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President George W. Pusher?
By Stephen Young | DrugSense

Uncle Sam wants you ... to be screened for mental illness. If standards set by the federal government determine you have a sick brain, it will be corrected with powerful drugs.

It may sound, uh, crazy, but a report from the British Medical Journal entitled "Bush plans to screen whole U.S. population for mental illness" ( see
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/conte.../328/7454/1458) suggests it could be coming soon.

Based on recommendations from the appropriately Orwellian "President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health," (what was wrong with the old freedom?) the proposed policy will use public institutions like schools to routinely check citizens for signs of mental illness. Once diagnosed, the sick will be drugged back to health with new, expensive pharmceuticals.

Well, the New Freedom Commission makes it sound a bit more touchy-feely, but that's the basic idea. The British Medical Journal story said a similar policy has been used in Texas since 1995, guaranteeing a broad market for pharmaceutical companies specializing in such products.

So that vision of a drug-free America becomes ever more distant. But don't expect to hear any complaints from drug czar John Walters or other drug warriors. Big Brother and Dr. Feelgood, Inc. joined forces long ago.

There's a new book out by Douglas Valentine called "The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America's War on Drugs" which traces the rise and fall of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. A predecessor of the DEA, the FBN was responsible for drug control in America from 1930-1968. According to Valentine's book (and others like "The Drug Hang-Up" by Rufus King) long-time FBN Commissioner Harry Anslinger had an intimate relationship with American pharmaceutical companies. Anslinger made sure they were happy with federal policy, and when Anslinger got into political trouble, the pharmceutical firms helped bail him out by exerting influence on legislators.

A more recent collaboration between the drug warriors and big pharma came in the form of the profoundly ironic Partnership for a Drug-Free America. The PDFA, which introduced American TV audiences to 30-second propaganda pieces promoting the drug war, was initially led by the former CEO of a major pharmaceutical company. James Burke headed Johnson & Johnson (the maker of Tylenol) before leaving to take charge of the PDFA.

Burke is still on the board of the PDFA. According to the organization's web site, among top financial contributors to the PDFA (those who give more than $25,000), roughly 30 percent are companies involved in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals.

Making legal pharmaceuticals doesn't mean the drug warriors will automatically ignore you. Just ask Purdue Pharma, which created OxyContin. However, despite legal challenges and horrible publicity, that heavy-duty narcotic remains on the market. That's fine by me, since many pain patients swear by it, and they are not responsible for others who misuse it.

Why can't the drug warriors understand that same principle applies to every drug, legal or not? And why do the pharmaceutical companies happily contribute to the demonization of other drugs when, apparently, there but for the grace of the feds go they?

Any drug can be helpful to some people, and any drug can be harmful to some people. What matters is the manner in which any drug is used. But I think that reality is a little too hazy for the pharmaceutical industry's liking. They want the public to believe their products are good and safe. However, everyone knows even effective medicine can be dangerous under certain circumstances.

Wouldn't it be helpful, from a marketing perspective, if a class of drugs existed that were totally evil and absolutely without redemptive properties? Those "bad" drugs would have to be prohibited. So, as long as a company's drug is legal to sell, it must be "good." If it were bad, surely it would be prohibited, like the other bad drugs, right?

Even though Tylenol can be lethal when used in large doses or in combination with alcohol (for more details see
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000929.html since this is a drug danger the PDFA will never publicize in a TV commercial), it's a "good" drug suitable for sale to young and old alike. But, while marijuana kills no one, it's a "bad" drug that no one should use, even if their doctor recommends it.

If your only sources of information about marijuana were the PDFA and the federal government, you might think anyone who used it was insane.

Which takes us back to that "New Freedom Commission" created by the Bush administration, which can't wait to assess your mental health, whether you want it assessed or not, and then treat you with "good" drugs, whether you want treatment or not.

Those of us who are opposed to prohibition know the drug war isn't about public welfare. It's about control, both social and economic. The drug war is always an excuse for something else, whether it be an intervention into a foreign country (think Colombia), or the curtailing of constitutional rights (think the Fourth Amendment).

