Reform of the Mental Health Act
Part extracts from: Mind-Control Drug Threat for Children
By Anthony Browne, Health Editor, The Observer, 27.2.2000
An article entitled 'Mind-Control Drug Threat for Children', subtitled 'Doctors
could soon prescribe behaviour-controlling chemicals to pre-teens against their
parents' wishes', alerted us to the above Green Paper.
The Observer article focuses primarily on children, especially those whose
behaviour problems have increasingly been controlled by a drug called RITALIN,
which is frequently used on children suffering from alleged Attention Deficit/
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It is reported that the number of prescriptions
for this drug have shot up from 3,500 in 1993 to 126,500 in 1998.
Significantly for many people (including those suffering from ME/CFS and those
suffering from what psychiatrists like to call 'ill-defined syndromes' - see
details on MCS, p23):
'This new legislation will give far greater powers to psychiatrists to give
compulsory treatment in the community to both adults and children. ... This
Green Paper proposes that doctors will be able to drug people, including
children, if they have any disability or disorder of the mind or brain,
whether permanent or temporary, which results in an impairment or disturbance
of mental functioning.
Under the present legislation, people can only be given treatment against their
will if they show 'seriously irresponsible or abnormally aggressive behaviour'.
However, the reformed legislation would do away with that safeguard.
This paper was out for consultation until the end of March 2000, so now matter
how quick you are now, you're too late.
Source: The Environmental Medicine Foundation newsletter, March 2000.
Suggestion : let your MP know what you think of this.
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