The Third National Prescription Drug Take Back Day was held on Saturday, October 29, 2011 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The biannual event promoted nationally by the Drug Enforcement Agency provides local venues for the proper disposal of unused prescriptions. One purpose of this event is to curb the prescription drug abuse epidemic, which is quickly becoming the most serious drug abuse problem in Texas. But the Citizens Commission on Human Rights Texas says that more needs to be done to keep highly abused drugs from being readily available to the public in the first place.
“The best way we know of to keep these drugs from being abused is to avoid them in the first place,” said Lee Spiller, Policy Director for the Citizens Commission on Human Rights Texas. “Psychiatry relies on diagnoses that are simply voted into existence, often by psychiatrists who receive funding from drug companies. The result is millions of Americans receiving dangerous drugs that can then be abused, sold on the street, or stolen from parents’ medicine cabinets.”
Because of psychiatric labels, it is estimated that over 8 million children in the U.S. are taking mind-altering psychotropic drugs to treat a “mental disorder.” Add to that the more than seven million Americans who currently abuse prescription drugs, according to the 2009 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and it’s little wonder that drugs now surpass motor vehicles as the leading cause of death in 2009. According to ListVerse.com, 5 of the top 10 highly abused drugs are used to treat so-called psychiatric disorders, including Seroquel (#9), Xanax (#7) and Adderall (#4).
A compilation of side effects for common psychiatric drugs, including the United States Food and Drug Administration’s (US FDA’s) adverse drug event reporting system, known as Medwatch, can be found on CCHR’s website. Medwatch reports for Adderall include multiple reports each of suicidal ideation, homicidal ideation, completed suicide, completed homicide and death. The psychiatric drug Xanax, which is one of the three drugs that make up the highly abused and deadly “Houston Cocktail,” has generated multiple reports each of suicide, death and murder.