February 14, 2000

DRUGGING OUR KIDS HAS DEADLY SIDE EFFECTS

     .... The primary social concern is that normal kids getting into trouble in the classroom eventually become targets for “behavioral modification” using Ritalin. Since Ritalin also stimulates the same receptor sites in the brain as cocaine, “coming down” from a perpetual Ritalin high could be a problem for any kid.  There is also the concern that it might lead to illicit drug use in the late teens/early 20's when most individuals finally get off this drug. What has essentially happened here is the substitution of Ritalin for the “old fashioned” kinds of school discipline allowed in the dim past.
     The really sad situation is the use of the popular selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). In a high percentage (for drug side effects), individuals using these drugs suffer from mania, “a psychosis characterized by exalted feelings, delusions of grandeur....and overproduction of
ideas.” Apparently in the FDA trials of one of the popular SSRIs, one out of seven people had to drop out due to these undesirable side effects.  If this wasn't bad enough, the remaining users lose their humanity -- they stop caring about anything and become zombie-like. It may also be of interest to note that the SSRIs were developed by the same people who brought
us LSD. SSRIs exhibit some of the same effects as “acid.”

WASHINGTON TIMES (Letters to the Editor)


DRUGS EASILY ACCESSIBLE FOR TODAY'S KIDS

     I wonder whether people realize how bad the drug problem is in the schools. Sure, we all know drugs are there, but we get used to things, don't think about them. It's easy not to see the magnitude of the problem. Maybe you think drugs means marijuana. I got news. Anything you have ever heard of is available in your kid's high school. Does that sound extreme? OK, I'll be cautious.
     Unless your child goes to an unusual school, almost any drug of abuse most people have heard of is available. That statement I'll stick with. Are you a fossil who remembers the “60's?”
     Kids today know as much about drugs, and have as much access, as you did.  And they know this stuff in the 10th grade........
     Recently I wrote a column about Ritalin, used to drug kids with attention deficit disorder (ADD), a possibly existent condition involving fidgeting and disruptive behavior.
     Detective Stone says abuse of Ritalin is extreme. Probably among teens in the District it's neck-in-neck with marijuana as a drug of abuse.....

WASHINGTON TIMES  (POLICE BEAT)


February 23, 2000

PRESCRIPTIONS FOR PSYCHIATRIC MEDICATIONS FOR CHILDREN YOUNGER THAN 4 JUMPED IN THE EARLY 1990'S, EXPERTS SAY

     In a finding that the medical experts called “troubling” and “very surprising,” researchers are reporting today that the number of preschoolers taking stimulants, anti-depressants and other psychiatric drugs rose sharply from 1991 to 1995.
     Few of the drugs, (Dr. Julie Magno) Zito and other experts said, are approved by the Food and Drug Administrations for treating children of preschool age.

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE