Big Pharma and Big Brother join forces Welcome to the medication machine, part 3
There wasn’t supposed to be a “part 3″ of this series
But as I dug deeper and deeper into the New Freedom Initiative I’ve been warning you about in the last 2 Daily Doses, I realized there’s a lot more to tell – and more reason that you should be concerned. Why?
Because even though now YOU know all about what the insidious initiative is all about, few in the mainstream media seem to realize that this new policy is nothing more than a way to funnel ever-greater profits into Big Pharma’s pockets by nurturing a steady flow of new drug customers (kids) – and stipulating the use of the very newest and most expensive of patented drugs (instead of generics or older meds).
This is not an exaggeration. It’s the actual Brave New World-ish future under guidelines issued by a new government agency formed as part of the New Freedom Initiative. Launched by an Executive Order in April of 2002 under the guise of expanding the scope of 1990’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health has since received the official sanction of the U.S. Congress, which authorizes funding for such things
This commission is the driving force behind a massive policy shift that will literally turn public schools into mental health screening centers. According to a number of on-line sources I found, all parents of public school children are supposed to be receiving written notice of these new federally mandated mental health screening policies. Some will also get permission slips to sign that will allow school counselors or other non-medically-educated bureaucrats to evaluate children for such nebulous things as “happiness indicators.”
What kind of horse-manure is this? Anybody who’s ever raised a teenager knows that depending on their mood, circumstances, or time of the month, “happiness indicators” can be few and far between in that age group. But this doesn’t mean they’re all in need of drugs – it means they’re normal!
This just further proves that the New Freedom Initiative ISN’T about bettering children’s mental health. It’s about drug profits. And to give you a snapshot of how much money is at stake, here’s an info-bite from the WorldNet article I referenced extensively in part 2 of this series:
Eli Lilly’s top-selling drug is the antipsychotic Zyprexa, with $4.2 billion in annual sales worldwide. Owing in part to its “first-line” treatment status in the TMAP program (the Texas project on which the New Freedom Initiative is based), 70% of Zyprexa sales are to government agencies like Medicare and Medicaid
Now, imagine how high this percentage would be (and how much higher the drug’s gross sales would be) if the TMAP model were to be nationalized – which is, in effect, what the New Freedom Initiative would do. And remember, this is only for ONE DRUG! The New Freedom Initiative could conceivably mandate cramming dozens of psychotropic drugs down our kids’ throats.
We’re talking BILLIONS here.
A grassroots effort at protesting the New Freedom Initiative’s tyranny was kicked off in late 2004. Over 5000 concerned parents and freedom advocates from varying political affiliations nationwide signed a pact refusing to comply with the program. Their concerns were echoed by a Bill before Congress, HR 5236 – an article of legislation introduced on October 6th, 2004 and principally sponsored (ironically) by a Texas Republican, Representative Ron Paul
Unfortunately, HR 5236 (aptly named the Let Parents Raise Their Kids Act) died in committee when the 108th Congressional session ended. And since no new incarnations of the Bill were introduced during the 2-year session of the 109th Congress, which just wrapped up back in January, that means it’s REALLY dead.
So, what’s a parent (or grandparent) to do to spare a child from the possibility of being branded as mentally defective and forced into a lifetime of stigma and addiction by minions of Big Pharma with government badges?
There are only 3 things you can do:
Send them to private school. Teach them at home (while it’s still legal). Or roll the dice on public schools and tell them to behave like well-adjusted little robots – lest some half-wit guidance counselor with a Ritalin habit and mental issues of her own should pluck them from the masses to be prodded, cross-examined, and medicated for life
Teach them to deny their fledgling efforts at individuality, to stifle their natural hormonal rages, surliness, and fits of random emotion, and to paint on a happy face every day
In other words, to be abnormal and pretend they’re already medicated.
