From the March 2000 Idaho Observer:

State, feds gaining legislative control of citizens' minds

There is something very alarming happening right now. Government is gaining medical and regulatory control of our minds. Government-recommended psychotropic drugs are being prescribed to ever-increasing numbers of pre-kindergarten children and elderly adults (See article page 8). Once prescribed drugs, a person has a "record" of diagnosed mental illness. Now the government wants two more things: It wants to have the power to arrest and detain persons it has determined to be mentally ill; it wants the money to provide a network of anonymous hotlines for the nation's drugged and unhappy students so they may seek federal counseling to cope with this confusing world. The implications of this diaper-to-straightjacket arrangement are serious.

By Joanne Stebbitz

In Oct of 1998 leaders of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) announced a major campaign based on Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT). NAMI wants the “PACT” model introduced to every state in the union by year 2002. This program will probably succeed because the psychiatric drug manufacturers heavily fund it. PACT is “Hospital without Walls” and introduces a form of incarceration outside of our institutions. It will enslave many of us into “forced labor camps,” all in the name of our continued mental health therapy.

Right now, we have six states that are considered “double whammy states.” Idaho is in the top six, promoting the “needles on wheels” and “dose drop” beverage compliance program. How did this all happen? It started with Idaho Senate bills No.1316, 1315,1314,1377,and 1358, all of which, in one manner or another, have since been passed into law.

I called the local Health & Welfare office in Coeur d'Alene to enlighten myself on the new mental health laws the State of Idaho has recently implemented. First of all, just walking into this place gives you the creeps. The “employees” all speak in patronizing voices that are reminiscent of the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and they “ lie” to the public with practiced finesse. I went there to pick up some information and get the financial information that I wanted. They give me the impression that they did not want to comply with my “request for information.” While politely asking for the public records, I noticed the “clientele” that were being subjected to “outpatient treatment.” I saw three women that were clearly suffering from “tardive dyskinesia” and it was also apparent that these ladies were probably “tardive dementia” as well. One was patiently waiting for her shot, as her tongue profusely “wagged” in and out of her mouth.

PACT in Idaho acts as the eyes, ears, and enforcement for court-ordered drugging of people the state has diagnosed as mentally ill. This is all possible with Involuntary Outpatient Commitment (IOC) and the laws that resulted from the passage of SB 1316. Now, if you ask any of your representatives, like Senator Shawn Keough (R-Sandpoint) about this, she will reply with something like, “That is not what we intended when we passed the bill.”

The legislators who voted for the bill will also play dumb with the electric shock treatment proposal in SB 1358, playing into “her assumption” that ECT is not even done any more. NOT TRUE! What is really scary about IOC, is that now it only takes a petition (written application) made out by anyone, including but not limited to a prosecuting attorney, physician, friend, family member, mental health center director, for a person to be involuntarily committed to a mental institution for psychiatric evaluation. SB 1316 allows a peace officer “with a reason to believe” that you may have a mental illness to detain you for evaluation that need only be performed by two “mental health professionals.”

Your local Health & Welfare office makes packages of “commitment papers” available to the public which contain the forms to involuntarily commit a person and the the criteria that law enforcers and mental health personnel need to know for anyone they might need to “serve” in the future.

Idaho and the nation are currently experiencing the epidemic passage of mental health laws due to the persistent lobbying of NAMI and a psychiatric profession that only knows how to practice real medicine with psychotropic drugs and shock therapy. Neuroleptic drugs and ECT is known to cause severe brain damage.

Neither NAMI, supported by the drug industry, nor HHS support the use of highly successful naturopathic methods of psychiatric care. However, they believe in the drug companies that both directly and indirectly allow them to earn a living. Considering that, under the definitions provided to describe mental illness and the sheer number of Americans who have already been prescribed a psychotropic drug by a “doctor,” nobody is safe from being placed into a straight jacket and thrown into a rubber room.

Court ordered drugging is a blatant violation of human rights, impacting thousands of people living in their own homes.

So what is it really all about? It is certainly not about ensuring the continued mental and physical health of the average American. It is all a nice little “wrap around service” given to us by our government in the name of “Social Control.” It is about your behavior. Smoking is a disease, drinking coffee is a disease, writing your government officials is “mania” (especially if you are not happy about the crap they voted for) and religious exercise is considered a mental “sign” or “symptom” of schizophrenia. Feeling depressed if somebody close to you has died is an illness for which treatment (drugs) can be prescribed.

So, how do you protect yourself from a system of legislators, judges, psychiatrists and police officers when they are all in the same bed together? Become active in your mental health. There are social movements you can join now! Start with www.sethfarber.com and www.breggin.com. Educate yourself. It may be the only choice you have left!

Stebbitz is a freelance writer with justifiable concerns with regard to the growing mental health industry in America. She hosts an interesting and informative website that can be found at: www.NucknFuts.com