The Drugging of Children and Vets Exposed

Citizens Commission on Human Rights Traveling Exhibit opened in Burbank, California, focusing on the harm caused by the psychiatric drugging of veterans and children.

 Psychiatry: An Industry of Death, the traveling exhibit of Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), is educating the community on the history of psychiatry and the need to protect families from abusive psychiatric practices.

Hagit Raviv Ron, who coordinates the activities of CCHR in the San Fernando Valley, opened the exhibit by briefing those attending on two urgent issues: overmedication of children and veterans with dangerous psychiatric drugs.

The first issue she took up was the administration of highly addictive psychiatric drugs, including stimulants, antidepressants and antipsychotics, to more than 8.4 million American children. This is particularly alarming given that these drugs bear “black box warnings”—the strictest Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning, placed in the labeling of prescription drugs when there is reasonable evidence of an association of a serious hazard with the drug. Many of these black box statements specifically warn against the use of these drugs on children.

Also included in the age bracket covered by these warnings is the bulk of American servicemen and women and many veterans—a population among whom prescriptions for psychiatric substances have skyrocketed. Coincident with this increase in prescriptions is the alarming spike in veteran suicides: Every 65 minutes, a veteran takes his or her own life—more than 20 every day. According to Dr. Bart Billings, retired colonel and Medical Service Corps Officer in the U.S. Army, “many of those suicides are directly linked to psychotropic medications.”

One veteran who toured the exhibit thanked the CCHR volunteers for coming to Burbank. “Thank you so much for exposing these facts,” he said. “I have more hope after seeing the exhibit.”

The exhibit is built around the feature-length Psychiatry: An Industry of Death documentary, featuring rare historical and contemporary footage and interviews with more than 160 doctors, attorneys, educators, survivors and experts on the mental health industry and its abuses.

CCHR was co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and professor of psychiatry Dr. Thomas Szasz. Alerted to the brutality of psychiatric treatment by author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard who wrote extensively about the abuses of psychiatric patients, CCHR today stands as a powerful voice of reason for those abused and continues its advocacy for reforms. For more information visit the CCHR website.