\

Reported

 

 

Independent Media TV, Mon, 18 Apr 2005 9:19 AM PDT

 

Bush Puppets Push For New Law To Protect Drug Companies - Independent

Media TV

 

April 18, 2005

By: Evelyn Pringle

 

Independent Media TV

 

The Bush appointed New Freedoms Commission on Mental Health (NFC) is

urging the implementation of wide-spread screening for children to

identify and treat mental illness. It wants the TeenScreen to give all

children a mental health check-up before graduation from high school.

 

Anti-Child drugging advocate, Ken Kramer, is dead-set against drugging

children and therefore dead-set against TeenScreen. Kramer is an

investigator for the Citizen's Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a

psychiatric watchdog group.

 

After thoroughly investigating TeenScreen, which calls itself as a

suicide prevention program, he has come to the conclusion that the

program is a drug company marketing scheme to get more kids hooked

into the psychiatric system and increase the customer base for

psychotropic drugs.

 

Kramer is sponsoring a research project to investigate the

circumstances of all child suicides in the state of Florida over the

past 5 years. Although the data collection is in it's infancy, Kramer

says, the investigation so far has determined that between 2000-2004,

100% of children who committed suicide in Pasco County were either on

psychotropic drugs or receiving psychiatric treatment.

 

He maintains that medicating kids with dangerous mind-altering drugs

" is the real cause of high rates of teen suicide. " Kramer recently

launched an informational TeenScreen website at

http://www.psychsearch.net/teenscreen.html

 

Pushing Pills To School Children

 

The fact is there is no medical test that can verify the existence of

a mental disease in children. The type of screening proposed is

entirely subjective and will only lead to millions of children being

labeled mentaly ill and hooked on mind-altering, addictive drugs.

 

The New Freedom Commission's drug treatment program for children

deemed mentally ill, is based on the Texas Medication Algorithm

Project (TMAP), first used in Texas in 1995, which lists specific

medications that are mandated for children, that include Paxil,

Zoloft, Celexa, Wellbutron, Zyban, Remeron, Serzone, Effexor, Buspar,

Adderall, and others.

 

The antidepressants listed in the TMAP belong to a class of drugs

known as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and are

dangerous. They were banned for use in children in the UK in December

of 2003.

 

In March 2004, the FDA issued a Public Health Advisory about the risks

associated these drugs including Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Celexa,

and Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Serzone, and Remeron, after a public

hearing where dozens of people testified about suicide and violence

committed by persons on the drugs.

 

The drug companies are the true creators of the list and these

medications are the most expensive drugs on the market. TeenScreen is

nothing but an industry-invented scheme to recruit the nation's 52

million school children as new customers. When it comes to paying for

these drugs, if parents can't afford to, government funds are already

set up to do it.

 

Pediatrician, Dr Karen Effrem has said, " The treatment of choice

mandated under TMAP guidelines are the most expensive,

profit-enhancers. TMAP is a blatant profit-enhancing scheme that is

already bankrupting Medicaid budgets. " (For links to reports from

Massachusetts, Florida, Texas, and Illinois, visit www.ahrp.org)

 

Dr Peter Weiden, who was a member of the panel that created the TMAP,

has second thoughts about how and why the list was created. He now

admits that the guidelines were based on " opinions, not data " and says

the funding sources undermine the credibility of the drug schedule

since " most of the guideline's authors have received support from the

pharmaceutical industry, " according to British Medical Journal.

 

In addition to SSRI antidepressants being dangerous, these expensive

drugs are a rip-off because studies have shown they do not even work

on children The August 10, 2004 Washington Post, reported, " Two-thirds

of the trials conducted by drug manufacturers found that the

medications performed no better than sugar pills, but details of the

negative trials were kept from doctors and parents. "

 

Recent studies show they cause suicide. The 2005 American Hospital

Formulary Service Drug Information, reports the " FDA ... has

determined that antidepressants increase the risk of suicidal thinking

and behavior in children and adolescents with major depressive and

other psychiatric disorders, " and " a causal relationship to

antidepressants has been established in pediatric patients. "

 

The Service also reports a study of over 4,400 children ... revealed a

greater risk of suicidal behavior or thinking ... during the first few

months of treatment. The average risk was 4% among children receiving

antidepressant drugs ... whereas those receiving placebo had a 2%

risk. In other words, those on antidepressants were at " twice the risk. "

 

The SRRIs have other serious side effects as well. For instance, a

review of Prozac's adverse reactions by the University of Pittsburgh,

found that 23% of children (8-18) who were prescribed Prozac suffered

mania or manic symptoms and another 19% became aggressive and hostile,

and exhibited grinding anger and short tempers.

 

Brother Jeb Markets TeenScreen In Florida

 

Many Federal and State government officials have become involved in

this TeenScreen marketing scheme which is extremely obvious in

Florida. On March 23, 2004, Gov Jeb Bush's office issued a press

release, claiming suicide was a leading cause of death among youth in

Florida.

