From: "Ray Thomas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
RITALIN: Violence Against Boys
Forced Altruism List 11/9/1999
Reposting permitted in complete form with the contact information at the end
intact.
Many people ignore it when their school authorities drug their children into
insensibility in order to "calm them down." This is why it's wrong:
---------- Forwarded Message ----------
From: INTERNET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
DATE: 11/6/99 12:56 PM
RE: Konformist: RITALIN: Violence Against Boys
Please send as far and wide as possible.
Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com
RITALIN: Violence Against Boys
Thursday, November 04, 1999
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The Massachusetts News Prints Scathing Review of Ritalin
see: http://www.massnews.com/vioboy.htm
It's good to see a media source with the guts and moral integrity to call
the epidemic coercive and unethical doping of children exactly what it is:
"VIOLENCE." (See my argument that it violates The Nuremberg Code:
http://www.erols.com/igoddard/nazi-rit.htm)
The fact that almost all the children being targeted for suppression by
Ritalin are boys is a clue as to what's happening: boyhood is being defined
as an illness. Having failed to heed the warnings of Dr. Thomas Szasz
(http://www.enabling.org/ia/szasz/index.html), the psychiatric label game is
entrapping an ever-larger segment of society, subjecting more and more
people to the brain-disabling treatments of psychiatry. Hit with a
psychiatric label, a target is psychologically injured, a drug is then
offered as the cure, but the addictive drug is a trap that, by inducing
injurious brain dysfunction, renders the subject helpless and at the mercy
of the psychiatric establishment.
One of the most important thinkers of our time, Peter Breggin, MD, as
defined this scenario:
"I have coined the term iatrogenic helplessness and denial (IHAD) to
designate the guiding principle of biopsychiatric interventions. It
describes how the biological psychiatrist uses authoritarian techniques,
enforced by brain-disabling interventions, to produce increased helplessness
and dependency on the part of the patient.
"Iatrogenic helplessness and denial include the patient's and the doctor's
mutual denial of the damaging impact of the treatment, as well as their
mutual denial of the patient's underlying psychological and situational
problems. Overall, iatrogenic helplessness and denial account for the
frequency with which psychiatry has been able to utilize brain-damaging
technologies, such as electroshock and psychosurgery, as well as toxic
medications."
"Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry," page 11
(http://www.breggin.com/prbbooks.html)
And now here's the article from The Massachusetts News
THE MASSACHUSETTS NEWS
http://www.massnews.com/vioboy.htm
RITALIN: VIOLENCE AGAINST BOYS
Drug is being used to sedate active, young boys
November 1--If Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer were in a school in
Massachusetts today, they'd be drugged with Ritalin, according to many
psychiatrists and other experts. The drug is being used to sedate active,
young boys because the teachers are unable to relate to them. It is in the
same psychoactive category as cocaine.
Somewhere between 29,000 and 48,000 children in Massachusetts' public
schools are operating under the influence of Ritalin -- and they are almost
all boys. The income to the drug company is between $30 to $60 per month per
medicated child. A prominent psychiatrist tells Massachusetts News that one
of the key problems for children today, which may be causing the increase in
the number of children diagnosed as mentally ill, is the increase in
fatherless families.
He is Dr. Peter Breggin, director of the International Center for the Study
of Psychiatry and Psychology in Bethesda, Maryland, who published an article
in The Boston Globe last month on its editorial page under the headline,
"Kids Are Suffering Legal Drug Abuse." However, it did not mention the
gender problem. Breggin wrote:
"In a society that's supposed to accept and even value differences, drugging
shy children reflects an extreme of enforced conformity... We are the first
adults to handle the generation gap through the wholesale drugging of our
children. We may be guaranteeing that future generations will be relatively
devoid of people who think critically, raise painful questions, generate
productive conflicts, or lead us to new spiritual and political insights."
Dr. Breggin tells Massachusetts News that most children who have been
labeled as having "Attention Deficit Disorder," don't get enough attention
from their fathers. The parents may be divorced. Or the dads are preoccupied
with their work or other things. "The 'cure' for these children is more
rational and loving attention from their dads," says Breggin. "Young people
are nowadays so hungry for the attention of a father that it can come from
any male adult. Seemingly impulsive, hostile groups of children will calm
down when a caring, relaxed and firm adult male is around."
Many of these children are receiving Ritalin from their school nurse. It is
supposed to help these hyperactive youngsters focus on their work. Yet
whether the drug is even needed isn't clear; doctors and scientists are
split on the issue. And many critics worry that mothers and fathers, schools
and doctors may be medicating kids who only need traditional discipline and
love -- not a pill.
New York Times Writes About Massachusetts' Problem
The New York Times wrote a story earlier this year about the problem that
these drugs are causing for overworked school nurses in Massachusetts. Janet
Douglass, a director of the School Health Institute at the University of
Massachusetts at Lowell, said that in a recent visit to a nearby elementary
school she had been struck by the overall level of medication.
"I think they give out more psychotropic medication than a psych hospital
did when I did psych," she said. "Not just Ritalin, but heavy-duty
psychiatric medications."