Many in the drug policy reform movement think strictly in terms of drugs that aren't allowed, as opposed to those that are allowed. That perspective is understandable, since prohibition is the cause of many so-called drug problems.

But prohibition isn't the only way to achieve control when it comes to drugs. After all these years of attempting to coerce people away from certain drugs, it's only a short step to forcing certain drugs we may not want right down our throats.

Stephen Young is an editor with DrugSense Weekly and author of "Maximizing Harm" - www.maximizingharm.com

__________________
"I believe in the near future, the government will use anti-drug hysteria to set up a police state."
-author William S. Burroughs, 1947

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Higher Self

The World-Wide Management team is pushing their own agenda. BigPharma is in a marriage of debauchery with the Federal Government, lusting over power and control over the populous, who are not able to decide for themselves, what's good for them, and what is not. They romance unwitting consumers, fixated on their Tell-A-Visions, encouraging them to ask their dealers, oops... doctors, without so much as offering a clue as to what a drug is, or what it does, using some flowery mind-control commercials, all the while demonizing 'illegal drugs'.

What defines mentally ill/defected? If a person doesn't fall in-line with accepted ways of thinking about life, does that make a person defective? Allowing the Establishment to decide which 'chemical clothes' your soul should 'wear' is scary business indeed...

The movement which cherishes individual soveriegnty, freedom of choice, and the pursuit of liberty will continue to surge in a wave of resistance towards our corrupt, tyranical governing entities. The UN has lost most of it's credibility as it has demonstrated itself to be filled with the same self-serving, shell-game form of democracy which has created our own enept, perverted form of democracy here in Amerika.

We have made a mockery of the precepts which were once the foundation of this once great nation. We have distorted our abilities to discern right and wrong, beyond the recognition of sanity. We've been duped by the media, and bought into a fear-based paradigm created for the sole purpose of controlling the masses, built on a foundation of lies.

Fear not intrepid travelers, for the Divine Purpose of Spirit cannot be thwarted, and some things must come to pass, for at times it is the shadow which defines the light, and the cockroaches of the Management Team are gonna scurry back into the shadows of darkness as the light of consciuosness begins to shine brighter and brighter.

People are beginning to realize that right and wrong, good and bad, are but labels assigned by opposing perspectives, when the TRUTH of the MATTER is, there is only what works and what doesn't work, and this will become the basis for social policy in world where justice will prevail, the will of the people is served, for the purposes of benefiting humankind.

We now return you to the regularly scheduled programming...

Higher Self

hauptmann

This is most definatly a step in the wrong direction. From what I have read these mental health examinations will accompany yearly physicals. It takes alot more than a once a year visit to diagnose mental illness and prescribe treatment(most likely pharms). More in depth observation is required to fully understand any mental condition and prescribe a combination of therapies and/or medications.

Instead of perpetuating the pharmaceutical giants maybe bush could do something about the causes of these conditions on a behavioral level(domestic violence, poverty and alcohol and drug abuse).

These days too many kids are already getting jacked full of anti-depressants and stimulants from their parents, we need the government in on this too? Almost anyone can be diagnosed with a mood disorder. Thats what makes this so frightening for me, the kids. The last thing we need is a bunch of drugged up elementary students because their personality doesnt match up to the primer, quick get the DSM-iv and prescribe some drugs stat!

Don't get me wrong though. I feel that in certain situations pharmacuticals can do wonders for a person, but that person must address their issues as well.

On one hand I would like to believe that this program is here to help our people and help diagnose and treat mental illness. But the way it is presented, it looks like a push for the pharmaceutical industry.This whole thing has a "Brave New World" feel to it.

Its not ok if you think that marijuana helps you chill out because you know yourself and you know it will help, but its ok for the government to give you plenty of drugs for a mood disorder, because uncle sam knows best. Oh ok that makes sense, it does.....really....I swear....

