Are Drugs Being Misused On Foster Kids?

(CBS)  Colby Holcomb's mom concedes that the 8-year-old, who's been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, can be a handful at home. But does such behavior merit the treatment Colby received in foster care?

Andrea Holcomb lost custody of her son when he was 7, after her ex-husband made allegations of sexual abuse, CBS News national correspondent Byron Pittsreports. These allegations later proved false — but in the meantime, Colby was placed in the Texas foster care system. For 18 months, he was in at least five foster homes. It's a time that still haunts Colby and his family.

Andrea says Colby was on at least 20 different drugs when he was in foster care. Yet, she says she has "no idea" why and says it was never explained to her.

While in foster care, Colby was also diagnosed as bipolar. According to his medical records, he was taking as many as four medications at the same time that gave him seizures.

"I woke up at the hospital with something stuck in my arm," Colby says.

He is not alone.

"I found babies, 2-year olds, 3-year olds being given mind-altering drugs," says Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Texas' state comptroller.

Strayhorn conducted her own two-year investigation into allegations that foster kids in Texas are overmedicated.

"Children in foster care in Texas are dying. Children in foster care are being drugged," Strayhorn says.

There are similar allegations being made in California, Ohio and Florida.

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FYI: Learn More About The Foster Care System

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"In Florida, for example, foster kids younger than 5 years old were treated with psychiatric medications at a rate nearly four times higher than the general population of children receiving Medicaid.

Gwen Olsen, a former pharmaceuticals representative who quit her job and wrote the book, "Confessions Of A Prescription Drug Pusher," knows firsthand about the impact of anti-psychotic drugs on children.

"They clamp down on the central nervous system. In effect, they reduce your mobility and that sort of thing, so they are sort of like a chemical straitjacket," she says.

Psychiatrist Christopher Correll is leading a nationwide study on the impact of anti-psychotic drugs have on all children.

"It is a serious step to use an anti-psychotic, there's no doubt about it. But I think it is also very important to realize that these medications are used under very serious circumstances to actually help patients who have serious symptoms," Correll says.

But if the foster care system is designed to protect children who've been harmed, why would they engage in this if in anyway it was harmful to children?

"To me, the true travesty of the situation is that we take children who just got a bum rap in life to begin with and they get into the system and are further abused chemically," Olsen says.

Colby Holcomb is home and feeling better. He is no longer taking any medications — but his mother worries how many Colbys might still be in the system.

[andondreal]

I have a problem with the fact that abusive parents are alowed to abandon thier child at any hospital to avoid prosicution for abuse cases. these poor kids end up living a life beliving that they are the ones at fault because nasty mommy and daddy got away with selling thier baby into prostitution for crack money. Yes I needed psychological treatment as a kid but how does a 2 year old hear voices? They cant even talk yet!

[andondreal]

Forgot to add that they can do that so they dont kill thier child. unlike in china where you find dead babies in dumpsters all the time.

[itmaiden-2009]

The psychotropic drug issue is a mix of political agenda and monetary gain. And that political agenda goes so deep that if I posted it, CBS would remove it from this board.
But we can take an honest look at the bigger players in this dilemma per information from their own websites.

World Bank/IMF (International Monetary Fund), which had to create new loan programs to countries to increase the asset side to offset the liability side because of the countries that never paid back their loans. Mental Health program funding is one of the new programs. You have to research other documents to find out about the loan programs. Not usually published openly.

WHO (World Health Organization) which touts that millions of children all over the world have mental health problems, and need mental health intervention and "drugs".

UN (United Nations) who speaks on the Convention of the Rights of the Child. But the children have no rights when drugs are forced into their bodies causing permanent long term damage to the central nervous system, endocrine system, and other internal organs. When did they get the right to refuse these drugs, or the parents the right to refuse ?

Then after these come the International and Domestic mental health organizations, pharmaceutical companies, the NIH, NIMH, and other US gov't organizations are involved.
If you want to stop the madness you cannot just work from the bottom opportunistic feeders, but must also work from the top.

[savemart55]

For two hundred years psychiatry has been masquerading as a science. The answer is always the same. Yes, we killed thousands of people with lobotomies, but we have new treatments now. Yes, we killed thousands of people with electric shock, but we have drugs now. Yes,thousands of people will die from these drugs and the answer will be, well we have a new brain operation now. When will it stop?
Only when we stop listening and start looking at the results. The cost, thousands of lives and billions of dollars. The cures, zero.

[savemart55]

For two hundred years psychiatry has been masquerading as a science. The answer is always the same. Yes, we killed thousands of people with lobotomies, but we have new treatments now. Yes, we killed thousands of people with electric shock, but we have drugs now. Yes,thousands of people will die from these drugs and the answer will be, well we have a new brain operation now. When will it stop?
Only when we stop listening and start looking at the results. The cost, thousands of lives and billions of dollars. The cures, zero.

