May 22, 2003
House Passes Child Medication Safety Act
In an absolutely overwhelming majority vote of 425 to one the House
yesterday passed the Child Medication Safety Act preventing school personnel,
who are not licensed to prescribe medication anyway, from forcing children to
take mind altering medication. Clearly, miracles have not ceased!!
In September of 1999, four months after the Columbine tragedy, I was invited
by Patti Johnson of the Colorado State School Board to testify as one of three
on the adverse effects of mind altering medication upon children. The Board
passed a resolution that they had hoped would set an example for the rest of
the country to prevent another tragedy like Columbine. They declared in their
resolution that schools had no right to mandate medication and should stick to
academics rather than diagnosing and prescribing medications to children.
Since that time several more states have followed the example set that day in
Colorado. And then yesterday the House confirmed those same concerns as they
passed the Child Medication Safety Act.
The original concern of the Colorado State School Board was Eric Harris' use
of SSRI antidepressants leading up to the Columbine High School shooting April
20, 1999, which left 15 dead.
Eric had been started on Zoloft for depression the year before Columbine.
Within six weeks on the drug he reported having obsessive homicidal and
suicidal thoughts.
He was taken off Zoloft and the thoughts began to subside. He reported he was
feeling much better off Zoloft. After a two week wash out period it was
planned that doctors would give him a new medication. And Eric stated that he
was looking forward to the new medication working better for him than the
Zoloft had.
Tragically Eric was taken from the frying pan into the fire as he was switched
from one brand of SSRI to another. He was given Luvox for the obsessive
homicidal and suicidal thoughts he was having. Going from Zoloft to Luvox is
about like switching from Coke to Pepsi.
In the package insert for Luvox we learn that one out of 25 patients become
manic as an adverse effect of the drug. Interestingly last fall when Eric's
records were finally released the Denver Post had four independent experts
review them. They concluded that Eric had clearly gone manic - an admitted
side effect of one-fourth of the patients.
Keep in mind that developing brains have a much higher incidence of adverse
reactions to mind altering medications. And until the brain is fully developed
we will not know the full impact the drugs have had on these young developing
brains. What might we witness a generation from now as a result?
Medical research has demonstrated for decades that increasing serotonin
produces mania (bipolar), psychosis, violence, etc. Considering the extremely
widespread use and the lack of caution in prescribing these drugs, why are we
surprised to see before us the most violent and insane society America has
ever witnessed? I have cases of children as young as ten committing extremely
violent murders on these drugs and reports of children as young as five
committing suicide on them - a situation unheard of before these drugs hit the
market!
This move by the House is a clearly a move in the right direction. For the
sake of us all I pray it will grow from here!
Dr. Ann Blake Tracy, Executive Director,
International Coalition for Drug Awareness
www.drugawareness.org & author of Prozac: Panacea
or Pandora? - Our Serotonin Nightmare (800-280-0730)
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Congress-Child-Medication.html
House OKs Ban on Forcing Kids' Medication
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:50 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House voted Wednesday to prohibit schools from making
children with behavioral problems take medication in order to attend class.
Under the bill, passed 425-1, states receiving federal education money must
make sure schools do not coerce parents into medicating their children.
``School personnel may have good intentions, but parents should never be
required to decide between their child's education and keeping them off
potentially harmful drugs,'' said Rep. Max Burns, R-Ga., who sponsored the
legislation.
In recent decades, more children have been diagnosed with attention deficit or
hyperactivity disorders and prescribed drugs such as Ritalin or Adderall.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., a former schoolteacher, said he
sympathizes with the need for orderly classrooms but said, ``School personnel
should never presume to know the medication needs of a child.''
The prevalence of forced medication as a precondition for attending class has
never been established. The bill, called the Child Medication Safety Act,
provides for a congressional investigation into the use of psychotropic
medication in schools.
Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., who voted against the bill, ``believed it was a
solution looking for a problem,'' said her spokesman, Aaron Hunter.
Several states have already moved to ban schools from requiring medication.
Mary Crosby, governmental affairs director at the American Academy of Child
and Adolescent Psychiatry, called the bill unnecessary and thinks the issue
could be better resolved at the local level. She condemned the practice but
questioned the necessity of federal legislation until the extent of the
problem becomes clearer.
Addressing concerns that such a law would stifle communication between schools
and parents about a child's behavior or mental health, lawmakers added a
provision that allows teachers to bring up any problems they observe.
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On the Net:
Information on the bill, H.R. 1170, can be found at
http://thomas.loc.gov/
Last Updated on
04/14/04
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