Today’s Drugged Culture

In the United States today, more than 8 million children have been put on mind-altering psychiatric drugs. In Australia, the stimulant prescription rate for children increased 34-fold in the past two decades. In Mexico, sales of one stimulant increased 800% between 1993 and 2001. The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly reported that in 2000 the highest rates of methylphenidate (Ritalin) consumption in Europe were in Switzerland, Iceland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg. In Britain the stimulant prescription rate for children increased 9,200% between 1992 and 2000. Spain reports a steady 8% annual increase in Ritalin consumption between 1992 and 2001.

In 2003, the British medicine regulatory agency warned doctors not to prescribe SSRI antidepressants (such as Paxil, Zoloft and Effexor) for under-18-year-olds because of the risk of suicide. The following year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a similar warning, as did Australian, Canadian and European agencies. Over a 10-year period, one of these antidepressants was associated with more hospitalizations, deaths, or other serious adverse reactions reported to the FDA than any other drug in history. In October 2004, the FDA went further, ordering that a “black box” label be placed on SSRI bottles warning of suicide risk. However, children are dying, are killing others or being turned into addicts because of these, and other psychiatric drugs. Their future will only be safeguarded when the unscientific “mental disorders” they are diagnosed with are abolished and dangerous psychotropic drugs are prohibited.

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