[childrescuer]

To LostSheep2: The fact is that there are already laws on the books passed and signed by President Bush, The Amendment Prohibiting Forced Drugging, which are not being enforced by States such as California. The Attorney General is ultimately responsible for upholding these laws. If prosecutors refuse to uphold the laws that already exist, they need to be removed from office and prosecuted themselves for crimes against humanity. It is time for the Military and the National Guard to get involved. This is not a democrat or republican thing, this is a coup of criminal authorities who are traitors to the U.S. Constitution, and it is time for the American people to exercise their human rights and send those criminal authorities to prison.

[lostsheep2]

Childrescuer...Good points,and as you have stated 7 years of media contact...sadly because of the limited numbers that actually go to the media,it takes a scandal or epidemic of suicides/adverse reactions,to get their attention...SO all of us who post to these boards need to also post/Email to the reporters themselves,speaking amongst our selves will serve no purpose at all....Except to further educate each other on these horrors....Has any one noticed that the Fosters who were so pro for drugging have all left this forum when asked to simply verifiy these theories of chemical imbalance and mental illness....? They like the pill pushers them selves,can't.
Keep in mind people this board is no differnt than a yahoo group....Don't expect CBS to view this thing or rely upon it to do further investigating....The days of Watergate type reporters are long gone.....

[lostsheep2]

dh2043 asked "How do we get the Goverment involved"....They are that is why there is a problem in the first place.....And since this nation has forgotten it's rights as idividuals and as a nation as a whole,we give them the power of such blatant control...We out of laziness have become our own worst enemies....
Wasn't it Nancy Reagan who declared"Just say No"..Same mind set as a woman who does want to have *** with some one....Executing ones rights in ones life....We have always had them,we simply fail to use them,and again out of laziness expect the goverment to fix all our problems instead of dealing with them ourselves.
If people stopped long enough to actually look at the individuals that are in office,then get out of the mind set that based soley upon this Gang policy two party trash....Loose their loyalty to a stupid name,and then write in who we as individuals feel is best suited for the job.

[childrescuer]

I have informed the major news media regarding this issue for seven years and have been ignored. Why did it take almost a decade for Media to acknowledge this holocaust? It is a little too little, a little too late, now that so many children's lives have been completely destroyed and many children have been murdered. Yes, drugging children is assault with a deadly weapon and it is a domestic terrorist act that should be punishable by the death penalty. I was a Refugee claimant in Canada because I rescued my then 7 year old from assault in foster care institution in California where he was illegally kidnapped from me without due process of law. Government agents knew about this for seven years. We want those who knew about this issue and did nothing to be held accountable along with the State civil servants who aided and abetted in this holocaust. If legislators and prosecutors refuse to cooperate, we will take the law into our own hands like the Russians did when they tore down the Wall. We will tear down your Wall! ACT NOW!!!

[lostsheep2]

Atessitore Need a Whistle...? I'll send you one.LOL Really when one has such information at ones disposal,share it...If you have been cornered by the fear of retribution from former employers...Find another who isn't.....Hint Hint
:)
Showing the payment incentive to prescribe would sorta make it hard for any further denial on any of their parts....Many of these current kiddie shrinks/quacks....Have many an address to also utilize when dealing with various manufacturers and their products...hence forth why so many are "contracted/consulting" to counties and evaluation centers not with in the very state they call home.
I believe the term is quality of care...And just what sort of care can one expect from a 30 -40 minute prescription visit with the pusher...
"Up the Dose" is their Mantra..or...We can try a differnt drug in another family of drugs....That becomes poly-pharma...and if any one notices or bothers to read the warning labels,they are clearly marked "do not stop abruptly" One must be weaned off one poison prior to another being started,especially from different families of meds....ie. SSRI's,Amphetimines...anti-convulsants....The shrink knows all too well he is not following manufacturer guidelines,and that there will be an adverse reaction(again) to further your need to continue to come to him for a monthly sign off to pad his checks....

[lostsheep2]

Atessitore Need a Whistle...? I'll send you one.LOL Really when one has such information at ones disposal,share it...If you have been cornered by the fear of retribution from former employers...Find another who isn't.....Hint Hint
:)
Showing the payment incentive to prescribe would sorta make it hard for any further denial on any of their parts....Many of these current kiddie shrinks/quacks....Have many an address to also utilize when dealing with various manufacturers and their products...hence forth why so many are "contracted/consulting" to counties and evaluation centers not with in the very state they call home.
I believe the term is quality of care...And just what sort of care can one expect from a 30 -40 minute prescription visit with the pusher...
"Up the Dose" is their Mantra..or...We can try a differnt drug in another family of drugs....That becomes poly-pharma...and if any one notices or bothers to read the warning labels,they are clearly marked "do not stop abruptly" One must be weaned off one poison prior to another being started,especially from different families of meds....ie. SSRI's,Amphetimines...anti-convulsants....The shrink knows all too well he is not following manufacturer guidelines,and that there will be an adverse reaction(again) to further your need to continue to come to him for a monthly sign off to pad his checks....