In the words of Nancy Reagan:

Just Say NO

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JTP

I think it would be worth reading the actual report here.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/ne.../toc-2004.html

I saw very little about mass drugging and mental screening...

AlucardOrange3

I apologize for the partial lack of relevancy here, but anybody interested in an opposing (not necessarily correct, but very definitely opposing) point of view on Bush ought to go see Fahrenheit 9/11. It focuses a lot on the bin Laden-Bush connections and how Saudi Arabia essentially owns and operates the Bush Family + Friends, but those of us who are aware of the cannabis plant's potential to replace fossil fuels (Saudi Arabia has the largest known reserves in the world, Iraq has the second largest) as a source of energy will draw the connection that Saudi Arabia and the other oil-exporting nations have a vested interest in the continued world-wide prohibition of the cannabis plant. Combine that with the pharmaceutical industry's determination to keep medicine lucratively profitable and *stands back in surprise* it looks like a good old-fashioned conspiracy is beginning to rear its ugly head...

Keeping this in mind, it really doesn't matter if the actual report mentions mass drugging and mental screening, all it has to do is allow that as a possibility and I guarantee you the Powers That Be will start gradually moving things in that direction. On September 10th, 2001 very few people were *publicly* advocating the deconstruction of the Bill of Rights in the name of security and safety, but since 9/11 it seems to have become en vogue to deprive American citizens of their supposedly inalienable rights in order to better fight a vague, never-ending 'war' on terror. Likewise, right now only lunatics are publicly advocating mass mental health screening and drugging of civilians, but let's say hypothetically there was a string of brutal murders by several different people who were later discovered to be mentally ill. The level of brutality and media coverage of the murders would determine public outcry, and eventually the mother of one of the victims would come forward and tell Fox News, with tears in her eyes, that the warning signs of insanity were there for all to see, if only the school system had been looking for them. If only employers had been looking for them. If only someone had forced him to take the medication that he so desperately needed. Next thing you know, we've got the USA PROZAC Act...

Forgive the rambling, but try to see my general point and take action before it's too late.

AO3

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"When a true genius appears in the world, you shall know him by this sign; that all the dunces are in confederacy against him." Jonathan Swift

 

smoking_joe_lee

The reason I have not rushed out to see Moore's "documentary" is that he does not even pretend to present a balanced story. Accordint to one review, he shoves the microphone int the face of the grieving mother of a soldier killed in Iraq so she can read his last letter home. Shameless! The same review stated that Moore cold have gone a long way to silence his critics by showing a few seconds of the crimes of Sadaam. Since you have seen the film, AO3, perhaps you could comment. By the way, I am no blind follower of dubya. Unless there is a VERY dramatic development between now and Nov. I will not vote for him. I WILL vote tho...
I don't see how the gov. can test and drug the population without it's consent, but Lord help us all if they do.
Is Dr. Feelgood related to Dr. Strangelove?
Did Janis Joplin have a band called "Big Brother"

iGame3D

This threat of freedom goes far beyond drugging us.
Have you heard of Cyberonics?

On June 15 2001 an FDA panel recommended approval of their brain implant for chronic depression.
Here's a news article to educate you

Toxins in our food supply and materials in our homes and environment can cause depression. Bush's relaxed EPA rules are looking more sinister by the minute.

It wasn't enough to control minds and lives with drugs and drug wars, now they are going the route of robot zombies.

I wonder how many of these people with VNS impant will mysteriously vote "bush" or "next facists bastard" when their little device tells them too.

oneeyemonkeypie

*shudders*
brain implants? hoo boy.



I also read the white house report and saw no real mention of mass mental illness screening, but i wouldn't put it past him. If he tries that ****, i would take up freaking arms and incite some riots. If you dont draw a line, It'll be 1984 all over again.


Jesus, in the last couple years the news has gotten so scary. ever since...Bush came into office. huh!

WNB

Wow...drugs and implants.

All I can say is it's all coming 20 years after predicted

__________________
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Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

Mamabudz

Sorry, but this article holds no water.

I wouldn't give it too much weight.