CCHR Florida Announces Protest Against the Psychotropic Drugging of Children

CLEARWATER, Fla., Oct. 05, 2017 -- The Florida chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a non-profit mental health watchdog established by the Church of Scientology in 1969 to expose human rights violations of mental health, is holding a march to protest the drugging of children at the Florida Psychiatric Society annual meeting in Sarasota, Florida on October 7^th 2017. 

According to CCHR Florida, 8 million U.S. children are currently being prescribed psychiatric drugs, with more than 1 million between the ages of zero to five.ⁱ  “Children are being drugged simply because psychiatry has labeled normal childhood behaviors as ‘mental disorders’ resulting in millions of children being drugged for behaviors repackaged by psychiatry as ‘disease,’” said CCHR Florida President Diane Stein. 

According to one report, mental health treatment has been reduced to the prescribing of antidepressants or antipsychotic drugs and new research shows that the trend is worsening especially among children less than 2 years of age.ⁱⁱ Reports show that psychotropic drug prescriptions among babies doubled from 2013 to 2014 and that psychiatrists are prescribing these drugs to young children and babies for aggression, temper tantrums, or lethargy despite the more than 400,000 adverse reaction reports filed with the U.S. FDA.ⁱⁱⁱ

“Despite the fact that these drugs can result in death and homicides in older children and adults, these dangerous psychiatric drugs are being given to infants and toddlers,”^iv stated Diane Stein. “Why is this being done despite the known risks? It is all about the money – 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.”^v

In 2015, the research arm of Florida's child-protection system showed that foster children are being put on psychotropic medications without caregivers following proper procedures and that 11 percent of the children in foster care had active prescriptions for at least one psychotropic drug. Additionally, a review of 140 children's files showed that just 20 percent of these children met all the key requirements for administering such medication.^vi

The Florida policies for using psychotropic drugs on foster kids was updated after the tragic death of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers in 2009, who was found hanging from a shower fixture in his foster home, an apparent suicide, after having been prescribed two “black box” medications intended for adults.

However, with the recent news of a third Florida foster child hanging herself in less than a year, and the second for whom psychiatric drugs may have played a role, it is evident that the changes made are not enough and CCHR is continuing to demand that a thorough investigation into the link between antidepressants and suicide be conducted.^vii

Anyone interested in joining the protest should contact CCHR Florida at (727) 442-8820. For more information on the psychiatric drugging of children please visit www.cchrflorida.org.

About CCHR:
Initially established by the Church of Scientology and renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz in 1969, CCHR’s mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections. It was L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, who brought the terror of psychiatric imprisonment to the notice of the world.  In March 1969, he said, “Thousands and thousands are seized without process of law, every week, over the ‘free world’ tortured, castrated, killed.  All in the name of ‘mental health.’”

ⁱ https://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/children-on-psychiatric-drugs/

ⁱⁱ http://www.medicaldaily.com/psychiatric-drugs-babies-more-kids-aged-2-and-under-getting-prescribed-antipsychotics-365236

ⁱⁱⁱ https://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/

^iv http://www.cchrflorida.org/infants-being-given-psychiatric-drugs-on-the-rise/

^v http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/06/prescribing.aspx

^vi http://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2015/09/22/report-finds-florida-foster-kids-put-on-psychotropic-drugs-without-following-proper-procedures

^vii http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article165102502.html

Media Contact:
Diane Stein
President, CCHR Florida
727-442-8820
[email protected]
www.cchrflorida.org