 

Charles Curie, Administrator of the National Substance Abuse and

Mental Health Services agency apparently traveled to Florida from

Washington to join Bush at the Press Conference to announce the

SAMHSA's support of an initiative to conduct pilot programs in Florida

through a partnership with Columbia University's Teen Screen program,

to screen for mental illnesses such as depression and panic disorders

that place them at higher risk for suicide attempts, according to the

press release.

 

At the press conference, Jim McDonough, Director of the Florida Office

of Drug Control, told reporters, " Suicide is in fact a widespread

threat that claims the lives of thousands of Floridians each year. "

 

McDonough who is listed as an " advisor " to TeenScreen on its website,

is attempting to implement TeenScreen statewide in Florida's public

school system, but faces an uphill battle with crusader Ken Kramer in

his path.

 

Even without TeenScreen, parents in Florida are already complaining

that school officials are pressuring them to drug their kids. In

response to this complaint, the Florida House and Senate are currently

considering bills that will stop that practice for families with

school aged children in Florida.

 

" It will provide critical rights and information to parents to protect

their children from drugging through the school system, " Ken Kramer says.

 

House Bill 209 and Senate Bill 1766 contain two important provisions.

The first would prohibit the State from rejecting public school

students whose parents refuse to put them on drugs as a pre-requisite

for attending school. The second provision would require full

disclosure to parents if and when school administrators refer their

children to psychiatric care, with the predictable recommendation to

use drugs to control their child's behavior.

 

On March 23, 2005, during a Florida House of Representatives Health

Care Committee meeting, McDonough testified in opposition to Bill 209

and told the committee: " Put simply, antidepressant use, properly done

does lead to lower rates of suicide. "

 

When McDonough was asked to produce documents to prove that statement,

according to Kramer, " he has been unable to provide a single document

and he won't either, because there is no document or journal article

or scientific study that proves his statement. "

 

" It appears he is relying on one source of information: the

psychiatrists who are pushing drugs, " Kramer added.

 

When Mary Panton, Executive Director of the Citizens Commission in

Florida, informed McDonough of an alarming discovery that 81% of

children in Pinellas County who committed suicide were either on

psychotropic drugs or had received psychiatric treatment, McDonough's

response to the news was " that's just one county. "

 

While testifying, McDonough said, One of the key sources of

identification is the school ... the ability of the teacher, the

administrator, the principal to note that there are problematic

behaviors ... It is because of the lack of willingness to identify and

talk about it I believe that we have such instances as Columbine and

the other day the massacre at Red Lake in Minnesota, he said.

 

McDonough must not have done his homework because that comment does

not make sense. The fact is that the 2 teens he referred to were both

on SRRI drugs when they became psychotic and went on the killing sprees.

 

On March 26, 2005, The New York Times reported that the family of Jeff

Weise are left wondering about the drugs Weise was prescribed for

depression. Weise's aunt, Tammy Lussier, told the Times, " She found

herself looking back over the past year, when Weise began taking

Prozac, the antidepressant. "

 

Jeff Weise, 16, killed nine persons and himself in Red Lake, MN,

making it the second-deadliest school incident in the nation. A

cultural coordinator at the school told The Washington Post that Weise

was taking Prozac and had been previously hospitalized for suicidal

tendencies.

 

" They kept upping the dose for him, and by the end, he was taking

three of the 20 milligram pills a day, " Lussier said. " I can't help

but think it was too much, that it must have set him off. " She could

not understand what else had changed to explain the violence, the

Times wrote.

 

Eric Harris, one of the teen gunmen involved in the Columbine massacre

in 1999, was on the antidepressant, Luvox, when he and another teen

entered the high school and killed 12 people and injured many more

before taking their own lives.

 

Court records show Harris's Luvox prescription had been filled 10

times between April 1998 and March 1999, and that a little over 3

months before the shooting his dosage had been increased, which many

experts say often happens prior to adverse reactions to psychotropic

drugs.

 

19-year-old Mark Taylor, who spent nearly two months in the hospital

and endured three years of follow-up operations as a result of the

gunshot wounds he received at Columbine, is suing Solvay

Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Luvos, to bring attention to what he

believes was the cause of Harris' deadly rage.

 

Taylor told reporter Kelly OMeara of Insight News on Oct 10, 2002,

" Eric was forced onto these drugs and I feel sorry for him, like so

many other kids who are put on these drugs. I don't have ill feelings

against him since I don't think you can hold him accountable, because

he didn't know what he was doing. "

 

The lawsuit claims Luvox made Harris manic and psychotic and the PDR

substantiates this allegation. It lists adverse reactions for Luvox

as: " FREQUENT: amnesia, apathy, hyperkinesis, hypokinesis, manic

reaction, myoclonus, psychotic reaction;

 

" INFREQUENT: agoraphobia, akathisia, CNS depression, convulsion,

delirium, delusion, depersonalization, drug dependence, emotional

liability, euphoria, hallucinations, hostility, hysteria,

incoordination, increased salivation, increased libido, paralysis,

paranoid reaction, phobia, psychosis, sleep disorder, stupor,

twitching, vertigo. "

 

It appears that Florida lawmakers are well aware of the problem of

overmedicating school children judging by their back and forth

discussion with McDonough during the March hearing.

