A LOOK AT DRUGS DURING MENTAL HEALTH MONTH

April is Mental Health Month, a perfect time to discuss legal medications
creating victims out of clients and illegal medications creating a police
state.

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne has focused on children. A couple of months ago we had
thefts of Ritalin from Boise schools. At one time we had nearly 10 percent
of our children on Ritalin. Are we drugging our children to replace our
attention and discipline?

It's called Attention Deficit Disorder. I would suggest it's the adults'
deficit of attention toward the children.

We have one-fifth of Idaho's families impacted by mental illness. Is this
diagnoses-mania or reality? The neuroleptic drugs being given for
schizophrenia, Prozac and related drugs for depression and others including
benzodiazepines for anxiety disorders all are mind-altering . Lobotomy is
now back in vogue, it's now called cingulotomy and uses lasers rather than
knives, and both are called psychosurgery.

For a primer on these issues read "Toxic Psychiatry" and associated books by
Dr. Peter Breggin.

For children as well as adults, there are non-medicinal approaches which
include nutrition and behavioral therapies surrounded by emotional support.
Do we want a society of victims or responsible adults?

An example of this wave of the future is Idaho's own Children of Hope Family
Hospital Inc.

Cocaine, heroin and opium all were initially given as doctor-prescribed
painkillers and were initiated on U.S. Army soldiers. Their addictive
qualities became known and then more modern addictive drugs were prescribed.

Today many live in physical pain and because of our abhorrence of these
relatively natural addictive drugs, these ill persons live their lives in
constant pain.

I am not a user of drugs; I rarely drink coffee. Yes, caffeine, nicotine and
alcohol are drugs - all physiology altering substances.

Prohibition was the Noble Experiment. It worked in decreasing alcohol
consumption and alcohol's consequences.

By 1960, alcohol consumption was still only one-quarter per capita what it
was in 1918. It failed in that it created the police state's expansion. Both
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI grew and still grow
through the government's war on (alcohol) drugs.

Is marijuana worse than alcohol?

Marijuana is being used by many as a painkiller and a treatment for
glaucoma. Marijuana is primarily illegal because its non-THC cousin hemp was
a strong competitor against other textile industries including cotton and
the DuPont's synthetic fibers.

Presidents Washington and Jefferson were hemp growers. The problem is that
hemp fiber manufacture was labor intensive, but even this was being solved
in the 1940s.

The war on drugs is creating vast organized crime just like Prohibition. The
war on drugs is expanding our police state just like Prohibition. The war on
drugs is trampling on our Bill of Rights just like Prohibition. This needs
to be an open debate, not an emotionally charged one.

Criminals need to be punished and victims given restitution. Shouldn't those
who use our social services for their "addictions" be punished and taxpaying
citizens be given restitution?

I am 100 percent behind the Enough is Enough campaign. People need to get
high off of life, not by any artificial means. Schools and government may be
information providers. Churches need to lead the way.

Illegal substances may have benefits.

Legal substances may be harmful.

Buyer beware.

Alan Stroud is a pastor and counselor and lives in Eagle.