psychrights
                   Law Project for
              Psychiatric Rights

Newsletter
January 28, 2004


Hi Everyone,

You are receiving this e-Newsletter because we believe you will be interested in the work of the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights) in fighting forced psychiatric drugging and exposing in court the faulty science behind the current reliance on psychiatric medication. If that is incorrect please just let us know by e-mail to jim@psychrights.org and we won't send you any more.  

Forthcoming Informed Consent Lawsuit

The most important news and the reason why we are inaugurating the Newsletter at this time is to let you know the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights) is preparing to file a lawsuit against the Alaska Psychiatric Institute (API) for failure to obtain informed consent prior to administering psychiatric medications (API is the only state-run psychiatric hospital in Alaska).  It is illegal to prescribe psychiatric medications without obtaining informed consent, this law is regularly violated, and the lawsuit is being filed to stop this illegality. The Draft Complaint to commence the lawsuit is available for review at http://psychrights.org/States/Alaska/CaseTwo/draftInformedConsentComplaint.htm and there is a description of this lawsuit at http://psychrights.org/States/Alaska/CaseTwo.htm. The lawsuit is pretty much ready to go and will be filed as soon as the right plaintiff (client) is identified.

At the legal level, in terms of remedy, the objective is to enjoin (prohibit) API from prescribing these medications to anyone who hasn't already taken them because its psychiatrists fail, time after time, to disclose the real facts about the medications, thus convincing people to take them based on false and/or incomplete information.

The larger remedial objective is to move the mental health system to offer people the opportunity of getting through their psychotic break(s) without or with minimal psychotropic medication and also for people wanting to get off the drugs to be given a real chance to do so.  It is important for us to emphasize we are not against people making an informed decision to take these medications.  We know some people find them helpful and other people who have found them impossible to get off .  We have no problem with them getting the medications.  We do, however, object to people being misled into taking them with the horrific consequences that follow.  

The third objective, and in some ways, maybe even the most important, is to expose, through the litigation process, the truth about these medications and the lies that are being told about them by the pharmaceutical companies and their psychiatrist co-conspirators.  In a lawsuit, both sides can present their evidence and the court, which is at least theoretically a neutral fact-finder, will make a decision about the truth (or at least what is necessary to satisfy the informed consent requirement).  In other words, this is also a lawsuit to put these drugs on trial

Dr. Loren Mosher, former Chief of Schizophrenia Research at the National Institute of Mental Health has agreed to testify on our behalf, as has Dr. Grace Jackson and one other very knowledgeable psychiatrist.   Dr. David Cohen, co-author with Dr. Peter R. Breggin of the seminal book "Your Drug May be Your Problem: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications," has agreed to be our consulting expert to help us put the case together.

I am donating my time as an attorney to the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights pro bono, but there will be a lot of out of pocket expenses involved, mainly expert witness fees and deposition costs.   We need your help to defray these costs.  We would like to have at least $50,000, and $200,000 would be a more comfortable budget to pay these sorts of out-of-pocket costs.  We have $10,000 for this so far and we will very much appreciate your donations in support of this effort.   Checks can be made payable and mailed to:

Law Project for Psychiatric Rights
406 G Street, Suite 206
Anchorage, AK 99501. 

Donations can also be made over the web by going to http://psychrights.org/ and clicking on the donate button.   Donations specifically in support of this litigation should say it is for the "Alaska Informed Consent Case."  Your donations are tax deductible.

Some of you on this list know me very well, some not at all and others everywhere in between.  Thus, it seems desirable to tell a little about myself.  I received my law degree from Harvard Law School in 1978, have been practicing law in Alaska for over 25 years, and a psychiatric survivor.  My recovery story can be found at http://akmhcweb.org/recovery/jgrec.htm.  I was what many consider the main lawyer in a 15 year lawsuit against the State of Alaska for stealing one million acres of land that was granted in trust to the mental health program of Alaska.  This litigation resulted in a settlement valued at approximately One Billion Dollars.  See, http://www.touchngo.com/lglcntr/spclint/mht.htm.

Please give generously.  For you high paid professionals out there, I hope you will devote $1,000 of your charitable giving to this effort.  It seems like most working people could give $100 -- $250 and people on Disability Income could give $5 per month.  Since we are asking for money, we think it is only right that our finances be open.  Therefore, you can find our Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2003, at http://psychrights.org/about/12-31-03BalSheet.pdf and Revenues and Expenses from our November, 2002, inception to December 31st at http://psychrights.org/about/to12-31-03revandexp.pdf.  Questions about our finances are also welcome.

About the Law Project For Psychiatric Rights
 
Since this is our first Newsletter, it seems worthwhile to also point to some additional information about the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights: About this Newsletter

This Newsletter is designed for people we think will be interested in the work of the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights).   We expect to be sending periodic, but not frequent, Newsletters on important developments at PsychRights and around the country with respect to forced drugging and related issues.  If anyone does not want to receive future Newsletters from us, just e-mail me at jim@psychrights.org to that effect.   Since this Newsletter is to notify people of what is going on with PsychRights you all are encouraged to forward it along to people and groups you think might be interested in it.  We also invite you to let people know they can e-mail me to begin receiving their copies.

Thank you all for your attention and support.  Please feel free to call or write with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,


James B. Gottstein, Esquire

Law Project for Psychiatric Rights
406 G Street, Suite 206
Anchorage, Alaska  99501
Phone: (907) 274-7686)  Fax: (907) 274-9493
jim@psychrights.org
psychrights.org

 psychrights
            Law Project for
       Psychiatric Rights

The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights is a public interest law firm devoted to the defense of people facing the horrors of unwarranted forced psychiatric drugging.  We are further dedicated to exposing the truth about these drugs and the duping of the courts into ordering people to be drugged and subjected to brain and body damaging procedures against their will.  Extensive information about this is available on our web site, http://psychrights.org. Please donate generously.  Our work is fueled with your IRS 501(c) tax-deductible donations.  Thank you for your ongoing help and support.