Drug companies help fund drive for forced outpatient treatment

Controversial community treatment order legislation supported by drug company-funded advocacy organization

By: David Oaks (Editor, Dendron News)

  If Ontario courts ever order citizens to take powerful psychiatric drugs against their will while living in their own home under a new "Community Treatment Order" law introduced this week... it will partly be courtesy of the manufacturers of those very same drugs.
  When the Harris government proposed their new Ontario law for outpatient forced psychiatric drugging two days ago, they claimed they did not know they were in league with the psychiatric drug manufacturers who would directly profit from passage of the bill.
  But an investigation by Dendron News found the drug company link.
  On April 25, Ontario's Health and Long-Term Care Minister Elizabeth Witmer introduced "Brian's Law." This bill would allow citizens of Ontario who are living at home, out in the community, to be ordered to take psychiatric drugs against their expressed wishes, using a "Community Treatment Order." A CTO is similar to an Involuntary Outpatient Commitment (IOC) in the USA. Forty USA states now have IOC laws.
  A spokesperson for the Ministry, Anne Matthews, told Dendron News they carefully sought out a lot of public input before proposing the law.
  However, Don Weitz, a long-time human rights advocate in Toronto, said, "As many psychiatric survivor activists and human rights advocates feared, the Ontario government is rushing to ram through this repressive bill as part of its social cleansing policy. Its recent community consultation process which ended two weeks ago was a complete sham. Deputation was by invitation only and the vast majority of people who testified were from safe organizations - such as the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario, family groups & psychiatrists - supporting the government's forced treatment agenda and invited to testify behind closed doors - in secret."
  Does having cash from the psychiatric drug industry help get behind these closed doors? One of the main organizations championing "Brian's Law" is indeed the Schizophrenia Society of Canada (SSC); their local chapter got a special invitation into the "community consultation."
  Anne Matthews, speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Health of Ontario, admitted that SSC was the main organization the Ministry is working with to promote Brian's Law. Ms. Matthews claimed that the Ministry was unaware of any drug company funding of SSC or other proponent organizations.
  In an interview with Dendron News yesterday, Barry Boyack, the executive director of SSC, admitted that twelve percent of their budget is from psychiatric drug industry donations, or approximately $120,000(Canadian). In addition, each Provincial chapter of SSC is a separate entity with its own bank accounts, and at least one of these chapters told Dendron News they also receive psychiatric drug industry money for "special projects." Boyack said that SSC did not have - nor would it provide - any information about drug company funding to each of these local chapters.
  To her credit, Ms. Matthews from the Ministry did know there was widespread opposition to proposals such as Brian's Law, mainly led by psychiatric survivors who have already held two major protests there. Organizations world wide led by psychiatric survivors and mental health consumers are passionately opposing the rise of such forced psychiatric drugging. One reason: Since Ontario already has at-home psychiatric drug deliveries through a "Program for Assertive Community Treatment," then under Brian's Law CTO's could be backed up by daily deliveries of psychiatric drugs into Ontario living rooms, as they are in some states in the USA.
  Revealingly, Ms. Matthews also said she had no idea what "neuroleptics" are. During an involuntary psychiatric drugging, "neuroleptics" are the most typical chemical used. In reality, a CTO or IOC are primarily about enforcing the ingestion of neuroleptics of people living at home. Public interest groups are calling for investigations of neuroleptics, because of recent medical reports confirming that the drugs are linked to structural changes in the brain so severe these are visible under MRI and CT scans.
  Ms. Matthews promised to research neuroleptics and get back to Dendron News. Ms. Matthews won't have to go far - she can ask the drug company funders of one of her main allies, the Schizophrenic Society of Canada. The manufacturers are well aware of neuroleptic-induced structural changes to the brain, which can make it very difficult to quit neuroleptics. Don't the public, psychiatric survivors and the government working hand-in-hand with the drug industry have a right to know what the manufacturers already know?

Get More/Do More
For information from sponsors of Brian's Law - and to see if she's found out what neuroleptics are yet - contact Anne Matthews, (416)327-4382, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Media Relations.

For information from opponents, see these No Force Coalition websites: www.icomm.ca/patientsco.htm, www.tao.ca/~pact/Noforce.html or call: (416) 535-8501, x 2018 or (416) 760-2795. Or e-mail to dweitz@interlog.com and gbacque@idirect.com.

For information on involuntary outpatient psychiatric drugging see Support Coalition International's web site www.MindFreedom.org. Click on "campaigns" to see articles about PACT at-home drugging (including animated color photos of "dose drops"). This site also has a bibliography on neuroleptic-induced brain changes. Also see www.MadNation.org.

The new issue of Dendron News (#43) contains several articles investigating the controversy of the government forcibly administering psychiatric drugs into individuals in their own homes, out in the community. For info about Dendron News, e-mail your postal address to office@MindFreedom.org.

This was a news release from:

[ Front Page ]