Move to National Policy

Unfortunately, this health policy has already gone national. Most states have laws on the books that enable health authorities to ensure that the mentally ill take their medications -- drugs like Thorazine, Clozapine, and Haldol that will hopefully keep them free from the major features of severe mental illness, including disorientation and hallucination.

As most prescription drugs do, these "neuroleptics" also cause side effects. Studies at the medical schools of Harvard and McGill University in Montreal, Canada, have shown that these medications can damage the brain, with some causing involuntary movements in patients who take them.

More than 1 million of those who are mentally ill, including perhaps more than 100,000 homeless people, may eventually be subject to forced drugging, should this health policy continue to spread across the country.

The proposed California legislation would pave yet another road to "community-assisted treatment." This is one of those phrases that might suggest a gentle helpfulness. Well, forget that -- we're dealing here with a hard-boiled health policy that rules by court order and allows the chemistry crusaders to enter homes to demand compliance with drug regimens. The right to step out of hospital confinement and remain in the community is the trade-off for anti-psychotic treatment.

Advocates: Treatment Helps

Those groups supporting forced treatment deemed necessary by health authorities includes the Treatment Advocacy Center and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. One of the usual arguments is that there are many tens of thousands of mentally ill people who do not know they are sick. They therefore must be helped. If they are not, then many of these people will commit violent acts, including murder. So therefore forced drug treatment is not only good for the patient but also for society.

If anything, it is likely this call to fear has stoked public support of forced drugging.

Those opposed to "community-assisted treatment" and efforts in the works to make it even more draconian claim the scientific evidence offered up in support of quelling significant amounts of violence through forced drugging requires a vivid imagination. I agree. I've looked at the available science and I am mystified by some of the interpretation that has become the spine of this adventurism in the name of compassion and concern for public safety.

Unknown if Drugs Stop Violence

First, studies do show that some groups of psychiatric patients released into the community have a greater risk of committing violence. Other groups of patients do not. And here's the additional rub: there is no appropriate follow-up study that has determined whether the absence of treatment leads to violence. The very foundation of forced treatment is ideology and not science.

Since this is the Internet, let me issue a challenge. Anyone advocating forced drug treatment who has credible scientific evidence that it will reduce violence should send me the references to the supporting science. We'll post your positions and I'll respond. Let's get this issue into the open for debate. Let's see what these policies really hinge on.

Next week, we'll examine other claims made by the advocates of forced drug treatment.