Medication-for-Services Declared Unconstitutional

Anaxagoras Station, Lagrange Orbital Colonial Authority -- 15 May 2057:  The LOCA Regional Civil Court has found this day for the plaintiff in Helsen v. Anaxagoras Station, declaring that it is unconstitutional for local ordnances to require that psychiatric patients submit to drug testing to prove that they are taking prescribed medications to "control their illness" in order to access locally-managed services such as free food, water, and air dispensaries, hyperlayer access, doss lockers, and employment assurance.  Speaking for a unanimous majority, the Honourable Judge Alin Mantarean states that "what is to one person a 'psychiatric illness' which needs to be controlled is for an increasing number an integral part of their identity as a person, one which the Constitution Accord now recognizes as inalienable and does not permit us to attempt to coerce them into altering.  To deny a person government-guaranteed services based on whether they are or are not using consciousness-altering drugs is tantamount to neurotypicalism, and is not something this court will tolerate."

The Interplanetary Neurodiversities Federated Organization issued a press release hailing the decision as "a major step forward for freedom of thought and the rights of those who think differently."  The INFO coordinated a campaign to raise money for legal counsel to represent Gerhard Helsen, a person of leisure who considers schizopherenia to be an integral part of who he is.  The organization hopes to apply the decision to overturn similar ordnances in cities, townships and stations across the system.  These laws became common after the Teegan Amendment to the Constitution Accord enshrined "neuromorphic freedom", or the freedom to allow or induce one's mind to function in any way one wishes.  Tork Flagelblad, a spokesperson for the Anaxagoras Board of Directors, called the ruling "utterly ludicrous.  I mean, yeah yeah, neurodiversity, hip hooray.  The reality is that people with serious illnesses are not getting the medical treatment they need, and our system was designed to help with that.  All respect to Mr. Helsen and his beliefs, but in order to maintain the public peace, people need to at least be on the same planet.  They can't be shoting at their invisible friends or having a bipolar meltdown.  What you do in the privacy of your own home is your own business, but we can't have these kinds of things happening in public hostels or at jobs gained through Employment Assurance.  There needs to be some kind of order."