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Mental Health Law In California

Involuntary Treatment
  

Some arguments against AB 1421

1. The Senate-sponsored RAND study on involuntary outpatient psychiatric drugging stated, "The question left unanswered by the research to date is whether involuntary outpatient treatment and voluntary alternatives produce equally good outcomes." In other words, is a court order necessary. The approach of force-drugging people in their own homes is unneeded and unwanted in California.

2. AB 1421 would add a new reason to lock someone up in a psychiatric hospital against their will -- a refusal to be examined in the absence of any compelling public safety justification. This puts the civil rights of all Californians at risk.

3. AB 1421 would institute a quasi-governmental group that has complete control over people’s lives, and no one controls IT. There is no oversight whatsoever contemplated in this bill. I don’t want an unregulated group of people in my community driving around in a car drugging people, controlling their money, and running their lives.

4. Psychiatric drugs are not harmless. They can cause permanent brain damage or death. Studies show permanent brain damage resulting from these drugs in a very high percentage of cases. In a 1998 study, the frontal lobes of people on psychiatric drugs actually SHRANK. People on psychiatric drugs get neurologic damage and have movement disorders created by the drugs. You can see these people, twitching and rolling their tongues and smacking their lips, on any bus in California. These are not symptoms of mental illness. These people have been damaged by psychiatric drugs. No one should be forced to take these drugs against their will.

5. AB 1421 is an unnecessary, expensive piece of legislation that burdens the State with an endless future financial commitment, because people turned over to outpatient involuntary treatment teams don’t get well. They stay a financial burden for the rest of their lives shot lived lives (stated in medical journals approximately 20 years less than someone UnDrugged with Neuroleptics). Outpatient involuntary treatment teams are expensive!

6. California already has many ways in place to accomplish these same ends: Conservatorships (Including the Public Guardians Office that allows each Public Guardian to control at least 40 heads), mentally ill offender commitment orders, and the involuntary commitment procedures. Already, over 100,000 Californians a year are involuntarily treated. This bill is overly expensive, unneeded, and unwanted.

7. Mental health is full of costly fraud, coercion and deaths due to Toxic Poisonings by Neuroleptics, Anti-Psychotics and Anti-Depressants. According to the 2001 report of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, Office of the Inspector General, between 33% and 50% of billings for services in 1998 were incorrect, resulting in $185 million in added costs to the taxpayers. We can’t afford this type of abuse.
   
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• Opponents of Forced Treatment for Mentally Ill Rally at State Capitol
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• Governor Davis Signs Laura's Law 
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• Forced mental care possible under law
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• California AB 1421 - Governor Signs Involuntary Confinement Bill
  September 29, 2002
    

• Mentally ill could be forced into care Davis signs bill to allow involuntary treatment
  September 29, 2002
    

• Bill had to balance safety against civil rights
  September 30, 2002
    

• Governor signs Laura's Law
  Law allows courts to order mentally ill to seek treatment
  September 30, 2002
    

More on AB 1421

• Analysis of AB 1421
  April 13, 2001
    

• A Guide to California's AB 1424
  Jan 1, 2002
    

• Oppose Position, AB 1421
  June 10, 2002
    

• Measure : A.B. No. 1421
  April 4, 2002

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