Discipline Through Drugs

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from WOAI News, San Antonio, November 11^th, 2004 with a headline: “Foster Kids on Mind Altering Drugs?—Why would a child as young as three ever being on mind altering drugs? For the past eight months the News 4 WOAI troubleshooters have poured through reams of state documents and discovered that thousands of foster kids appear to be on powerful psychotropic drugs. Many of these children are barely in kindergarten. Some are mere toddlers.

“' ‘We didn’t even know he was in the hospital until he called us from Laurel Ridge himself,’ a woman we’ll refer to as Magdalena tells us. We’re disguising her name in order to protect the identity of her six-year-old grandson, to whom she’s referring. She says he was confined to a psychiatric hospital following a temper tantrum, when he called his grandmother for help. ‘I mean, he was like,’ Magdalena describes, ‘maybe you could say he looked more like a zombie.’ Magdalena says a nurse confirmed her fears. Her grandchild was on two different psychotropic or mind-altering drugs, plus Benadryl to help him sleep.

“As it turns out, Magdalena’s grandchild isn’t alone. A sampling of state records released by the state comptroller’s office shows two out of three foster kids in Texas appear to be on psychotropic meds. The Medicaid prescription records are from November of last year and show that many kids are taking two or more of these drugs.

“Tangie Patton recently asked the president and CEO of the children’s shelter in San Antonio, Jack Downey, ‘How big a problem do you think this is?’

“Downey says, ‘I think it’s far larger than you or I, or anyone else suspects.’ This longtime advocate for children says his heart aches when he talks about the cases. He shared the story of one family he remembers in particular. ‘We had a wonderful family of five boys,’ Downey recalls, ‘If they walked in right now, you’d love them to death. The oldest was ten, the youngest was three. We were directed by the state to take the boys to a psychiatrist,’ Downey says, ‘We did and they all came back on three meds. Those boys no more needed meds than I did.’

“Patton asks, ‘Every child?’

“Downey replies, ‘Every child.’

“So, why would a three year old need to be on psychotropic medications?

“’I have no idea. He was just the jolliest little kid,’ Downey tells us.

“Who is prescribing these meds?

“You would think psychiatrists, right? Well, after pouring through thousands of documents, the News 4 WOAI troubleshooters found that’s not always the case. Many are family practitioners.”

Tom: Dave, we pick a story out like this, because as we are concerned, we are seeing more and more of the church in the world, the world in the church. Scriptures talk about “sorcery in the last days….”

Dave: Yeah.

Tom: And, as you know, the word there could be translated pharmacy. It’s pharmakeia.

Dave: That’s right.

Tom: And this is going to be a characteristic of the last days, and we are seeing the church, either through referral service referring those in the church with so-called psychological problems out to either Christian psychologists or psychiatrists or secular psychiatrists. They’re opting for drugs in many cases.

Dave: An amazing prophecy that we have seen come through.

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: The New Testament talks about this, I think, four different times.

Well, Tom, this is really shocking and it really concerns me. We may have mentioned it before, but it would be years ago. You know modern medicine began in the Temple of Asclepius. Asclepius was the Greek and Roman god who had a staff and a serpent wrapped around it as his symbol, and that’s the symbol of modern medicine.

Why a serpent? Because of an ancient story that said Asclepius, the god, had received a healing herb from the mouth of a serpent. Now, you have the Genesis story inside out. The serpent is the good guy, and he gives us healing through drugs. These are psychotropic drugs coming from herbs like LSD, marijuana, and so forth—many other derivatives from these plants. So, the Bible warned that we would be a psychological and also a medicated society. I find that an amazing prophecy.

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: And, tragically, this is what has happened. Now, these things don’t help, and I would recommend a book…it’s not a book that I wrote…and I don’t know that we even offer it in our—do we offer Your Drug May Be Your Problem?

Tom: We do, Dave.

Dave: Yeah?

Tom: …with a disclaimer, because….

Dave: Okay.

Tom: …because this is a secular psychiatrist and he’s against drugs, but he’s for psychotherapy.

Dave: Right.

Tom: So that’s the one disclaimer that we have…

Dave: Right.

Tom: …about the book, but he offers information that’s very good.

Dave: It is valuable, Your Drug May be Your Problem.

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: And he points out that every psychiatric, psychotropic drug—it only works by destroying the natural function of the brain cells. And he also points out…you get on these things very long, and you have done irreversible damage…you can’t get off of them. Now, we’re not suggesting that people out there who have been on these drugs just stop it right now. You got on to something; you are going to have to get off of it under the direction of a physician.

Tom: Correct.

Dave: Go to a physician, not to a psychiatrist. But that the drug industry, driven by a profit motive has taken such control…not only control, but they are destroying so many lives.

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: Your Drug May be Your Problem, you can call us on our 800 number and we offer it, as Tom says, with a disclaimer.

Tom: Dave, also…kindergarten…three years old…we’re putting them on Ritalin. This is not only a dilemma for young children that parents, teachers, in many cases, just don’t want to deal with, so they are drugging them. But now the drug…you know, in my generation I was never into drugs. I don’t know how I missed that. I was into the hippie scene and so on. But, LSD, Timothy Leary, these were the gurus.

Now, you have at the university level, the promotion of drugs like Ritalin for students, rather than…you know, they stay up all night…they’re going to study. They’re recommending drugs like Ritalin to help them through their schoolwork.

Dave: Tom, Peter Breggin—in this book—he raises a good question. He says, “Oh, chemical imbalance? Well, first of all,” he says, “The only chemical imbalances we know of were caused by the drugs that they’re given in order to cure a supposed chemical imbalance. And how did they decide on a chemical imbalance? Nobody ever examined a brain, they never told you what chemical was out of balance, and what part of the brain it was just by their behavior.” Okay? But then he says, “Chemical imbalance? Who’s chemical imbalance are we talking about? Are we talking about the child? Are we talking about the teacher who can’t control them, or the parent who can’t control them? They need some discipline. That’s what they need. Don’t just give them a drug. That’s destroying our youth.”

Tom: Dave, our concern here is…the brain is the most complex organism, probably in the universe.

Dave: It is.

Tom: We don’t—no one knows. We are just encouraging people to ask questions. Don’t just jump into something because they think it’s going to solve their problem. Be thoughtful.

Dave: Amen.