Is Ritalin Raising Kids To Be Drug Addicts?

By Phyllis Schlafly

6-26-0

Now that three to four million U.S. schoolchildren are using the controversial stimulant Ritalin, its illicit use is providing a powerful kick to college students, too. Dr. Eric Heiligenstein puts it this way: "The study rooms are as good as some of the local pharmacies" at the University of Wisconsin.

According to an informal investigation, Dr. Heiligenstein found that one in five college students on Ritalin are upping their doses or otherwise misusing their prescriptions. Some share pills with their friends.

Some even crush and snort Ritalin as a substitute for cocaine. Indeed, according to a 1995 Drug Enforcement Administration report, "methylphenidate [the key ingredient in Ritalin] is a central nervous system stimulant and shares many of the pharmacological effects of amphetamine, methamphetamine, and cocaine."

Production of Ritalin increased by nearly 700% between 1990 and 1997, and usage increases every year. The justification for the boom in Ritalin is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), first defined by the American Psychiatric Association in 1980.

The pediatric guidelines for diagnosing ADHD are all subjective; e.g., often has difficulty awaiting turn, occasionally may do things compulsively, easily distracted from tasks, fails to give close attention to details, makes careless mistakes. With such non- scientific behavioral criteria, it's no wonder we hear that extraordinary numbers of children are accused of having ADHD.

Not even the NCAA, the governing body for collegiate sports, bars its athletes from using Ritalin anymore. The NCAA now allows its use, even though Ritalin is prohibited by the U.S. and International Olympic Committees.

One reason for the explosion of Ritalin usage and the inability of the NCAA and other organizations to ban its use can be found in the 1990 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), passed during the Bush Administration. IDEA mandates that "eligible children receive access to special education and/or related services."

The old excuse of "my dog ate my homework" has been replaced by "I got an ADHD diagnosis." Since this labeling brings more money into the schools, it's not surprising that schools often pressure parents to get an ADHD diagnosis and put their child on Ritalin.

It's also in the school's interest to deal with behavioral and discipline problems, especially of boys, with a drug. It's so easy to use Ritalin to make kids compliant: to get them to sit down, shut up, and do what they're told.

Advantages of an ADHD classification also inure to college students. Requests for extra time to complete the SATs, MCATs and LSATs, based on an ADHD claim, substantially increased during the 1990s.

At an Ivy League school, a student can merely present a doctor's letter and some pills to obtain extra time for routine assignments. Whittier Law School was sued by an ADHD student for providing only 20 extra minutes instead of a full extra hour for an exam that was only scheduled to be an hour long.

Many high school shootings have been linked to prescribed mind-altering drugs. Oregon high school killer Kip Kinkel had been given Ritalin and Prozac, Columbine killer Eric Harris had taken another psychotropic drug, Georgia high school student T.J. Solomon had been on Ritalin prior to his alleged shooting spree, and Oklahoma middle school student Seth Trickey was on two drugs described to have psychotic effects when he allegedly shot at four students.

According to a study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, about one percent of children aged 2 to 4 are using Ritalin or Ritalin-like drugs, and that percentage is increasing rapidly. Ritalin has not been approved by the FDA for use by children under age six.

Many believe that a diagnosis of ADHD is nearly impossible to make in preschoolers because behaviors that are considered signs of the disorder in older children are normal behaviors for toddlers.

Judy Garland's dependence on Ritalin was poignantly described in her daughter Lorna Luft's book, "Me and My Shadows."

John Silber, Chancellor of Boston University, says that the "principal attraction of Ritalin is that it is a comparatively cheap way to get symptomatic relief. ... It is in fact a classic example of a cheap fix: low-cost, simple and purely superficial."

Matthew Smith began taking Ritalin at age six. This March, at age 14, he was still on Ritalin when he suddenly collapsed while skateboarding and died that same evening.

Oakland County (MI) Medical Examiner Ljubisa Dragovic determined the cause of death to be Ritalin. Matthew's "long-term exposure to stimulants" was the only explanation he could find.

Pressure rained down on Dr. Dragovic to change his conclusion, but he held firm, saying: "I'm not telling people what to do with their children or patients. These are our findings. Take them or leave them."

A parent should agree to place a child on Ritalin only after an examination by the child's own physician (not the school's) and the parent is satisfied that there isn't some medical or behavioral problem that might better be treated in another way. Parents should be alert to the conflict of interest in allowing school employees to dictate treatment for their children.

Phyllis Schlafly Column 6-21-00

-- xyz (a@b.c), June 27, 2000

Answers

When I was growing up and got "antsy", my little butt would be hustled outdoors to ride my bike, play on the swings at the park, climb trees, (or when appropriate, shovel the sidewalk, maybe build snowmen) etc. to burn off all that excess kiddie energy. These days the standard M.O. seems to be "medicate the kid." What a tragic message we're sending to our youth! Is is that parents and teachers are too lazy, too overworked, too blind to see the damage they're doing, or have they simply bought into "Better living through pharmaceuticals" crap?

Here's one instance where the "War on Drugs" has fallen short, much to the detriment of our future generations.

-- LunaC (Sh@kingMyHead.com), June 27, 2000.

And interesting choice of posts here - one dealing with gun control and this one about possible overuse of Ritalin. I think we could do a lot better by controlling Ritalin more than controlling guns.

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), June 27, 2000.

Ritalin is an Upper for adults but somehow it calms down hyper kids. How does this work? At what age does it start affecting kids as if they were adults?

Interesting point about the "war" on drugs. Libertarians--how would you handle this?

-- (lars@indy.net), June 27, 2000.

Anyone who gives drugs to children to make them "behave" is guilty of child abuse. Adults have the right to decide to put whatever they want to into their bodies; children need love and attention from their parents, not stimulants.

-- Steve Heller (Steve@SteveHeller.com), June 27, 2000.

Steve Heller said:

"Anyone who gives drugs to children to make them "behave" is guilty of child abuse."

Mr. Heller, that's your opinion, and you're welcome to it. I know quite a few judges who would differ with you. I also wonder what first-hand experience you have with ADD sufferers, either adults or children?

"Adults have the right to decide to put whatever they want to into their bodies;"

Actually, no, they don't. I know quite a few judges and law enforcement officers who would argue the contrary. Some of the LEOs would happily take you downtown to be booked, Danno, should they find out about you putting certain whatever-you-want substances into your body.

"children need love and attention from their parents,"

I agree with this. Parental love and attention often seems in short supply. Parental discipline seems lacking, too.

"not stimulants."

I'm not sure exactly who you are to make this assertion. Are you a medical professional? Or simply a concerned individual? You seem woefully uninformed about both the law and ADD.

-- Sal Monella (too.much@lawschool.org), June 28, 2000.

Ritalin is a stimulant for people who don't have ADD. People who do have ADD do not react to Ritalin in the same way because their brain chemistry is different. Moreover, Ritalin, when taken orally, takes up to 30 minutes to reach the system, which makes it useless for people who are looking for a cocaine-like high. It is only when Ritalin is snorted that it creates the high. Of course, if we outlawed every drug that could possibly be abused, the only thing we would have on the market would be penicillin.

Ironically, Ritalin was invented as a diet drug. It wasn't very successful because of its effect on the average person, however, researchers noticed that it had a focusing effect on people who had "minimal brain dysfunction" (the old medical term for ADD). It has been used since the 50's with a very safe record.

-- Citizen Ruth (ruth_parker@yahoo.com), June 28, 2000.

Phyllis Schlafly? I haven't heard that name in YEARS.

I agree that parents should look long and hard at the alternatives before putting their kids on ANY drug. We discussed this in another thread a while back, and I stated then that at least two of my three kids probably would have been diagnosed with ADHD. I still see some of the symptoms in my kids: "occasionally may do things compulsively, easily distracted from tasks, fails to give close attention to details, makes careless mistakes." Then again, I see those symptoms in MYSELF.

One thing I didn't like about this article was this paragraph:

"Many high school shootings have been linked to prescribed mind- altering drugs. Oregon high school killer Kip Kinkel had been given Ritalin and Prozac, Columbine killer Eric Harris had taken another psychotropic drug, Georgia high school student T.J. Solomon had been on Ritalin prior to his alleged shooting spree, and Oklahoma middle school student Seth Trickey was on two drugs described to have psychotic effects when he allegedly shot at four students."

The implication here is that ritalin or another drug was the cause of this behavior. My feel is that behavior problems were present and in some cases ritalin was prescribed to CONTROL the problems. My daughter dated a fellow in high- school who used ritalin. If he didn't take the drug, he got into fights. I don't know enough about the drug to suggest that he would have gotten into fights had he NEVER taken it, or suggest that he got into fights due to drug withdrawal symptoms, but it seems that a few mentioned in the article had been taking the drug PRIOR to their outbursts of uncontrolled behavior.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), June 28, 2000.

Sorry about that.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), June 28, 2000.

My reaction to ritalin & ADHD is the same as yours Luna.

Growing up in the 1960' & 1970's presented me with far less stimuli, far fewer choices to make than kids face(d) in subsequent years.

If it had been the trend to medicate kids with behavioral problems during my childhood I would have had a much easier time becoming a drug addict. And the habit would have been paid for by someone else! Of course me being a contrarian, if I was told I HAD to take a mind- altering substance I wouldn't have done it without being tied down & injected.

Agreed Anita. That paragraph stood out like your unclosed HTML tag's effects - boldly. Schlafly was reaching throughout the article, looking to plant a seed in the readers' minds.

I've aired my views before on allopathic medicine. Symptoms are too often treated as entities unto themselves. And the treatments are sometimes more injurious than the original symptoms ever were. Find the SOURCE of the symptoms. First do no harm? Lip service.

Schlafly doesn't present any semblance of balance in this article. It is a smear, nothing more. Should I be surprised?

-- Bingo1 (howe9@shentel.net), June 28, 2000.

Sal Monella:

A very apt nickname, by the way, considering your position. Note that I did not say that the current corrupt government recognizes the individual right that I referred to; it doesn't, any more than it recognizes any other individual rights that it finds inconvenient. For that reason, I do not use or possess any "illegal drugs".

As for my experience with "ADD sufferers": I'm sure I would have been diagnosed with this "disease", had it been invented when I was a teenager. I was extremely bored and restless during those years, as a result of being confined in the so-called "public education" system.

By the way, since you are a lawyer, what's the difference between mandatory "education" and prisons? Answer: prisoners get time off for good behavior.

-- Steve Heller (Steve@SteveHeller.com), June 28, 2000.