article on pharm agenda with psychotropic drugging of children

[Guest guest]

This is sad.

 

 

Mike W. Bowser, L Ac

 

 

Ken Kramer - Crusader Against Mass Drugging of Kids-- A Big Pharma Plot

 

by Evelyn Pringle

 

www.OpEdNews.com

 

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 describes 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.