Should Recreational Drug Use Be Criminalised?

Douglas Husak, a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University in the US, combines hard fact and rigorous moral reasoning in his cogent analysis of the drug law debate in his excellent book Legalize This! The case for decriminalising drugs. In this two part series (from Background Briefings section of website), I summarise his arguments to help the reader decide how they feel about the central question of the justice of drug laws. While Husak argues about the situation in the US, much of what is said is relevant to the UK and to many other countries.

Husak points out that we need to ask the right question when looking at drug policy. He emphasises that the onus has always been on those who want to change drug laws to justify why there should be changes. In fact, the onus should be on those who support current policy to justify their position. This rarely happens.

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‘Neutralising Suffering: How the Medicalisation of Distress Obliterates Meaning and Creates Profit’ by Joanna Moncrieff

jmoncrieffThere is so much great content on Mad in America. Here’s an excellent article from British psychiatrist Joanna Moncrieff, one I wholeheartedly endorse. On the one hand, society discourages people from taking psychoactive drugs, and even prosecutes them for doing so, whilst on the other hand it encourages people to take psychoactive (prescription) drugs. Sometimes, they are the same drugs or very similar-acting.

‘People have used psychoactive substances to dull and deaden pain, misery and suffering since time immemorial, but only recently, in the last few decades, have people been persuaded that what they are doing in this situation is rightly thought of as taking a remedy for an underlying disease.

The spread of the use of prescription drugs has gone hand in hand with the increasing medicalization of everyday life, and a corresponding loss of the previous relationship that people had with psychoactive substances.

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‘Towards a Ban on Psychiatrically Diagnosing and Drugging Children’ by Peter Breggin, MD

Here’s the latest blog (and films) on Mad in America from one of my favourite people. I am so pleased that Peter has done these films. I believe strongly that the mass drugging of our children is absolutely disgraceful.

Instead of hope and enthusiasm for their futures, too many children now grow up believing they are inherently defective, and controlled by bad genes and biochemical imbalances.  They are shackled by the idea that they have ADHD and then subdued by the drugs that inevitably go along with the diagnosis.  Unless something intervenes, many of them will go on to pass their days on Earth in a drug-impaired, demoralized state.

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‘Why Don’t They Know? A Letter to My Doctor’ by Lisa D.

lisadWestern societies today are drugging large numbers of people into illness. And I don’t mean street drugs you get from dealers.

I mean the prescription drugs you get from your doctor, the ones promoted and pushed by drug companies. The ones you think are going to help you overcome your problems. Instead, many people find they cause them problems, problems they take years overcoming.

If you want to know more about this, then you must visit Mad In America. I’ve been using some of the stories and articles on this website on Recovery Stories. And they make fascinating – and concerning – reading.

Here’s a letter that Lisa D. wrote to her doctor about her prescription-drug induced problems (please note that I have shortened the length of some of the paragraphs, without altering the content).

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Veronica’s Story

I really like Veronica Unknown-1Valli’s website. Here is her Story which she has just uploaded. Powerful writing!

‘Many people have asked me for my drinking story, I wrote this some time ago and decided to publish it. This is me, this is who I was and who I am now….

I think there’s two ways you can become an alcoholic. I think you’re either born that way or, you simply need to drink enough alcohol and become one.

I believe I was born an alcoholic.

I believe this, because I’ve always felt ‘different’. My earliest memories are of feeling ‘odd’, ‘uncomfortable in my own skin’. I felt like I was looking out at the world through a glass screen, I was on one side and everyone else was on the other.

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‘Psychiatric Epidemic (Part 2): The Scope of the Epidemic’ by Robert Whitaker

Robert Whitaker, author of “Anatomy of an Epidemic” speaks at PsykoVision’s conference on the Psychiatric Epidemic in Copenhagen.

In Part 2, Whitaker digs down deep into the research pertaining to psychiatric medication and demonstrates quite clearly that the studies paint a very different picture that the prevalent common wisdom of the day.

What is the reason for this discrepancy? Misinformation? Disinformation?

‘PROTEST PSYCHIATRY – My Newest Film, Free!’ by Daniel Mackler

‘I just made a new film, called PROTEST PSYCHIATRY, on the psychiatric survivor-lead protest of the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in New York City.  And I’m thrilled by how it turned out.  For starters, I filmed it on no budget whatsoever, created the entire film in three days, and have uploaded it straight to Youtube, so it’s freeeeeee!

This film, for me, was an experiment.  I have been feeling lost as a filmmaker for the past year or more.  I think the big reason has been the process:  it’s huge and expensive and time-consuming.  Each film has absorbed months, literally months, of my life.  Well, all that changed five days ago.

Five days ago (May 2) I was hit with the inspiration bug:  to make a film a new way.

