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February 01, 2006
Page one of Wall Street Journal reads like PKD novel
There is a piece on Forced mental health care for the mentally ill on the front page of the WSJ today that reads more like a work of science fiction by Philip K Dick.
Every other week, Jeff Demann drives to a clinic in rural Michigan, drops his pants and gets a shot of an antipsychotic drug that he says makes him sick.
"If I don't show up, the cops show up at my door and I wind up in a mental ward," says the unemployed 44-year-old, who lives on disability in Holland, Mich.
Driving the trend (forced medication) are E. Fuller Torrey, a 68-year-old maverick psychiatrist who believes the laws help prevent crime, and memorabilia mogul Ted Stanley, who has contributed millions of dollars to the cause.
yeah, memorabilia mogul!!!
One of Dr. Torrey's books on schizophrenia caught the eye of a wealthy businessman, Ted Stanley, whose son, Jonathan, became delusional during college and later was diagnosed with bipolar disease.
Jonathan Stanley says he accosted people on the street and believed he was being trailed by Naval Intelligence. He says he was arrested when he stood naked atop a milk crate in a Manhattan diner, trying to avoid the lethal radiation he thought was bombarding him from a satellite dish across the street.
The elder Mr. Stanley contacted Dr. Torrey in 1989 and ultimately opened his checkbook to create the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Md. "He said he'd like to help," Dr. Torrey recalls. "He said: 'We thought we would start with a million dollars -- a year.' "
Mr. Stanley, 74, runs MBI Inc., a Connecticut seller of collectible and commemorative books, coins, figurines and other memorabilia. Its units include the Danbury Mint. Since the 1980s, Mr. Stanley says he has donated nearly $300 million -- including about $35 million in 2005 -- to Dr. Torrey's efforts, the bulk of it for research at universities and start-up drug companies.
but wait there is more!
Gabriel Hadd, a 26-year-old unemployed musician from Saginaw, Mich., was diagnosed as schizophrenic. He says he has been repeatedly forced to take drugs he believes do more harm than good.
Mr. Hadd spent part of the past year hiding out in the home of a Colorado woman who is part of an underground network of mentally ill activists. The program was set up in late 2004 by MindFreedom International, an Oregon organization of 10,000 mentally ill people that opposes coerced drug treatment.
Yes, an underground network of mentally ill activists!!!!
link (unfortunately you need to register and pay.. but the wsj is the best paper in America, so why the hell not)
Posted by bw at February 1, 2006 11:33 AM