Interviews With Former Foster Kids- Andrew

The drugging of foster children is one of the most important issues in the foster care system. Throughout my research of the topic I encountered many cases such as Andrew's. Andrews case is similar to cases of many children in the foster system. Andrew was placed into the foster care at the age of sixteen for unspecified reasons. He describes himself as an intelligent individual who was placed into a foster home environment in which taking psychiatric drugs was the norm. Andrews story is troubling because he quickly became a drug addict who was determined to do anything for drugs, including gang banging and fighting. Many foster children like Andrew are prescribed drugs as soon as they enter the system even though they have no prior experience with psychiatric drugs.
Andrew directly blames the drugs for his downward spiral because as he claims in the interview, "the drugs took over me." There are also several other instances in which he places the blame on the system that made him take the drugs saying "It wasn't my fault" "I'm not the one who wanted them." These quotes are extremely meaningful because it is coming from someone who's life was changed by his exposure to drugs at the age of 16. At this age, most people can think rationally about their actions in particular what they put in their bodies; so when he naturally questioned his need for the drugs he was told that he needed to take them or else he would get in trouble or have mental issues. Ironically, prior to taking the drugs he had no history of violence or instability and the drugs led to addiction, which in turn caused the exact problems that he was told they would prevent.
Andrew's story makes me question the reasoning behind the mass drugging of foster children. These children are told that they need to take the drugs because it will benefit them and keep them out of trouble. As you will read in my upcoming posts there are many people are benefiting from prescribing psychiatric drugs to foster children