Posted on 02/15/2003 1:07:50 PM PST by forest
Buried deep within H.J.RES.2, a Joint Resolution making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2003, are all sorts of interesting spending projects, few of which are authorized to the federal government by the Constitution.
For instance, they appropriated $418,773,000 for carrying out section 301 and title IV of the Public Health Service Act with respect to alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Another $3,129,717,000 is appropriated for program management of the Mentally Ill Individuals Act and they targeted $12,000,000 to carry out data collection activities supporting the annual National Household Survey.
Over and above that will come the new Bush bills to finance alcohol and drug abuse treatment in the private sector -- which is expected to cost taxpayers billions of bucks each year.
Few Americans question treating the mentally ill, alcoholics and drug abusers. The problem is, when did that become the purview of the national government? Fact is, it is not.
Later, when we went looking for how some of this treatment money is spent, an appalling situation glared out from the reams of information located: Apparently, federal tax dollars are spent to provide heavy duty psychiatric drugs to children -- often just to calm minor behavior problems.
A Jan. 14 front page article in The Washington Post titled, "More Kids Receiving Psychiatric Drugs," by Shankar Vedantam, identified part of the problem:
"The number of American children being treated with psychiatric drugs has grown sharply in the past 15 years, tripling from 1987 to 1996 and showing no sign of slowing, researchers said yesterday," Vedantam reported.
"A newly published study, the most comprehensive to date, found that by 1996, more than 6 percent of children were taking drugs such as Prozac, Ritalin and Risperdal, and the researchers said the trajectory continued to rise through 2000.
"The new research found steep increases in the use of most classes of medicines, including antipsychotic drugs. Such powerful medications, normally meant to treat schizophrenia, were increasingly being prescribed to children on Medicaid, said the study's lead author, Julie Zito -- possibly as a way to restrain difficult children."
Zito reports that, between 1987 and 1996 the number of children prescribed psychiatric drugs has skyrocketed: children were being prescribed drugs such as Prozac, Ritalin and Risperdal -- without a clinical rationale for prescribing any particular drug, and the trajectory continued to rise through 2000. (1)
"Other than zonking you, we don't know that behavioral management by drug control is the way to learn to behave properly," said Zito, a researcher at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. "If we are using drugs to control behavior, that doesn't change the underlying problem if someone doesn't know how to get along with their peers."
The important point is, Medicaid (our tax dollars) is being used to pay for the inappropriate drugging of children -- over 900,000 kids in just two Northwest states, according to the study. Why such an appalling increase these past few years?
A large number of these over-medicated children will later self-medicate and become alcohol and drug abusers as adults. Which means that federal funding for substance abuse treatment programs will also be increasing over the years.
We think some federal money should be spent on this topic. For sure, some should! Because, something is definitely wrong with this picture. But, what is needed is a far reaching research study to find out exactly what the hell is going on here and who is responsible for this ridiculous situation.
1) <http://www.researchprotection.org/infomail/0103/14.html>
The Constitution does NOT authorize the federal government to mess with medicine.
Prescription use of Prozac, Ritalin and Risperdal is increasing. Medicaid foots the bill.
Drugs do NOT remove behavior cause.
This unconstitutional federal action on drugs warrants serious investigation.
And the pro-dopers want marijuana added to the cornucopia of medicines. If that should happen, taxpayers will be paying for dopers' habits too.
Of course, given the clear link between schizophrenia and marijuana use in youth, taxpayers will be paying for cause and effect.
Who supports letting youths use marijuana?
"dog bites man" ping
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