Pharmacological Oppression Date Wednesday, April 24, 2024 - 05:26 PM PST Topic News The other day, a friend and I were talking over IM and she told mee she was thinking about taking a medication to relieve her anxiety that a friend of hers reccomended. I looked it up online and it turned out to be an MAOI (which I will address in a moment) and that it's side-effects include among other things, loss of equilibrium, difficulty sleeping, interactions with alcohol and caffine, and comes with a warning that one should not opperate heavy machinery or motor vehicles for the first few weeks while taking this medication. For those of yoo who don't know what MAO inhibitors are, I will give a brief explanation: Monoamine oxide is a neurotransmitter which makes people assertive and less prone to influence or suggestion. Inhibiting MAO thus effectivly turns people into sheep! Prozac is the best known example of a MAOI. Wellbutrin which is also marketed as a mircale cure for quitting smoking unde rthe name Zyban is another example. I told her that I realize she has terrible panic attacks but drugs or at least specificly THIS drug is not the answer to her problems and that perhaps she shoould try hypnotherpey, biofeedback, or just good old fashioned talk therepy as I seriously doubt she has a chemical imbalance (which is the only scenario in which I can see MAOIs not being detrimental). Then last night I heard about this which I will summarize here: A father in New Mexico noticed that his son who suffers from ADHD was unable to sleep at night, had no appetite and for lack of a better term is tweeking, symptoms that he recognised as possibly attributed to the drug ritalin which his hyeractive son was taking. He decided ritalin was inappropriate for his son so he took him off medication. The school board learned of this and notified child protective services who confronted the man, telling him that he would either put his child back on the drug or be charged with child abuse. The man refused and now faces charges. The first thing I thought of when I heard about this was "How the fuck is this Constitutional?" Honestly, I can't think of any part of the Bill of Rights which bans a requirment for citizens to take medication because the government says they "need" it. Based on the information given I get the impression that he is not only NOT being neglectful, but that he is in fact very adamantly concerned for his child's well-being even in the face of possible conviction! The first story suggests to mee that people in the United States are buying in to the idea that being "normal" is as simple as popping pills and that the drug companies are almost certainly behind this. The second story tells mee that it is no longer simply a matter of corporations trying to push their product, now the government has taken an interst in this for the purpose of controlling the masses. Maybe I'm just paranoid but then, I was raised on ritalin myself as a child... This article comes from Shmeng http://www.shmeng.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=697