"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Everybody Must Get Stoned

by West Virginia Rebel

Remember, drugs are bad-except for the ones the government forces you to take.

The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people who have been drugged.

The government’s forced use of antipsychotic drugs, in people who have no history of mental illness, includes dozens of cases in which the “pre-flight cocktail,” as a document calls it, had such a potent effect that federal guards needed a wheelchair to move the slumped deportee onto an airplane.
.....

Involuntary chemical restraint of detainees, unless there is a medical justification, is a violation of some international human rights codes. The practice is banned by several countries where, confidential documents make clear, U.S. escorts have been unable to inject deportees with extra doses of drugs during layovers en route to faraway places.

Federal officials have seldom acknowledged publicly that they sedate people for deportation. The few times officials have spoken of the practice, they have understated it, portraying sedation as rare and “an act of last resort.” Neither is true, records and interviews indicate.

Records show that the government has routinely ignored its own rules, which allow deportees to be sedated only if they have a mental illness requiring the drugs, or if they are so aggressive that they imperil themselves or people around them.

Stung by lawsuits over two sedation cases, the agency changed its policy in June to require a court order before drugging any deportee for behavioral rather than psychiatric reasons. In at least one instance identified by The Post, the agency appears not to have followed those rules.

In the five years since its creation, ICE has stepped up arrests and removals of foreigners who are in the country illegally, have been turned down for asylum or have been convicted of a crime in the past.

Hey, protecting Amurka is a tough job…

Comments

Posted by on 05/14/08 at 04:33 PM from

WTF is with this constant “Amurka” refrain?  What exactly is the point, and why do you keep using it?

Posted by on 05/14/08 at 05:37 PM from

I posted about this when WVR actually used the phrase when writing about how a Chinese plant was manufacturing “Free Tibet” flags and WVR said something like, “They tookur flags!”

I guess he thinks he’s being clever referencing a South Park episode that aired over 4 years ago even when the attempt utterly fails and is uncomfortable to see, kind of like when a small child attempts to play a musical instrument in public after a few musical lessons.

For example, why would a stereotypical redneck give a shit about freeing Tibet? He wouldn’t. And what kind of stereotypical redneck feels strongly about this particular issue? Hell, does ANYONE feel strongly about this particular issue? Based on the dearth of comments, the answer is clearly no.

Posted by on 05/14/08 at 06:44 PM from

Beware the rath of WVR.
10 pointless posts will teach you haters.

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