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‘Psychiatric drugs are doing us more harm than good’ by Peter Gøtzsche

'More than 53m prescriptions for antidepressants were issued in 2013 in England alone.'This excellent blog appeared in The Guardian recently. 

‘As with benzodiazepines in the 1980s, the UK is prescribing SSRI antidepressants at a staggering rate – and to no good effect

We appear to be in the midst of a psychiatric drug epidemic, just as we were when benzodiazepines (tranquilisers) were at their height in the late 1980s. The decline in their use after warnings about addiction led to a big increase in the use of the newer antidepressants, the SSRIs (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors).

Figures released by the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry, which was set up to challenge many of the assumptions commonly made about modern psychiatry, show that more than 53m prescriptions for antidepressants were issued in 2013 in England alone. This is almost the equivalent of one for every man, woman and child and constitutes a 92% increase since 2003.

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SURVEY – CEP needs your contribution for BMA review into prescribed drugs

UnknownI really like The Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry website and they have just asked for submissions for a potentially important study. Please participate if the study is relevant to you.

‘The Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry (cepuk.org) has been invited to contribute evidence to a project at the BMA (British Medical Association) which will review the issues associated with dependence upon prescribed drugs, including benzodiazepines, sleeping pills, pain relievers and antidepressants.

If you or a family member has experienced negative effects with one or more of these drugs, or has had difficulties withdrawing or following withdrawal, then you are invited to submit your experiences to CEP. We will then collate these and include a summary and/or individual responses in our submission to the BMA.

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‘On Pharma, Corruption, and Psychiatric Drugs’ by Peter Gøtzsche

“My studies in this area lead me to a very uncomfortable conclusion: Our citizens would be far better off if we removed all the psychotropic drugs from the market, as doctors are unable to handle them. It is inescapable that their availability creates more harm than good.” Peter Gøtzsche, MD;  Co-founder of the Cochrane Collaboration

As shown on Mad in America.

‘Philip Seymour Hoffman, Drugs and the Therapeutic State’ by Jack Carney

Brilliant article from Mad in America. Nails on the head.jcarney

‘Greetings. It seems that somebody’s passing is the only thing that will stir me sufficiently to write about what’s going on in this benighted country.

I had anticipated writing this a week or two ago but I got sidetracked. It’s certainly not too late, since Hoffman’s death by heroin overdose is still being discussed in the media and by folks I run into. Yes, I know, he only died 5 weeks ago – February 2, to be precise – but our attention spans tend to be not too long.

Hoffman’s death was dramatic – found dead with a needle stuck in his arm with bags of heroin strewn nearby, a famous actor at the top of his craft with artistic heights still to climb. His death has been portrayed as a benchmark event and has drawn attention to the opioid abuse and addiction that has seemed to sweep the country.

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‘Challenging the Status Quo’ by Maria Bradshaw

lfennellI was greatly moved by this recent article on Mad in America. Having spent 25 year working as a neuroscientist and interacting with drug companies and psychiatrists, i can see the frustrations (and the hypocrisy of the system) here:

‘In 2009, my friend Leonie’s 22-year-old son Shane killed himself and another young man after taking Citalopram for 17 days.

Shane is the kind of son every mother dreams of. A student at prestigious Trinity College in Dublin, he was devoted to his younger brothers and sister, regularly gave money and the clothes off his back to homeless people, didn’t drink or smoke and was kind, handsome, gentle and much loved by his family, friends and college professors.

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Barry Haslam – Addiction to Prescription Drugs

“Not only is it a national scandal, it is a political problem. And it needs a political solution. In fact, I’d go even further and say, it needs an independent public inquiry. We’ve had 50 years of prescribing these drugs which have addicted literally millions, certainly one and a half millions currently [in UK – DC] and they’ve injured, disabled, they’ve killed people…”

Here is a real courageous man, someone who has highlighted the problem of prescription drug addiction and tried to help people for years. You are a true hero, Barry! And you too, Sue!!

‘In conjunction with the imminent launch of our new service which we will be delivering in the new year, ‘ADS-Haslam Clinics for Prescribed Addiction’, we interviewed Barry Haslam, our partner and leading expert on the effects of prescription drugs.

During the interview Barry talks about his struggle with addiction to prescribed medicines and the devastating effects it’s had on himself and those around him. We also hear the story from a carers point of view from Barry’s wife Sue and collectively their resolve to make this national scandal understood.’

Kathy’s Recovery Minute

“I’d like to stress that one day does not go by that I don’t think about the life I took. I don’t forget that a child grew up without her father and that a mother’s heart was broken because of my choices, including again my own mother.”

“I live a life now full of blessings and I tell my Story as often as I can, so if I can at least save one life, make one change to somebody when they hear my  words, it will make at least some part of this tragedy and pain have some type of meaning for the positive. Thank you.” Kathy of CCAR (Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery)