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SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: THE RITALIN EPIDEMIC You Won't Hear DARE Talk About the 'Performance in a Pill Trend in Public Schools That is Turning Our Children into a Nation of Drug Addicts By Kay Dodger Well, Moms and Dads its back to school time again! Of course you've gathered the necessary items your tykes will need to insure optimum performance in their academic endeavors, right? Let's go over that checklist, shall we? Backpack? Check. Notebooks? Check. Good old #2 pencils? Check. Psychotropic drugs and amphetamines? Check. What? America's penchant to create better children through chemistry has placed performance in a pill front and center in schools across our country. Currently, 4 -6 million children receive doses of drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall in an effort to make them do what their parents and teachers either won't or can't. Sit down, shut up, pay attention and conform. Why are we as a nation, placidly allowing and even actively participating in the wholesale drugging of our children? Nonconformity as a medical condition was developed in 1980 when the American Psychiatric Association voted in committee to include a new disorder in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders labeled Attention Deficit Disorder. Specifically aimed at suppressing unwanted behaviors in the classroom, the diagnosis is based on the presence of 6 of 9 behaviors on a list. No laboratory analysis, brain scan or competency test is needed - just pencil, paper and subjective opinion. There is no need to examine the child's life in context as it relates to the breakdown of family and the educational system, appalling nutrition or inadequate parenting. They are just given a label and the parents and teachers are off the hook. The child has a brain disorder. Right? Wrong! Our own government has issued statements regarding the epidemic of this Designer Disease: "We acknowledge that the condition currently known as ADHD has been historically controversial and that as yet no distinct patho-physiology for the disorder has been delineated" -Paul Leber, M.D. of the FDA during Congressional Testimony "We are also unaware that ADHD has ever been validated as a biologic/organic syndrome or disease". - Gene Haislipp M.D. of the FDA during Congressional Testimony "We do not have an independent valid test for ADHD, and there are no
data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction. Further research to
establish the validity of the disorder continues to be a problem".
- National Institute of Health
The International Narcotics Control Board agency of the World Health organization charged that "10 - 12% of all boys between the ages of 6 -14 in the U. S. have been diagnosed as having ADD and are being treated with Methylphenidate." School-aged children can recite the DARE catechism by heart while walking down the hall to get their own personal dose of kiddy cocaine. Don't let the pharmaceutical giants fool you folks. That's exactly what it is. Ritalin is pharmacological equivalent of cocaine. In fact, according to the DEA, humans and primates choose Ritalin over cocaine in preference studies. Why? It stays in the brain longer. More bang for your buck courtesy of Ciba-Geigy, the drug manufacturer. Ritalin and Adderall are Schedule II drugs in the same class as morphine, PCP, cocaine and methamphetamine. The DEA even admits they "produce behavioral, psychological and reinforcing effects of amphetamine, meth and cocaine, including euphoria, drug liking and activity." These drugs create such a potential for abuse that they were banned in Sweden way back in 1968. Don't panic! This is not a global problem. This disease seems to be respecting geographical boundaries as the U. S. consumes 93% of all the Ritalin produced in the world. Prior to 1991, only 2,000 prescriptions a year were written for Ritalin. By the year 2000, the number had increased to 11 million. Amphetamine scripts (usually Adderall) increased from 1.3 million in 1996 to 6 million in 1999! Adderall, by the way, was originally developed and prescribed as an appetite suppressant for the seriously obese but has enjoyed far more success as the panacea for ADD/ADHD. But wait, it gets better! 40% of the scripts written for ADHD were written for children 3-9 years of age and many for toddlers 2 years old or less. Even the drug manufacturer cautions that these drugs should never be used on children under 6 years old. Are the doctors writing these prescriptions providing that information to these parents? What other information are they withholding? Did you know that once he's a class II drug user labeled with a "personality disorder", little Johnny could no longer be an astronaut? The U.S. Military Recruitment Manual lists personality, conduct, and behavior disorders and use of medication to improve or maintain academic skills as cause for rejection for enlistment. Did you know that amphetamines enhance everyone's focus whether they have a disorder or not? When the drugs are given and the child becomes focused, the psychiatrist says, "See, he was diseased, he responded to the treatment." It has been said that this is equivalent to checking to see if a child is sober by giving him alcohol to see if he gets drunk. Did you know that the criteria used to define ADD/ADHD is nearly identical to that used to define giftedness? (Barkley/Webb) Did you also know that a large percentage of those diagnosed have an above average I.Q.? ADD-Difficulty adhering to rules and regulation Gifted-Questions rules, customs and traditions ADD-More active, restless than normal children Gifted-High activity level; may need less sleep Does it ever occur to us that we are being cleverly manipulated by the omnipotent drug manufacturers into drugging America's brightest and best? Perhaps our society needs to see these behaviors as a child's cry for help instead of labeling them defective and forcing their compliance with a chemical straightjacket. Only then will we begin to reprioritize our parental responsibilities and involvement and restructure our public policy to more appropriately address the needs of our children. Editor's Note: This is Kay's first contribution to The Review. When submitting this story for publication Kay noted the following: "This all started when the school suggested I put my then 6 yr. old on this crap. I let them have it and demanded IEP's, smaller class size and teaching assistance. I finally told them if they'd do a Torrence and a Weschler test on my child I'd drop my demands (which were perfectly legal under the learning disabilities act and IDEA)." "They tested her and found she has an IQ of 162. Since then she is reading at an 11th grade level with comprehension at about 9th grade. It takes more involvement on my part, but so far, so good. She's in a gifted school and doing very well." "An old friend of mine said it best when my puppy was hyperactive and her behavior seemed beyond my control. The vet suggested puppy Prozac. My old friend had the solution: "All you've got to be, Kay, is smarter than the dog".
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