Here are some things to look forward to in the future and NOW. You can fly to your favorite destination with a pilot on drugs. In the effort to remove the stigma of mental health the FAA thinks it is a good idea to agree with the unions and allow pilots on mind altering drugs to fly aircraft with you on board.
The drugs allowed are zoloft, celexa, lexapro, prozac. The side effects are minor – just things like agitation, Akathisia (severe restlessness), anxiety, bizarre dreams, confusion, delusions, emotional numbing, hallucinations, violent behavior, headache, sexual dysfunction, heart attacks, hostility, hypomania ( abnormal excitement), impotence, insomnia, loss of appetite, mania, memory lapses, nausea, panic attacks, paranoia, psychotic episodes, seizures, suicidal thoughts or behavior. Fly the friendly skies and you to will be driven to taking these drugs.
Pilots in charge of millions of lives drugged and this is thought to be a good idea. We must work to destigmatize mental illness!! At the risk of others death? Why can’t they drink? Insane decisions by the advisors to our governmental agencies, again. There will be more of this if government health care is going to expand to include all of us.
Newsweek just did an article on the placebo effect when taking pills for depression. Placebo actually are better because there are no side effects. The article cites the FACT that there is no scientific evidence linking seratonin levels to depression. A drug used in France is said to be successful and it lowers the levels not raising them. Junk science. Please look into this issue and scream bloody murder to the airlines. Check out cchr.org and research the drugs for yourself.
You could have a pilot who agrees with using a plane as a weapon under the influence of these drugs. I wonder what Sulley would say to this. How much do reaction times affect a pilot? We spoke recently to a narcotics officer who said the category in traffic citations is “under the influence” and it includes alcohol AND legal AND illegal drugs. There are no separate stats kept. GREAT! Here we go again, more insane health care issues to contend with.