Police: Let us Sedate Suspects

I don't even know where to begin with this... In my eyes the police already have more than enough control over suspects as it is. I can just see horrible things happening to some people who are sedated. You would not be able to properly recall what went on while you were sedated and to me that is enough to say hell no to this proposal.

POLICE want the power to order dangerous suspects to be injected with a sedative. They claim this would help them deal with people suffering from Excited Delirium Syndrome, a condition said to give victims very high levels of strength and aggression.

Allowing paramedics to sedate such people could reduce deaths in custody, the Police Federation believes. Only doctors or other medics can currently decide who is given drugs and officers cannot restrain anyone while a sedative is administered.

Helen Shaw from Inquest, a group for families who have lost loved ones in custody-related deaths, said: “These proposals are dangerous, particularly if the medication triggers a bad reaction.”

www.express.co.uk...

how horrible...they need to stick with old methods, such as..

beatings and the good 'ol taser.

If I get arrested i'll take the Zanex or Ativan instead of a billy club or rubber hose, thankyou.

side-effects are less dangerous.

[edit on 19-4-2010 by wrathchild]

This is absolutely outrageous. I fall into the category of one of these 2 medical professionals. The reason it is left to medical personnel to decide, is because it is a MEDICAL decision!

Can a police officer make a medical decision? Do most even understand the pharmacodynamics of the drugs that are normally used to sedate combative patients? What about drug interactions?

Most people who medical personnel see who are combative are not combative because they are resisting or fighting. They are combative because they have a legitimate medical issue. Sometimes it is hypoglycemia...low blood sugar. Other times it is from a patient being postictal...after a seizure.

Sometimes it indicates a head injury. Or even a stroke. I have had a patient be combative because he was severely hypoxic....very low oxygen. Giving a patient sedatives who was as severely hypoxic as this patient was would have been fatal. Is this something the police can take into consideration? Or even diagnose?

Are the police going to be medically liable for making the paramedics or physicians sedate the patient? NO. Why? They have no medical license.

Maybe there is another reason they want to give these drugs out. Most patients who are sedated are sedated using either haloperidol(Haldol), or midazolam(Versed.)

When people think of truth serums, everyone always thinks of sodium thiopental, also known as Sodium Pentothal. Midazolam is a benzodiazepine along with drugs like Ativan, Xanax and Valium. However, what most people don't know, is Versed, when given in the right doses is a much better "truth serum" than most anything else out there.

My guess is they want people to be given Versed. It has an amnesiac agent to it, so people can't remember what has happened to them, and it will make them tell the truth. This is a very very dangerous situation here. In more ways than one.

I can not see this being allowed at all by the courts or the medical community.

[edit on 20-4-2010 by webpirate]

reply to post by webpirate


Nice post webpirate, I agree with what you had to say and never even thought about a truth serum being used. I also agree that police are not medical professionals and therefore they have no right to decide who would benefit from being sedated. So many things could go wrong that this is just ludicrous.

This is really interesting to see because I just finished watching the old movie THX-1138 a few minutes ago. As most of you are probably aware, it is about an entire society where everyone is required by law to take sedatives and/or other forms of medication. There are some really choice quotes in there.

"If you feel you are not properly sedated, call 348-844 immediately. Failure to do so may result in prosecution for criminal drug evasion."

When I first saw this years ago I took it as sci-fi but now it doesn't seem as implausable as it once did to contemplate not only legal but REQUIRED sedation. "Cures" that involve the pathologization of normal human emotional experience and response in order to make humanity conform to a perverse society.

Such a process would almost certainly start with criminals in prison, etc., and even before that with cases like that mentioned in the OP... "on the spot" sedation.

if someone is being extreamly violent ..the police are called.

If a person is combative and appears there might be a medical issue..or a drug issue..usually an ambulance is also called.

Police may not be "medically trained" to the extent of a paramedic..but they have really good instincts with their massive experience dealing with the dregs of society and, their judgment in these matters should be given some credit.

Of course if they are wrong they should be held accountable like any medical professional would be if they made a mistake.

I think a passive drug like Zanex or Ativan would be a much more humane tool than beating a violent person into submission .

Not all police are "storm-troopers" .I speak from some experience.



[edit on 20-4-2010 by wrathchild]

Having good instincts and being a medical professional are two very different things.

Also in my eyes the police have no right to put ANY foreign substance in anyone's body against their will.

@Silent- thats sounds like quite the movie. I think we are on our way to being sedated with all of the chemicals in our water and food so that angle is not all that far fetched in my mind.

reply to post by TV_Nation


So how should police deal with extreamly violent or combative people??

Force??.....do they have the right to use a taser?? maybe knock them out with a baton???..

Not suggesting some mind controlling drug... just a Zanex or two..very passive

Ever done a Zanex or a Ativan??? nothing better..these criminals will likely thank the police for the nice buzz.

Sure beats the alternative.

Valium, 10mg would be alright, i guess.



Who'd complain???