Cut off the supply of legalised ‘killer’ drugs

YOU reported (November 7) the research findings of the Health Research Board which revealed that of the almost 2,500 drug-related deaths in the past eight years, prescription tranquillisers such as benzodiazepines were involved in more deaths than any other drug, legal or illegal.

Tragically, these psychiatric drug-related deaths will continue because there is as yet no serious commitment to develop and implement genuine forms of care and support for those suffering mental and emotional distress.

What is absent from the findings, though, is the fact that a significant number of people with a diagnosis of ‘schizophrenia’ and other serious ‘mental illness’ end their lives. As many critics of psychiatry have pointed out, their deaths may be related to the neurotoxic and debilitating effects of the various neuroleptic drugs they are prescribed.