Human Rights Group Commends Piedmont Regional Council for Landmark Legislation

Citizens Commission on Human Rights International and the Torino, Italy chapter of the group commended the Regional Council of Piedmont this week for its unanimous passage of a new law that protects the rights of children throughout the Northern Italy region.

The bill is modeled after the Child Medication Safety Act, enacted in the U.S. in 2003 in the wake of escalating, alarming reports of parents being threatened, pressured or forced to give their children dangerous psychiatric drugs as a condition of attending school.

CCHR worked with members of the Regional Council of Torino, educating them on this U.S. law and the urgent need to empower parents and protect children from potentially lethal drugs that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel in 2006 recommended be labeled with a "black box". The FDA requires such a black box warning be included on the packaging of prescription drugs that cause significant risk of serious or even life-threatening adverse effects.

A compendium, published this month by CCHR International, lists and summarizes more than 60 warnings issued by government agencies just since the passage of this law in the U.S. These warnings put doctors on notice that psychiatric drugs can induce violence, homicidal behavior, suicide and death, among many other serious adverse effects.

The need to protect families from these drugs is all the more urgent in light of the lack of science to prove that such so-called conditions as ADHD even exist. According to Dr. Thomas Szasz, co-founder of CCHR and Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York, Syracuse, "There is no blood or other biological test to ascertain the presence or absence of a mental illness, as there is for most bodily diseases. Labeling a child as mentally ill is stigmatization, not diagnosis. Giving a child a psychiatric drug is poisoning and punishment, not treatment."

Numerous other psychiatrists, interviewed in a documentary produced last year by CCHR, admit on film that Dr. Szasz's findings are true. Copies of this documentary are available online through the group's web site.

The headquarters of CCHR International in Los Angeles, California is the home of the Psychiatry: an Industry of Death museum, which features this and 13 other documentaries with statements from scores of health professionals, academics, legal and human rights experts, and victims of psychiatric brutalities ranging from electroshock and involuntary commitment to political torture, psychosurgery and the devastating effects of psychotropic drugs.

Last year, to ensure legislators, health professionals, parents, teachers and the general public around the world can gain access the truth about psychiatry, the Industry of Death was produced as a traveling exhibit and is now touring on five continents. Through this, CCHR members have been able to reach lawmakers in countries around the world, to educate them on the need to protect their constituents from harmful psychiatric practices.

According to CCHR:



"Prescribing psychiatric drugs to children is a multi-billion dollar-a-year industry that permanently damages children. While the U.S. federal government spends nearly $1 billion a month fighting the war on drugs, we ignore the worsening problem of legally prescribed psychotropic drugs.

"The drugs prescribed for so-called learning disorders are completely different from routine medications that medical doctors prescribe for colds or fevers. Psychiatric drugs are addictive and mind-altering substances.

"The stimulants prescribed for ADHD are listed as controlled substances under Schedule II of the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Why? They constitute a substantial risk to public health, have little to moderate therapeutic usefulness and can be potentially addictive.

"The main stimulant used for ADHD is an amphetamine-like drug, which purportedly acts as a tranquilizer in children. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration it is more potent than cocaine."



Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is a non-profit, public benefit organization co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz. For more information visit the CCHR web site at www.cchr.org.