Related link: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/03/30/EDGN1BV…
Mandatory meds
For a kid who grew up with the DARE program (Drug Abuse Resistance Education, aka “drugs are really expensive”) I’m amused that we gave up on drug abuse prevention and now we’re on the road to making drug use mandatory.
“[There has been] an unprecedented call for mandatory mental-health screening of schoolchildren in [the] recent budget. Violating the rights of parents to just say “no” to psychiatric diagnosis and treatment of their children, this idea originated in the New Freedom Commission.” (from the article linked)
(Link to the President’s benign announcement speech of the New Freedom Commission)
Dystopian Cynicism
Putting on my cynical dystopian commentator hat, I guess I have several comments:
- Apparently you SHOULD use drugs to solve your problems - DARE was wrong.
- Don’t buy cheap drugs from the people in your neighborhood; Self-prescribe the drugs you see on TV or in magazines, which are covered by your insurance, and get them only through authorized distribution channels.
The Great Psychopharma Blamestorm
The interesting thing to watch is the massive blamestorm visible on the horizon. The FDA is already backing away (with warning labels) from potential liability suits for all the crazy/dead children cases that are pending for antidepressants. While there were a bunch of cases against Prozac in its early days, one of the weaker cases got dismissed and that was used as a sort of domino to knock down the others in a clever defense strategy.
Lately, though, there has been an notable increase in Columbine-like activity and a groundswell of increasingly critical public attention. I wouldn’t be surprised if the FDA eventually finds a link between aggressive and destructive activity towards OTHERS (not just suicidal) and antidepressants. I can see the headlines now:
“Guns, pot, and steriods don’t kill people - adolescents on meds do!”
Or,
“With kids like these, who needs terrorists?”
One of the greatest catalysts for change in the USA is the powerful combination of dead children, grieving parents, and lawyers.
I imagine lawsuits will first go after deep-pocketed pharma manufacturers, and may possibly try to make the government/FDA share some liability. When that starts to happen, the government will launch inquiries, and pharama may pass the buck to the authors of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), and the scientists who develop diagnostic procedures and categories.
Adolescent Psychosis and Science
Nowdays, kids “go crazy” and kill innocent people at an alarming statistical rate. There’s some sort of epidemic (contagious?) psychosis, and the real crazy thing is: THEY’RE ALL ON MEDS WHEN THEY DO IT. Clearly we haven’t applied the best medical/scientific technology to the situation, otherwise we’d have it under some control, just like AIDS or any other epidemic. And I think we all agree that it takes more than D&D or 3D video games to make somone psychotic.
I long for the good old days in the 80’s when kids just robbed their grandmas to pay for their crack addictions, or maybe a half dozen gang members might shoot each other.
Although a very controversial idea, I’ve had drug legalization advocates argue to me that that no one goes crazy and kills people on pot or even other “dangerous” street drugs. While I can’t agree with that, I can hardly agree with how it’s being addressed now. Some of my favorite musical artists (Kurt Cobain, John Lennon) have been victims of ineffective pharma - and a friend of mine from P2P days (Gene Kan) was also tremendously un-helped by our primative technology in this area.
I’m very hopeful that the best minds among us will get to the bottom of the recent exponential increase in adolescent psychosis. I hope our brightest scientists can quickly discover what sort of mosquitos are spreading this mental malaria.