{"id":6243,"date":"2013-05-27T19:46:44","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T23:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lcpllutzlivetotell.org\/?p=6243"},"modified":"2019-08-08T13:00:12","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T17:00:12","slug":"fox-special-report-drugging-american-soldier-militarys-reliance-powerful-psych-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/?p=6243","title":{"rendered":"FOX SPECIAL REPORT: DRUGGING THE AMERICAN SOLDIER MILITARY\u2019S RELIANCE ON POWERFUL PSYCH DRUGS"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOX SPECIAL REPORT:<\/span>
\nDRUGGING THE AMERICAN SOLDIER<\/span>
\nMILITARY\u2019S RELIANCE ON POWERFUL PSYCH DRUGS<\/span><\/h2>\n

Fox National News \u2022 May 27, 2013<\/p>\n

To watch part 1 of the series, Drugging the American Soldier\u2014Military\u2019s Reliance on Powerful Psych Drugs,\u00a0click here<\/a><\/em><\/h6>\n
Watch Part 2, click here<\/a><\/em><\/h6>\n
Watch Part 3, click here<\/a><\/em><\/h6>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Reporter Jamie Colby:<\/strong>\u00a0Some really important concerns this Memorial Day weekend about the treatment our soldiers receive when they return from battle. And there\u2019s a Fox News investigation into the increased use of powerful psychiatric drugs on our veterans and the impact these drugs are having. Our Douglas Kennedy looked into this as part of our series on drugging the American soldier.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0Marine Corporal Andrew White survived the war in Iraq in 2005.<\/p>\n

Stan White:<\/strong>\u00a0Temper tantrums, tremors\u2026<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0Unfortunately says his father Stanley, he could not survive the drug cocktail prescribed to him by his caregivers at the Department of Veteran\u2019s Affairs.<\/p>\n

Stan White:<\/strong>\u00a0Once they treat you for PTSD, the first line of treatment seems to be a series of medications. We call them \u201clethal cocktails.\u201d And if it doesn\u2019t work they increase the dosage, give you more and more and more and more\u2026.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0Andrew was prescribed 19 different medications from the VA, and was on 5 drugs for insomnia when he accidentally died in his sleep in 2011. A cocktail that included the antidepressant\u00a0Paxil<\/a>, the anti-anxiety\u00a0Klonopin<\/a>\u00a0and the antipsychotic\u00a0Seroquel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Peter Breggin:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s inexcusable to be giving our military and our vets multiple psychiatric drugs and cocktails. They do no good, they do huge harm.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0Peter Breggin is a psychiatrist, who says the military and VA\u2019s use of psych drug cocktails is verging on criminal.<\/p>\n

Peter Breggin:<\/strong>\u00a0We now know that exposure to multiple drugs over a period of months or years leads to chronicity, it leads to disability\u2026<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0And he says it leads to suicide and accidental death. Still between 2005 and 2011, the military and VA went on a spending spree with psychoactive medication. Increasing prescriptions by a whopping 682%. An increase, which this military spokesman defends.<\/p>\n

Military Spokesman, Captain Michael Colston, MD, U.S. Navy Medical Corps:<\/strong>\u00a0What might be appropriate in addition to giving an antidepressant drug, to give a medicine that helps with the anxiety for a little while and then when the anxiety goes away but the depression hasn\u2019t still quite remitted, you may want to think about using another medication.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0The military says the use of drug cocktails is safe if used as prescribed. What would you say?<\/p>\n

Stan White:<\/strong>\u00a0I do not agree. There\u2019s no research available that we know of that says that multiple drugs are safe.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0Unfortunately he says his son was a guinea pig, for what he calls psych drug experiments. In Charleston, West Virginia, Douglas Kennedy, Fox News.<\/p>\n

News Anchor:<\/strong>\u00a0The concept of first do no harm has been a foundation of medicine for ages. But now we\u2019re learning doctors and others caring for the nation\u2019s war heroes may actually be doing more harm than good. Correspondent Douglas Kennedy continues our look at the toxic combination of veterans and too many drugs.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0It was in 2009 when former Navy Corpsman, Kelli Grese, first overdosed on the medication prescribed to her by a doctor from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Her sister, Darla, says the problem seemed obvious. In your opinion, VA doctors were writing too many prescriptions for too many drugs.<\/p>\n

Darla:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely. They are dispensing pills by the hundreds.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0Kelli\u2019s cocktail included Adderall, Klonopin and Seroquel and at least 15 other powerful psychiatric drugs. Darla says her sister was hooked and her mental state was clearly deteriorating. You went to her VA doctors\u2026<\/p>\n

Darla:<\/strong>\u00a0I did.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0And told them to stop prescribing her all these drugs.<\/p>\n

Darla:<\/strong>\u00a0I did, and actually at one point in 2000, I actually, uninvitingly busted into the Chief of Staff\u2019s office and begged him to stop his physicians from prescribing pills.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0But the doctors wouldn\u2019t listen to Darla and in 2010 Kelli died of an overdose. Her stomach full of drugs now increasingly used by the VA and military for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. VA doctors for instance, gave her the Seroquel for the unapproved symptom of insomnia and Adderall is only approved to treat attention deficit disorder, a condition which Kelli did not have.<\/p>\n

