NEWS RELEASE -- MARCH 1, 2001

NAMI GLUE SCANDAL KEEPS RAISING A STINK

"MENTAL HEALTH" GROUP LEAVES A STICKY MESS WHEN THEY FIRE THEIR EDITOR, CANCEL THEIR OWN PUBLICATION, AND THEN GLUE PAGES TOGETHER

*SEE* THE GLUED PAGES... WHAT IS NAMI TRYING TO HIDE?

NAMI MEMBERS, OTHER GROUPS, REBEL

Two months after they censored their own journal, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill California chapter is still coming unglued... and some members are rebelling.

For those just tuning into this bizarre story:

The NAMI- California board of directors, led by board president Brian Jacobs, canceled their own journal, fired the editor, and then hired a vocational rehabilitation program composed of people with psychiatric labels to glue pages together in thousands of copies to try to censor two articles.

NOW YOU CAN SEE a photograph of the pages that were glued together... as they are peeled back!
http://mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/namicensored.shtml

Irony of ironies -- one of the glued pages included a reproduction of the Bill of Rights. (Guess which Amendment happened to end up shredded by the glue in the above photograph?... See for yourself!)

NAMI MEMBERS AND OTHER GROUPS SPEAK OUT:

The Santa Cruz County chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill is leading the way in speaking out. The editor of their publication, Anna Haulenbeek-Huskey , has broken the silence in their publication with an article. And this article is on their web page (with the photo):
http://www.namiscc.org/newsletters/March01/gluedpages.htm

Apparently, Dan's original transgression was criticizing fraudulent statistics promoted by psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey, in the Treatment Advocacy Center's push for more forced psychiatric drugging. These false statistics demonized people with psychiatric labels.

The National Stigma Clearinghouse news item for _February 18, 2001_ also broke the silence:
http://community-2.webtv.net/stigmanet/STIGMAHOMEPAGE/index.html#news

You can read the original "NAMI unglued" alert from Support Coalition International by clicking on the below link. It includes ways you can speak out against the censorship:
http://mindfreedom.org/mindfreedom/news/010201.shtml

WHAT OTHER SECRETS DOES NAMI HAVE?

Those pages aren't the only thing NAMI wants to hide. Despite NAMI's own Consumer Council voting for full disclosure last year, NAMI is still refusing to reveal the amounts of money they get from the psychiatric drug industry.

_Mother Jones_ and Support Coalition International investigated and found out that NAMI drug company money primarily goes to a slush fund with a top priority: To push a program that uses coerced at-home psychiatric drug deliveries to people living in the community! (Watch the news this month, March 2001, because this story has been nominated one of the top under-reported stories of the year by the widely-read Project Censored.)

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE GLUE SHOP -- WHO ORDERED IT?

Several concerned NAMI members want to clear something up: The gluing and censorship of the NAMI journal was the work of the newly-elected NAMI California board of directors, not any local chapter, not the national group. In fact, to clear up a mystery, the NAMI California board itself chose the glue. (And while sometimes the pages can be easily pulled apart, sometimes peeling does destroy patches of print on the censored pages.)

The director of the vocational rehabilitation program, Turning Point, which did the gluing says they feel tricked by NAMI. When Turning Point agreed to the job, they had no idea it involved a controversial censorship. The director said they would have refused if they'd been fully informed.

To get the other side of the story from NAMI California itself, we phoned up Brian Jacobs, the NAMI California board president. Mr. Jacobs said he refused to comment to this reporter. The reason? "Several things you've written," said Mr. Jacobs (thankfully, this reporter was not within range of Mr. Jacobs' glue brush). Mr. Jacobs said he is totally willing to speak with others, however, as long as they are not rude. Please keep any inquiries civil. Mr. Jacobs' direct phone number as provided by NAMI is (562) 438-4174.