'They Use It Like Candy' - How the Prescription of Psychotropic Drugs to State-Involved Children Violates International Law
Brooklyn Journal of International Law, Vol. 35, pp. 454-513, 2010
62 Pages Posted: 13 Oct 2010
There are 2 versions of this paper
'They Use It Like Candy' - How the Prescription of Psychotropic Drugs to State-Involved Children Violates International Law
'They Use it Like Candy' - How the Prescription of Psychotropic Drugs to State-Involved Children Violates International Law
Date Written: 2010
Abstract
The prescription of psychotropic drugs to children in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. Children in state foster care systems and juvenile prisons are particularly at risk of overmedication with psychotropic drugs. On any given day up to 50% of children in some state foster care systems and juvenile prisons are administered psychotropic drugs, often without documentation or medical justification supporting their use and under conditions that constitute egregious departures from sound medical practice.
The 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances established an international monitoring and control system to protect the public - including children in state custody - from dangers associated with psychotropic drugs. Despite the United States signing this treaty, this Article concludes that the government has violated international law in three significant ways: by failing to prohibit direct-to-consumer advertising in direct violation of the Convention’s explicit prohibition of advertising, by failing to ensure that the drugs are prescribed for legitimate “medical purposes” only, rather than used for non-medical conditions, such as chemical restraints for state-involved children, and by failing to administer psychotropic drugs in accordance with sound medical practices.
These violations have resulted in the unconscionable rise in unwarranted prescription and inappropriate administration of psychotropic drugs to children in state foster care systems and juvenile prisons in the U.S. This Article calls on the United States government to implement regulations and other appropriate measures to ensure compliance with its international legal obligation to protect state-involved children from non-medically-justified administration of psychotropic drugs.
Keywords: Foster Care, Juvenile Facilities, Children, Health, Psychotropic Drugs, International Law
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