Green Time TV - Do Psychotropic Drugs Damage the Environment and Users?

by Don Fitz

Medical treatment is not environmentally neutral.  So, when treatment is unnecessary, the result is damage with no benefit.  The sickness industry is responsible for mining and processing the raw material that goes into equipment and buildings that provide diagnoses, treatments and hospitalizations.  Some of these do not help us or even leave us in worse shape than we were before.  Construction and parking lots for insurance and other medical-related buildings contribute to storm water runoff and overproduction of cement, one of the worst causes of CO2 emissions.

Nowhere is the problem of unnecessary medical intervention more clear than with psychotropic drugs.  Factories for drug manufacture have effluent which poisons rivers and streams.  Huge amounts of unused drugs get flushed down the toilet and go into sewers.

Green Time TV shows in May take a close look at psychotropic drugs and alternative approaches to emotional and behavioral problems.  On May 5, Dr. Larry Kiel of Advanced Behavioral Psychologists interviews Don Fitz of Green Time.  They discuss environmental harm from manufacturing drugs and the dubious claim that psychological problems are caused by chemical imbalances.

It is the first of four Green Time shows including portions of The Marketing of Madness: Are We All Insane?  This documentary provides an in-depth analysis of the many problems of psychiatric medication.

The number of children and teens being prescribed these drugs has shot upwards in recent years.  Particularly worrisome are reports that young people are more likely to consider and commit suicide if they are medicated.  On May 12, Anita Collins of Our Children’s Children addresses the concern that there could be massive overmedication of this age group.

The May 19 and May 26 episodes feature Dr. Larry Kiel explaining problems with relying on psychoactive medications.  Labels often warn users that the drugs can actually cause many of the problems that they are supposed to be curing.  Most important, people with emotional difficulties need to form new ways of thinking about their problems and new behavior patterns.  Dr. Kiel believes that interpersonal therapy, and not drugs, can help people work out solutions.

Green Time now airs on KNLC stations in four Missouri areas.  It appears at noon on Saturdays in St. Louis on Channel 24-1 and at 8 pm on Mondays in St. Louis on Channel 24-2, Springfield on Channel 39, Joplin on Channel 36 and Marshfield on Channel 17.

May Green Time programs address environmental and therapy problems with psychoactive drugs on these dates:

·    Saturday, May 5 & Monday, May 7: “Psychotropic Drugs & the Environment;”

     Saturday, May 12 & Monday, May 14: “Are Too Many Psych Drugs Going to Kids & Teens?”

     Saturday, May 19 & Monday, May 21: “Emotional & Environmental Costs of Psychotropic Drugs;”

     Saturday, May 26 & Monday, May 28: “Psychotropic Drugs on Trial.”