CCHR Florida Protests the Psychiatric Drugging of Children for Profit

CLEARWATER, Fla., Oct. 12, 2017 -- Having repeatedly called for an investigation into the psychiatric drugging of children, 150 members of the Florida chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) of Florida, a non-profit mental health watchdog established by the Church of Scientology, carried out a demonstration on the 7^th of October in the vicinity of the Hyatt Regency Sarasota where the Florida Psychiatric Society annual meeting was taking place. CCHR was protesting the alarming number of children in the United States who are being given one or more psychotropic drugs. 

Currently 8 million U.S. children are being prescribed psychiatric drugs, with more than 1 million between the ages of zero to five.ⁱ  This drugging of children goes directly against the best practice guidelines published by the American Academy of Pediatrics and in a report by the Center for Disease Control, in a national sample of children ages 4-17 years collected a few short years ago, more children were not receiving treatment as described in these guidelines but instead were being given psychiatric drugs as a first course of treatment.ⁱⁱ

With the meeting exhibitor list of the Florida Psychiatric Society’s event filled with companies that produce psychiatric drugs such as, Alkermes, Janssen Pharmaceutical Company, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Validus Pharmaceuticals, LLC,ⁱⁱⁱ CCHR arrived brandishing signs that read “HELP SAVE CHILDREN FROM DRUGS & ELECTROSHOCK” and “PSYCHIATRY LABELING CHILDREN FOR PROFIT” taking every opportunity to let people know that this meeting was simply a way to connect up the psychiatrists who prescribe drugs with the companies that sell them.

“Children are overdosing on ADHD and anti-anxiety drugs with 33 percent more teenagers dying from psychostimulants than from cocaine according to the CDC,” said Diane Stein, President CCHR Florida. “Parents need to know and understand the dangers of these drugs.”^iv

For more information on the psychiatric drugging of children please contact CCHR at 1-800-782-2878 or 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.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html
ⁱⁱⁱ http://www.floridapsych.org/page/2017FallCMEB
^iv https://www.cchrint.org/2017/08/23/teen-overdose-deaths-from-adhd-anti-anxiety-drugs-on-the-rise/

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