 

House Representative Ralph Poppell told McDonough, " I would hope that

you would concur that we need to do something to get kids into a

normal life and drugs are not always the way to do it. "

 

House Representative Roberson also expressed unease about drugging

more kids.

 

" The concern that I have, " he told McDonough, " is that my experience

tells me that the most expeditious way for a teacher in the public

school system to deal with an overactive child is to just medicate

them, keep them quiet so we can move on. That happens especially in

the inner city schools and I have been concerned for the longest time

with this issue, " he said.

 

But McDonough would not give up on trying to sell TeenScreen. " Well, I

think it throws a damper on ... the school to initiate any action that

would in fact lead to a recognition of mental illness. For example,

one of the things that we believe would bring down the rate of suicide

amongst children in the State of Florida is screening. " he said.

 

" Because of the wording of the bill ... We can not screen for mental

depression, mental illness of any type certainly for suicide ideation,

etc. " McDonough told the panel.

 

But House Representative Roberson wouldn't budge either and replied,

" The teachers, they are not licensed as a psychologist or as a nurse

or a mental health worker to label certain behavior such as suicidal

ideation so would you agree with me that it would be preferable for a

teacher to just tell the mother what he or she has observed in the

classroom as opposed to labeling a child as having suicidal ideation? "

 

Kramer is also concerned about this aspect of the program. " What

happens to all the normal and healthy children that are being wrongly

labeled? " he asked, " It's tough to imagine the ramifications of a

child going to school and then being told that he is bipolar or has

attention deficient disorder or any of those invented, non-existent

and scientifically unproven psychiatric disorders. "

 

Many Florida Kids Saved From Invasive Screening

 

Kramer is leading the fight against McDonough and TeenScreen for

public schools in several counties in Florida. In Penellas Country he

urged parents to send e-mails to School Boards to voice their

objections to the program and the School Board received more than 700

e-mails.

 

Kramer won the battle in 2 large counties and McDonough's efforts to

implement TeenScreen failed. According to the Jan 26, 2005 Tampa

Tribune Pinellas County School Board members refused to subject

students to suicide screenings, quashing any hope of introducing a

controversial mental health plan in two of Florida's largest school

districts.

 

To protect its students from issues of privacy and wrongful labeling,

Pinellas County's School Board voted 6-1 to bar TeenScreen's suicide

questionnaire program, the PR Web reported on Jan 30, 2005.

Administrators in the Hillsborough County school district also

considered the program, and determined the survey was too invasive.

 

I wonder if this mean McDonough won't get a check from the drug

companies this month.

 

Who Is Funding TeenScreen?

 

Kramer is trying to obtain TeenScreen funding records in the State of

Florida but the Florida Mental Health Institute, which lobbied with

McDonough, for the program's implementation in Pinellas County, " is

guarding and withholding information on TeenScreen, " Kramer says.

 

" For some odd reason, Columbia and TeenScreen want to keep their

funding sources secret, " Kramer says. " To stop people from finding out

how much drug company money is being funneled to TeenScreen, the

University recently revised a press release on its website and removed

a statement regarding its donation of $19 million to TeenScreen, " he

reports.

 

But Kramer plans to continue his investigation and has a mediation

meeting scheduled with the state Attorney General's office in an

effort to obtain records that directly relate to government funding of

TeenScreen.

 

No More Drugs

 

We have to stop drugging innocent children and turning them into

psychotic killers. In 2000, The United States Secret Service " National

Threat Assessment Center " conducted its own assessment of school

shootings and found all indications point to kids on legal drugs.

 

The Secret Service document reads in part, " Prior to the incident,

nearly > of the attackers either threatened to kill themselves, made

suicidal gestures, or tried to kill themselves. More than half of the

attackers had a history of feeling extremely depressed or desperate. "

 

So what is being overlooked here? Students are prescribed Ritalin,

Prozac and other psychiatric medication simply because they can't

remain still in the classroom. Does it not stand to reason that odds

favor the idea that these students were also under the influence of

some psychiatric medication?

 

One additional statistic that just does not fit well with all of this.

Recent statistics show that school violence is down. How can this be,

when we have a huge increase of random killings? Could it be because a

higher and higher percentage of students are being medicated with

psychiatric drugs and are simply in a dazed stupor?

 

Because they were dealing with minors and legal drugs the Secret

Service investigators ran into a major obstacle when trying to answer

these questions. " With the children committing these crimes being

mostly minors and these psychiatric drugs being legal, it is difficult

at best to get this seemingly hidden information, " they concluded.

 

Evelyn Pringle epringle05 Miamisburg OH 45402

 

(Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an

investigative journalist focused on exposing government corruption)

 

 

Original Link: http://www.independent-media.tv

 

 

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