Robert Haddad:<\/strong>\u00a0The side effects, especially in Kelli\u2019s instance were devastating\u2026<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0Robert Haddad is Darla\u2019s attorney who successfully sued the VA in a wrongful death lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Robert Haddad:<\/strong>\u00a0Thousands of drugs being dispensed everyday for purposes that they were never intended to be used and having a devastating effects on the vets.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0The VA refused to comment on Kelli\u2019s case directly, but in court papers maintain the monetary settlement with Darla was not, quote, \u201can admission of liability or fault on the part of the United States.\u201d The VA says your sister\u2019s death was not the fault of VA doctors.<\/p>\n

Darla:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes\u2026they do.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0What do you say?<\/p>\n

Darla:<\/strong>\u00a0I say, it infuriates me. I think her death was inevitable and any human brain could not sustain the chemicals that they were giving her.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy:<\/strong>\u00a0She says the VA is using drugs off label to mask the problems that soldiers face when they complete their duty. In Virginia Beach, Virginia, Douglas Kennedy, Fox News.<\/p>\n

Chris Wallace<\/strong>: Tonight, we continue our look at how veterans back home from war are being treated with drugs that have the potential to do more harm than good. Correspondent Douglas Kennedy has the story of one vet who\u2019s been told he\u2019s lucky to be alive.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy<\/strong>: You were taking\u00a0Seroquel<\/a>,\u00a0Klonopin<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Depakote<\/a>, all at the same time.<\/p>\n

Charles Perkins<\/strong>: Yes.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy<\/strong>: What was the result?<\/p>\n

Charles Perkins<\/strong>: Well of course, I gained about 100 pounds, now I have diabetes; I\u2019ve been diagnosed with diabetes.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy<\/strong>: In November, 2004, Charles Perkins returned from Iraq and like many veterans, he was immediately sent to a psychiatrist from the Department of Veterans Affairs to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Over a period of a year, you saw 13 different VA psychiatrists, many of them giving you different diagnoses.<\/p>\n

Charles Perkins<\/strong>: Yes, and it was very hard going from doctor to doctor.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy<\/strong>: And most giving him more and more prescriptions. In fact, Perkins ended up with 25 different prescriptions for 25 different drugs\u2014all prescribed by VA doctors. You ended up going to see your own doctor, and he told you, you were lucky to be alive.<\/p>\n

Charles Perkins<\/strong>: He said I was on a cocktail of poison.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy<\/strong>: And Perkins isn\u2019t alone in receiving mood altering medication from the military and VA. In fact, over the past ten years, the military and VA spent over $2 billion medicating its men and women, with anti-anxiety and antipsychotic medication. It\u2019s a huge expenditure this spokesman defends.<\/p>\n

Capt. Michael Colston, US Navy Medical Corp<\/strong>: In the last decade, we\u2019ve made great strides increasing access to care while decreasing stigma in getting that care.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy<\/strong>: A stance psychiatrist Peter Breggin says seems compassionate but is in reality irresponsible.<\/p>\n

Peter Breggin<\/strong>: When you have so many soldiers on psychiatric drugs, you are producing chronic mental patients.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy<\/strong>: Breggin says most psych medications alter brain chemistry, which often creates a lifelong dependence.<\/p>\n

Peter Breggin<\/strong>: It can be horrific to try to come off of many of these psychiatric drugs and many times patients simply can\u2019t get off of them.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy<\/strong>: Many doctors say once you start these medications, it is almost impossible to get off. What does that mean for you?<\/p>\n

Charles Perkins<\/strong>: If I stop taking the medications, then I start having nightmares, sleepless nights.<\/p>\n

Douglas Kennedy<\/strong>: He\u2019s only 37 years-old, but he knows he will be on psych drugs for the rest of his life, a consequence, he says, of trusting his VA care givers. In Charleston, West Virginia, Douglas Kennedy, Fox News.<\/p>\n

\n

Douglas Kennedy was the first national reporter to link antidepressant medications to adolescent suicide and violence, prompting government hearings that eventually resulted in the black box warnings from the Food and Drug Administration. Most recently he exposed an Internet fraud selling phony cancer drugs to the terminally ill, in which the owner of the Web site was later indicted. Previously he worked at the New York Post as a crime reporter and solved a double homicide in Queens by finding a dead body before the cops.<\/em>\u00a0Read more about Douglas Kennedy here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Retrieved from: http:\/\/www.cchr.org\/documentaries\/the-hidden-enemy\/drugging-the-american-soldier-part-one.html<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FOX SPECIAL REPORT: DRUGGING THE AMERICAN SOLDIER MILITARY\u2019S RELIANCE ON POWERFUL PSYCH DRUGS Fox National News \u2022 May 27, 2013 To watch part 1 of the series, Drugging the American Soldier\u2014Military\u2019s Reliance on Powerful Psych Drugs,\u00a0click here Watch Part 2, click here Watch Part 3, click here Reporter Jamie Colby:\u00a0Some …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cannabis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}