Maryland’s compulsory drug
proposals
Maryland’s legislature is
exuberantly moving forward with proposals to force medications on unwilling
patients. New laws under consideration are coercion tactics to medicate both
inpatient and not hospitalized individuals who may be subject to psychological
stress. How the judicial arm of Maryland government will interplay with these
potential legislative efforts is yet to be determined.
National debate reached a
crescendo concerning the mentally disabled amongst us after the massacre inside
Sandy Hook Elementary School. Adam Lanza, mentally challenged for years,
finally went berserk taking 27 lives then his own. Multiple psychiatric
ailments were attributed to Lanza who received treatment for them intermittently
from the time he was in elementary school. Adequacy of therapy was the central
theme in the aftermath of this egregious event. Lanza could not be forced to
take pharmaceuticals to control his behavior. With new laws under consideration
that scenario may change.
Division in the medical
community on forced medication protocols for those with the gamut of mental
illnesses is significant. Many questions need to be answered to satisfy the hordes
of practicing physicians who will be called upon to apply these therapies. Is
informed consent necessary? Will the Maryland’s Attorney General Office be
waiting with a noose if the doctor does not believe and or apply the therapies
within the protocol? Maryland’s Board of Physicians: where do they stand on
this issue? Are physicians protected
against malpractice suits when the patient objects to being drugged? Who writes
the standards of care for this exploitation of the patient, lawyers or
physicians? The list of questions is long and involved. Maryland Physicians are
fully aware the legal community will benefit most from this State overreach
into its citizens’ lives.
Proof that intensely
medicating people will reduce levels of violent crimes has yet to evolve.
Draconian measures under consideration are reminiscent of controls utilized in
the most undemocratic of societies. Worse, in the event this egregious
legislative effort is allowed to breathe, what next? School children who are
not already taking psycho-tropics could be forced on to them or be expelled.
Once this door is opened, bureaucrats may enforce these drugs on an array of
people. Before legislation of forced medicating people is placed into effect
studies need to be performed and or reviewed to justify this approach. Maryland’s
legislature does not have the cerebral ability to either justify this move or
the integrity to make it work for those who will potentially benefit most.
Perhaps our legislators should take a tour of the State Constitution and its
big brother in the federal domain before the few rights Marylanders have left
move off into the sunset.
Mark Davis MD, President
of Davis Book Reviews and Healthnets Review Services.
Author of Demons of
Democracy and his newest work, Obamacare: Dead on Arrival, A Prescription for
Disaster.
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