NAMI (Mental Health Care by US State) . FOOD & WATER WATCH . COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE .
. GROW YOUR OWN . VEGAN . WWOOF . ADDITIVES . NANO PARTICLES . NO GMO . WIKILEAKS

GOOD THOUGHTS:
"A 2006 study by Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin, assistant professors of geophysics at the University of Chicago, found that a person switching from the average American diet to a vegan diet would reduce CO2 emissions by 1,485 kg per year." - Eshel, G., and P.A. Martin (2006). "Diet, Energy and Global Warming" (PDF)

SHORT STORIES:
My mother worked 30 years for the US Government as dietitian for WIC (Women Infants & Children) and various other government organizations- tirelessly trying help poor mothers and children have access to health care and food. In 1993 she received the "Excellence in Community Nutrition Award" from the California Dietetic Association and received the "Mary C. Eagan Award" from the national organization, APHA, in the early 1990's which goes to "public health nutritionists who pioneer fresh approaches to public health nutrition, nutrition education, and those groups with special dietary needs." In 1999 she decided to go to law school to obtain the legal background necessary to make policy changes in the California Legislature. Expressing the difficulty she was having with the program at McGeorge Law School to a psychologist in Davis, CA - he diagnosed her with ADHD and prescribed her Ritalin to help her concentrate on her studies. At the time she entered into law school she was also continuing to work full-time for the State of California.

Shortly after taking the prescribed Ritalin she showed signs of paranoia, insomnia, and eventually had a mental break - dropping out of the program at McGeorge and leaving her job at the State of California. Prior to using the Ritalin she had no signs of mental health problems and was considered by many one of the leading experts in her field. Since 2000, she has been incarcerated several times in the LA County Jail and has been unable to secure treatment for her mental health problems or any sort of regular work. In every year since 2006 NAMI has rated the State of California a "C" in terms of it's overall Mental Health Care and a "D" in terms of "Family and Community Empowerment". The structure of the legal system in California makes it nearly impossible for poor or middle class people to obtain the rights to legally help their mentally ill family members.

Ritalin is still widely sold in the USA, mostly prescribed to children, despite many studies which document its harmful affects on humans. "Methylphenidate (Ritalin), which is thought to be a fairly innocuous compound, can have structural and biochemical effects in some regions of the brain that can be even greater than those of cocaine"[1]. Between 1990-1994 Ciba-Geigy, the manufacturer of Ritalin contributed $748,000 to the organization Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder which sponsors parent support groups, convenes meetings featuring speakers, works with local school systems and provides information regarding ADHD related issues. The informational material CHADD supplies to parents and teachers is supplied by the Ciba-Geigy drug company. Studies on the use of the drug conducted by Judith Rappoport, chief of child psychiatry at NIMH, were also funded by Ciba-Geigy. Ritalin has been documented to cause cancer, cause "Sudden Death" syndrome in children and has been linked in several studies to the development of psychosis. In 2001 Ritalin was one of the most prescribed children's drugs in the US, with more than six million prescriptions a year approaching $500 million in annual sales. The drug is being prescribed for children as young as two years old (J Pediatr, 2002; 141: 71-5). "Another side-effect of amphetamines and cocaine is psychosis, defined as 'a severe mental disorder in which the patient loses contact with reality.' As expected, Ritalin can produce the same effects. Canadian neurologists have found that more than 6 per cent of ADHD children treated with MPH became psychotic, with hallucinations and paranoia. No such symptoms were seen with any ADHD children not taking MPH (Can J Psychiatry, 1999; 44: 811-3)." [2]

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