The Army Knows Better Than To Use Psych Drugs

It has long been a fact that the use of psych drugs can disqualify you for military service. One of the shooters in the Columbine Massacre school disaster had tried to get into the Army and had been turned down because he was on Luvox. But apparently once you're in, the Army has a different attitude. The current controversy is based on the Army taking psychotic soldiers, giving them psych drugs, and putting them back on the front line, where they become dangerous "loose cannons" (almost literally).

The following two quotes are from a Los Angeles Times article, "U.S. Redeploying Troops with Mental Health Issues":

"I can't imagine something more irresponsible than putting a soldier suffering from stress on [antidepressants], when you know these drugs can cause people to become suicidal and homicidal," said Vera Sharav, president of the watchdog Alliance for Human Research Protection. "You're creating chemically activated time bombs."

Sgt. Syverson, back in Kuwait after a breakdown, in an e-mail to his family: "Nearly died...out here on a nice and really mild night because of the medication that I am taking. Head about to explode from the blood swelling inside, the lightning storm that happened in my head, the blurred vision, confusion, dizziness and a whole lot more."

A Little Paxil Story...

Maybe it isn't so hard to understand why GlaxoSmithKline is bending over backwards to work with the FDA on warning the public about Paxil. Amongst the group of psych drugs known as SSRIs (like Prozac, Zoloft etc.) Paxil is definitely the baddest bad boy of them all. Web sites supporting Paxil victims are rife with horror stories. Click here to hear one of them in the form of a video -- it's a news article by a Texas news station.

In a sharp turnabout from the usual behavior of Big Pharma companies, GlaxoSmithKline is participating with the FDA to disseminate the data that their version of the Prozac prototype, Paxil, may raise the risk of suicidal behavior in young adults. This is commendable, at least on the surface, because Big Pharma has been stiff-arming any attempt to get them to admit their putting out drugs that kill rather than cure.

It smells a lot like the period when the tobacco companies realized they were going to go down. They began to promote themselves as concerned about young people taking up smoking and so forth.

I don't think this is going to start a stampede this week amongst Big Pharma robber barons to step up to the responsibility of admitting their crimes, but sooner or later there will be just such a rush to appear to be concerned and responsible. It will happen when they realize that the public has discovered that the emperor has no clothers and that they are navigating the fine line between mere fiscal responsibility on one hand, and criminal responsibility on the other.