This is Brave New World / 1984 – all the worst dystopias you can possibly imagine. The article describes a proposal to include ‘neurodivergent screening’ at the point of contact in the criminal justice system, with a view to “This approach creates opportunities to divert vulnerable individuals away from the criminal justice process and towards the help they may need.” The article itself is propaganda for the cause. The ‘reporter’ who wrote it appears to have no depth of understanding of what she is writing about. Consider, for example: “Several studies have also reported that ADHD medication can help some people with ADHD improve their impulse control, lowering their risk of criminal behaviour”. Come on. Which studies? Who told you that? Did you look at them? Do you have any idea of the amount of fakery in ‘ADHD studies’? Would you have the skills to critique an ADHD paper, understand the various intellectual dishonesties, the tactics and strategies involved? I would assume not. I suppose ‘reporter’ may just mean, quite literally, simply report what we are told. But; it is more PR for power, than journalism.
But, the usual supine attitude of ‘reporters’ to power aside; let’s consider this proposal. It is, naturally enough, presented as compassionate, fully in line with liberal values. One can see why ‘senior detective’ Dion Brown might be keen on diverting people from his no doubt stretched police booking halls to “improve access to support”. But – what, in practice, does this mean? In practice; it means diverting people with poor impulse control, (you can call this ‘ADHD’ if you like), from prison and punishment to medication. Approximately 50% [1], (numbers vary – this seems quite a low figure), of people with an ADHD ‘diagnosis’ are drugged or (if adults) self-drug, with one of the approved (and profitable for pharma) stimulants or other drugs. So; the idea, basically, is to swap out criminal justice interventions for mental health ones, about 50% of which will lead to drugging with harmful and damaging drugs. [2] That is indeed a Brave New World.
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