By Kieron McFadden

Lawsuit contends too many psychiatric drugs killed little boy. While outrage at last month's childsuicide continues, the mother of a disabled boy contends in a new lawsuit thather son was lethally overmedicated by his psychiatrist.

Lawsuit contends too many psychiatric drugs killed little boy

While outrage at last month's child suicide continues, the mother of adisabled boy contends in a new lawsuit that her son was lethally overmedicatedby his psychiatrist.

Amid controversy concerning the improper use of dangerous psychiatric drugson children, a disabled boy who died in 2007 was overdosed by a cocktail ofpsychiatric drugs, including two powerful anti-psychotic drugs, his motherclaims in a lawsuit filed on the Miami Dade County Court.

Martha Quesada, the mother of 12-year-old Denis Maltez, filed a wrongfuldeath and medical malpractice lawsuit, claiming Denis' psychiatrist, Dr. StevenL. Kaplan, and the Rainbow Ranch group home overmedicated Denis and failed toproperly monitor his condition.

Ms Quesada's lawsuit was filed amid the investigation being carried out by Florida's Department ofChildren & Families into the suicide in April of Gabriel Myers. Gabriel wasa 7-year-old foster child who had been subjected to a cocktail of psychiatricdrugs when he hanged himself in the bathroom of his foster home. DCF SecretaryGeorge Sheldon appointed a task force to study both Gabriel's case, and thewider issue of the use of psychiatric drugs on foster kids.

CHEMICAL RESTRAINTS
According to Ms Quesada's lawsuit, Dennis' psychiatrist, Kaplan, prescribedfour mental health drugs: Seroquel and Zyprexa, both anti-psychoticmedications; Depakote, an anti-seizure drug sometimes used to stabilize moods;and Clonazepam, a tranquilizer. The lawsuit says the drugs were used ``aschemical restraints to control Denis's behavior.''

Psychiatric drugs are notorious for damaging effects on the brain andnervous system every bit as bad, if not worse than, street drugs, theopportunities they offer for abuse and mis-use and the intense marketinginvested in them by the psychiatric-pharmaceutical axis.

In the case of the child drugging scandal on Florida, many of the medications concernedare not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use on children andcarry strong warnings about their harmful side-effects. Despite this Kaplan,says the lawsuit, ''took no steps to ensure that Denis was not suffering anyadverse effects from these medications.''

The suit further claims that Kaplan examined Dennis only once between May26, 2006 and the day he died in May 2007. This was despite warning signs thatthe drugs may have been harming the boy, according to the suit. In June 2006, Ruth OwensKruse EducationalCenter, reported forexample that he was sleeping through class.

HUMAN WAREHOUSING
This suit comes amid growing fears that psychiatric drugs may be being used asan easy option to render troublesome children tractable rather than investingin them proper counseling and human care.

Against a background of intense marketing by the pharmaceuticalmanufacturers and grass-roots "pushing" by psychiatrists, those fearsin turn prompt concerns as to just how widespread the cheap and easy option of drugging people so as to keep them quiet - so called "humanwarehousing" - has become, as opposed to going to the trouble of providingproper care and treatment.

PSYCHIATRIC DRUGGING PANDEMIC?
Are we in fact now in the grip of a psychiatric-pharmaceutical driven pandemicof "legal" drugging?

How much damage both to the individual and the society as a whole is beingdone by this highly profitable program? And just how much does thisinstitutionalized drug pushing undermine efforts to protect our citizens,especially our kids, from the illegal trade?

This in turn brings into view an even more startling issue and one I will beaddressing in forthcoming articles:

In the wake of new knowledge and advances in the field of nutrition, hasdrugging been rendered as obsolete as the application of leeches or the castingout of demons?

Do we actually NEED to drug people at all?