The Times reported that a survey of Boston schools showed that the nurses
had given about 200,000 doses of medication. "But school officials said the
survey was imperfect and the actual number of doses was probably higher."
The exact number of Massachusetts children on Ritalin isn't known because no
one apparently keeps track of the prescriptions except the drug makers, and
they're not talking. [No kidding. -RT]
Abuse in New England Prep Schools
The abuse of Ritalin as a recreational drug is also a problem. It was first
seen in New England prep schools, according to Dr. Eric Heiligenstein, head
of psychiatry for the University of Wisconsin Health Services. "Ritalin
abuse was first noticed at New England prep schools where access is easy
because so many students have Ritalin prescriptions -- often not warranted
by medical need." According to the DEA, at least one in 30 Americans between
ages 5 and 19 has a Ritalin prescription.
Because it has nearly the same chemical makeup as cocaine and speed, Ritalin
is often abused. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reports that
Ritalin "ranks in the 'Top 10' controlled drugs stolen from doctors and
pharmacies." Kids crush the Ritalin pills into powder and snort it or inject
it.
Last fall, four youths allegedly stole 27 bottles of pills from the nurse's
office at Westford Academy, reported the Boston Herald. Sixteen of the
bottles contained Ritalin. Other bottles held the depressant Lorazepam. In
1996, a girl at Duxbury High School overdosed on Ritalin and was
hospitalized. With more public schools handing out Ritalin to more and more
kids, there's more drug abuse. Some students even sell their Ritalin
prescriptions.
A Harvard undergraduate, "David Green," says that he frequently snorted
Ritalin to help speed through his homework. "In all honesty, I haven't
written a paper without Ritalin since my junior year in high school," said
Green. "I even wrote my Harvard essay on it. It keeps you up when you're
tired, and makes you much more aware of what you're doing. Although there
are certain risks involved, I think it's worth it."
Another Harvard student, Nick Grossman, said that he knew many Ritalin
abusers at Harvard. "It was largely a prep school drug, and it spread out
from there," he said. "I know a lot of people who do it."
A recent study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley --
a study of 500 children over 26 years -- found that Ritalin is basically a
"gateway" drug to other drugs, in particular, cocaine. Lead researcher
Nadine Lambert, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, concluded that
Ritalin "makes the brain more susceptible to the addictive power of cocaine
and doubles the risk of abuse."
Dr. Breggin says: "Our society viewed with loathing those who 'pushed'
stimulant drugs on children. Yet today, there are more children taking
Ritalin and amphetamine from doctors than ever received them from illegal
pushers."
The Problem -- Not The Solution
Dr. Breggin tells Massachusetts News: "These drugs can make you psychotic.
They can cause the same problems they're supposed to treat -- inattention,
hyperactivity and impulsive behavior." Meanwhile, other sources show that
the number of Ritalin users nationwide keeps going up every year -- about 4
million kids today, up from 1 million in 1990. Production of Ritalin is way
up, as well -- a 700% increase since 1990, according to the New York Times.
Dr. Breggin, author of Talking Back to Ritalin and co-author of Talking Back
to Prozac, says that, "Ritalin does not correct biochemical imbalances -- it
causes them. Pediatricians, parents and teachers are not aware of these
hazards because a large body of research demonstrating the ill effects of
this drug has been ignored and suppressed in order to encourage the sale of
the drug. � Parents and teachers and even doctors have been badly misled by
drug company marketing practices. Drug companies have targeted children as a
big market likely to boost profits -- and children are suffering as a
result."
More than 90% of Ritalin's market is in the United States, which says
something about how Ritalin is viewed by health officials in other
countries, said Breggin. Ritalin was banned in Sweden in 1968 because it was
abused. Ritalin is rarely prescribed in Britain. In March, the United
Nations advised the World Health Organization to investigate the use of
Ritalin.
Causing Tragic Violence?
Ritalin and related drugs pushed in public schools are being watched more
closely now for tragic reasons. While a direct link between violent behavior
and the use of Ritalin has not been proven, observers have concerns.
Consider the following:
*** Shawn Cooper, a 15-year-old sophomore at Notus Junior-Senior High School
in Notus, Idaho, fired a shotgun at his fellow students in April. Cooper was
on Ritalin.
*** Thomas Solomon, a 15-year-old at Heritage High School in Conyers,
Georgia, shot and wounded six classmates in May. Solomon was on Ritalin.
*** Kip Kinkel, a 15-year-old at Thurston High School in Springfield,
Oregon, killed his parents and two classmates and wounded 22 other students
last year. Kinkel was on Ritalin and Prozac, an anti-depressant.
*** Eric Harris, one of the Columbine High School killers, was on the
anti-depressant drug Luvox.
*** Rod Matthews, 14, beat a classmate to death with a baseball bat in 1986
in Canton, Massachusetts. Matthews had been on Ritalin since the third
grade.
