URGE THE SENATE TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM FORCED DRUGGING!
The lame duck Congress has decided not to deal with the federal budget bills including the mental health screening issues. They plan instead to do a “continuing resolution” which will fund these programs at their current levels until February when the Democrats will then have to deal with the budget.
Since they do not have to pass the individual spending bills, they can work on other things. Of the bills they could pass in their last week, one that should be a “no-brainer” is the Child Medication Safety Act (HR 1790). The bill was passed for the second Congress in a row by the US House by the overwhelming majority of 407-12 in November of 2005. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) introduced this common sense bill in September of 2006 right before the election.
This legislation protects families from being coerced into administering psychotropic medications that are on the controlled substances list to their children in order to attend school. These are the Ritalin class of drugs used to treat ADHD, the most common psychiatric label given to children. It is identical to the legislation that passed in 2004 to protect students in special education from this same kind of forced drugging. The bill that would have protected all K-12 students died in the last session of Congress due to a blockade by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) at the behest of pharmaceutical and psychiatric groups.
This bill is supported by a broad spectrum of groups. The NAACP (p.22) promoted this bill as part of its legislative priorities list for the Congress about to end. A variety of consumer, professional and grassroots political groups all support this bill.
Pediatrician Dr. Karen Effrem has presented testimony to Congress on this bill. She found that the medical literature demonstrates that these medications are overused, ineffective, and have dangerous, if not fatal, side effects. Most importantly, she reported that the "disorders" these drugs are supposed to treat are admitted by experts to have no scientific basis -- that there are many other reasons for behavior and learning disorders that do not require medication. Children have died from the dangers of these drugs forced on them by the schools.
Since that testimony was presented, study after study has appeared continuing to show the dangers and lack of effectiveness of these medications. For instance, all in 2006:
The Oregon Drug Effectiveness Review Project, analyzed 2287 pieces of research -- virtually every investigation ever done on ADHD drugs up to 2006 - to reach its conclusions: it found no evidence to support the claims about these drugs' safety, effectiveness, or the legitimacy of the ADHD diagnosis.
The FDA strengthened its warnings on these drugs, finally acknowledging that these drugs cause dependency and addiction, hallucinations, psychosis, and heart problems, including sudden death.
A study of ADHD drugs in preschoolers released by the National Institutes of Mental Health revealed that, "About 40 percent of children developed side effects and roughly 11 percent dropped out because of problems including irritability, weight loss, insomnia and slowed growth."
ACTION:
Please call Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist at 202-224-3344 and ask him to put the Child Medication Safety Act (HR 1790) on the unanimous consent calendar (the list of non-controversial bills) and pass it this week. Please call your two US Senators and ask them to support this bill and urge the same with Senator Frist. This bill is supported by groups on all points on the political spectrum, from the NAACP to Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum. With all of the new research on the dangers of the Ritalin class of drugs and given that there is ongoing funding for mental health screening of all ages of children, the basic protections for K-12 students in this bill that have already passed in the special education law should be passed without a moment’s hesitation. Ask these elected officials whose interests they will support – those of parents and children, including minority children, or those of the psychopharmaceutical and education cartel.
