I've been putting together a legislation packet to bring to Senator Paulo of New Jersey, requesting that it be reviewed and introduced in the next legislative session. The law would prevent teachers and school personnel from diagnosing children and recomending drug treatment.
If I can show Senator Sarlo that there are a significant number of people who agree with me that this bill is necessary, from what I understand of these things I would stand a better chance of getting him to sponser this bill. I have put together a letter which I am using to collect signatures of New Jerseyans who are registered to vote. Does anyone with experience in this area have any ideas for me? I'm new to this.
I would like to request that anyone reading this post could send a quick letter stating that you agree that this legislation is necessary, but where would you send it? I don't want to give out my address. Would it be possible that Ablechild would help me to gather some signatures?
I can't tell you how important this is for New Jersey. The teachers have become shameless about diagnosing children. This law needs to happen. Please help, if you can. Thanks.
The following letter is the one I'm taking around to get signatures. It might offer a framework from which a personal letter could be written:
The Need for a New Jersey Child Medication Safety Act
1. There are over 6 million children on Ritalin, Concerta and similar drugs.
2. This class of drugs, known as psychostimulants, is prescribed for so-called attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity (“ADD” and “ADHD”) but the many serious risks to the child far outweigh any alleged benefits:
• Antidepressants, antipsychotics and psychostimulants in particular carry U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warnings of increased risk of aggression, violence, suicidal ideation, stunted growth and potential sudden death due to cardiac complications (stimulants).
• In 2006, medical officers of the FDA described reports of 25 sudden deaths among people (mostly children) taking this class of prescription stimulants (Attachment 1).
• A 2009 study showed a 500 percent greater risk of sudden death in children—healthy children—taking these stimulants (Attachment 2).
• The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) classifies these drugs as dangerous and addictive substances in the same group as cocaine, morphine, methadone, opium and heroin (Attachment 3).
3. Currently, there is one federal and numerous state laws prohibiting school personnel from diagnosing children with “ADD” or “ADHD” and recommending stimulant drugs. The existence of such laws elsewhere underscores the importance of creating similar laws in New Jersey to preserve parents’ right to determine the course of their children’s’ health care and education and to hold schools responsible for actions that violate parents’ rights in this way (Attachment 4).
4. The right to education is recognized as a human right by the United Nations and is understood to establish entitlement to a free, compulsory primary for all children…also the obligation to eliminate discrimination at all levels of the educational system (Attachment 5).
5. I have had direct experience with teachers and other school personnel “diagnosing” children and pressuring parents to have a psychiatrist or doctor prescribe Ritalin. This is a form of discrimination. I have noticed and have had direct contact with children who are suffering from unnecessary drug toxicity, a life threatening condition.
6. The schools, who are not doctors, are insisting and even coercing some parents into taking their children to psychiatrists/doctors who write the prescription on the basis of the school’s diagnosis – without informing the parents/children about the grave potential side effects, the range of alternative treatments and the pros/cons of forgoing such drug treatment.
7. Additionally, the medical doctrine of informed consent requires that doctors disclose to patients or their parents a full understanding of the abnormality/disease (or, in the case of psychiatric disorders, that there is no abnormality/disease), the reported benefits and liabilities of the proposed treatment and that of all applicable alternative modes of treatment as well as that of foregoing treatment and the prognosis (best estimates of course it will take) under the proposed, alternative or no treatment.
Parents in Senator Paul Sarlo’s district are concerned about the foregoing matters, particularly with regard to the effect that the use of dangerous drugs with no medical substantiation could have on the future generation of New Jerseyans. It is on the basis of this concern that we request Senator Sarlo’s office to review the attached model Child Medication Safety legislation with a view toward introducing it in the next legislative session.