Yale researchers, as published in the March 1991 Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology, found in their study of Prozac
at least one 12-year-old who started having nightmares. What about? The boy
dreamed of killing his classmates at school until he himself was shot. The
researchers took the boy off Prozac and he recovered. Then they put him back
on the drug, apparently thinking that the anti-depressant could not have
caused the nightmares. Once drugged again, the boy started to have acute
suicidal thoughts and tendencies.
The Yale researchers don't talk about this now, said Breggin. Ritalin Basics
According to the PDR, the Physician's Desk Reference, "Ritalin is a mild
central nervous system stimulant and is used in the treatment of attention
deficit disorders." The PDR warns that patients with a history of drug
addiction or alcoholism should be given Ritalin with caution "because such
patients may increase dosage on their own." PDR further states that,
"Long-term abuse can lead to tolerance and mental dependence with varying
degrees of abnormal behavior."
Ritalin side effects may include an inability to fall asleep and stay
asleep, as well as nervousness. Other side effects include: loss of
appetite, abdominal pain, weight loss and abnormally fast heartbeat. Some of
the less common side effects include: chest pain, dizziness, headache,
hives, jerking, pulse changes, skin rash, Tourette's syndrome, severe and
multiple twitching and writhing movements.
Ritalin should not be used in children under six years old, says the PDR,
because the "safety and effectiveness in this age-group have not been
established." PDR goes on to state that "suppression of growth has been
reported with the long-term use of stimulants (the category of which Ritalin
is included)."
Terrible side effects
Dr. Breggin is more blunt. In his 1998 book, "Talking Back to Ritalin," he
lists the following potential side effects of the drug:
*** Decreased blood flow to the brain, an effect recently shown to be caused
by cocaine where it is associated with impaired thinking ability and memory
loss.
*** Disruption of growth hormone, leading to suppression of growth in the
body and brain of the child.
*** Permanent neurological tics, including Tourette's syndrome.
*** Addiction and abuse, including withdrawal reactions on a daily basis.
*** Psychosis (mania), depression, insomnia, agitation and social
withdrawal.
*** Possible shrinkage (atrophy) or other permanent physical abnormalities
in the brain.
*** Worsening of the very symptoms the drug is supposed to improve,
including hyperactivity and inattention.
*** Decreased ability to learn.
The Food and Drug Administration classifies Ritalin (methylphenidate) as a
Schedule II substance. These substances include: amphetamines, cocaine,
morphine, opium and barbiturates. Ritalin is more regulated in other
countries compared to the United States. America consumes five times as much
Ritalin as the rest of world combined. In addition to the ongoing
investigation by the World Health Organization, the U.N. International
Narcotics Control Board has issued two official warnings about America's
apparent dependence on Ritalin.
While about 4 million U.S. kids regularly take Ritalin, the Drug Enforcement
Administration estimates that about 8 million kids and adults will be on the
drug in 2000. (About 90% of all Ritalin prescriptions are for kids.) The
average Ritalin script runs between $30 and $60 a month. Most health
insurance plans provide coverage for Ritalin and Attention Deficit Disorder
treatment.
http://www.massnews.com/vioboy.htm
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Quotes of Note:
Government:P. J. O'Rourke
"Our government gets more than thugs in a protection racket demand, more
even than discarded first wives of famous rich men receive in divorce court.
Then this government, swollen and arrogant with pelf, goes butting into our
business. It checks the amount of tropical oils in our snack foods, tells us
what kind of gasoline we can buy for our cars and how fast we can drive
them, bosses us around about retirement, education and what's on TV; counts
our noses and asks fresh questions about who's still living at home and how
many bathrooms we have [and how big our toilet tanks can be -RT]; decides
whether the door to our office or shop should have steps or a wheelchair
ramp; decrees the gender and complexion of the people to be hired there;
lectures us on safe sex; dictates what we can sniff, smoke and swallow; and
waylays young men, ships them to distant places and tells them to shoot
people they don't even know."
------
"During the 1973 International Education Seminar, Harvard psychiatrist
Chester M. Pierce, speaking as an expert in public education, said: "Every
child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill because
he comes to school with certain allegiances to our founding fathers, toward
our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural
being, and toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It's
up to you as teachers to make all these sick children well by creating the
international child of the future."
Chester M. Pierce, Harvard psychiatrist,
speaking as an expert in public education at the
1973 International Education Seminar
------
"In the beginning of a change, The Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and
scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it
costs nothing to be a patriot."
-- Mark Twain
------
"If gun laws in fact worked, the sponsors of this type of legislation should
have no difficulty drawing upon long lists of examples of crime rates
reduced by such legislation. That they cannot do so after a century and a
half of trying - that they must sweep under the rug the southern attempts at
gun control in the 1870-1910 period, the northeastern attempts in the
1920-1939 period, and the attempts at both Federal and State levels in
1965-1976 - establishes the repeated, complete, and inevitable failure of
gun laws to control crime."
--Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah)
quoted from "The Right to Keep and
Bear Arms, Report of the Senate
Subcommittee on the Constitution,
Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office,
February 1982, p. vii.
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