links to .........SSRI Citizen

October 19, 2004

http://www.ssricitizen.org/index.html

About SSRI Citizen

Every day millions and millions of Americans take SSRIs — drugs like

Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft and Effexor — just to name a few. This

population includes men, women, children (even infants) who come

from all walks of life. In fact, so many Americans are under the

influence of these drugs that one might argue we are fast

becoming " One nation, under Prozac " . Or to put it another way " SSRI

Citizens " .

For the most part, however, we are an ignorant SSRI citizenry. We

have blindly accepted the junk science sold to us by a drug industry

which has, from the beginning, claimed these compounds are safe and

effective. Likewise, doctors have been sold on the drugs, and

prescribe them to patients as if they were a kind of pharmaceutical

candy — and not the powerful and often dangerous psychotropic drugs

that they truly are.

That said: It might surprise you to hear that I am not

irreconcilably opposed to the sale of SSRIs — with the exception of

Paxil (which should be pulled from the marketplace immediately.) My

position on the matter is simply pragmatic: Since the regulatory

door guarding the SSRI cage has been sprung there's really no way to

close it. Today, the SSRI industry feeds (and sleeps with) its own

handler, the Food and Drug Administration, and gorges on billions in

pill profits every year. There is simply no easy way to kill the

SSRI beast now that it is on the prowl; the most one can hope to do

is corner it ... and hold it at bay.

But how to accomplish that? First, someone has to warn the public

that there's a " wild animal " on the loose. (This is SSRI Citizen's

primary mission.) Secondly, by hounding the industry's handler (the

FDA) to collar its SSRI beast with a collection of clear and

unambiguous drug warning labels. (We are also " working " on this

through back channel communications with the FDA.)

What kind of drug warning labels you ask? Well for starters,

warnings that appear in black boxes and in bold face language that

reads like:

Warning — This drug can cause addiction and dependency.

Warning —This drug has been classified by The Center for the

Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (CERHR) as a developmental

toxin; do not take during pregnancy.

Warning — This drug frequently causes severe and potentially life-

threatening withdrawals.

Warning — This drug may induce a spontaneous condition known as "

activation syndrome " whereby users become suicidal or homicidal.

Then, if consumers still feel the benefits of taking one of these

drugs outweigh the potential risks then that's their business — at

least they can't say they haven't been properly warned. But it is

wrong to expose consumers to these grave risks without vigorously

and aggressively informing them of the same.

Think about it this way. Imagine an airline carrier (take Delta for

example) transporting passengers on a jet which was known to have a

life-threatening structural defect. You'd want to know about that "

problem " before you booked a flight, wouldn't you? Furthermore, you

would expect — no, you would demand — that the airline carrier be

required to inform you of that risk. And you would further demand

that the government agency that regulates the airline agency (the

FAA) to force the carrier to ground the planes and fix the defect.

But is our Food and Drug Administration effectively warning the

public about unsafe SSRIs, or " grounding " any pill bottles flying

out of pharmacies filled with Paxil (or its kin)? The answer is a

horrifying " no " . But why? After all, the FDA has known full well

about the dangers of SSRIs for over twenty years.

The answer is simple: SSRIs sales — and the resulting drug company

profits — would implode and collapse like the World Trade Center

towers did on 9/11. And the FDA is not going to let that happen,

since the financial health of the drug companies takes precedence

over the health of the American people.

Finally, while on the subject of the FDA, I am calling on the

general public to demand the immediate removal of four persons from

their posts at the FDA: Drs. Katz, Laughren and

Temple — and legal counsel Troy. These individuals

have shown themselves to be a grave and continuing menace to the

health and well being of all Americans. Collectively, their actions

have contributed to more human misery and death than that caused by

a major terrorist organization. That's a shocking charge to level

against these public servants, but it is, unfortunately " the God

awful truth " . In the coming months SSRI Citizen will lay out a

detailed and comprehensive public indictment of these individuals.

Kind Regards,

Rob

October 19, 2004