CCHR FLORIDA PROTESTS DRUGGING OF CHILDREN FOR PROFIT
Hundreds of members of Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) Florida held a rally and demonstration September 24 at the Florida Psychiatric Society annual meeting. They were calling attention to an epidemic destroying the fabric of society—psychiatric drugging of children.
Some 8 million US children are prescribed psychiatric drugs, more than 1 million under the age of 5. The group protests normal childhood behaviors being “repackaged” and labeled as “mental disorders.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a national sampling of children ages 4-17 showed they were given psychiatric drugs as a first course of treatment.
With the names of numerous pharmaceutical companies that manufacture these drugs appearing on the event’s exhibitor list, including Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Alkermes, the annual meeting appeared to be little more than a way to further solidify the connection between psychiatrists and Big Pharma.
CCHR descended on those attending, with bullhorns and signs reading “Psychiatry: junk science and dangerous drugs,” and “Psychiatry: labeling children for profit.”
CCHR Florida President Diane Stein led the protest, taking a stand against dangerous psychiatric drugs being given, including to infants, toddlers and children despite their known debilitating side effects. “Homicide, suicide and death are reported among older children taking these medications,” she said. “Why is this being done despite the known risks? Because a psychiatrist prescribing drugs can make up to four times as much as one who doesn’t. And drugs prescribed for ADHD alone make billions every year. It is all about the money.”
Downtown St. Petersburg reverberated with the honking of car horns in support of CCHR’s stand on this issue. The group also handed out hundreds of pamphlets to educate passers-by on these dangerous practices.
“Precious young lives all over the world are at serious risk,” writes Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International. “Contrary to psychiatric opinion, children are not ‘experimental animals.’ They are human beings who have every right to expect protection, care, love and the chance to reach their full potential in life, a chance denied them by psychiatry’s labels and chemical straitjackets.”
TAKING ACTION
If you are a victim of electroshock or brain stimulation, speak out
With $1.2 billion in profits raked in every year by the US psychiatric industry for electroconvulsive “therapy” (ECT), it is no wonder the American Psychiatric Association is pushing the FDA to reclassify ECT devices as “safe and effective.” Most surveyed are surprised electroshock still exist, assuming that it was outlawed long ago. But the horrors of electroshock are very real and present. Each year, 1 million receive ECT worldwide. Psychiatrists are now experimenting with many other similar “therapies” by the names of deep brain stimulation, vagus nerve stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and others. Thousands of lives are already ruined by ECT. It’s time to put an end to this tragedy. If you know of anyone whose family, friends or loved ones have been killed or damaged by psychiatric “treatment,” please write full particulars and any documentary evidence to CCHR. All names and confidences will be fully protected.
Visit www.cchr.org/abuse.
STOP PSYCH ABUSE
As a nonprofit mental health watchdog, CCHR relies on memberships and donations to carry out its mission to eradicate psychiatric violations of human rights and clean up the field of mental health. Become part of the world’s largest human rights movement that has helped enact more than 180 laws protecting citizens from abusive mental health practices.
