Gord Sellar said:
> At 8:43 AM -0400 15/12/2000, Alberto Monteiro wrote:
SNIP
> >His argument was that any state
> >powerful enough to control the whole humanity would soon
> >invent a drug like the _Soma_ [IIRC] to make everybody happy.
> Or, more close to what Huxley wrote, to keep everyone *stupid*,
> *distracted*, and *effectively content*.
> >He was wrong.
> I guess you don't own a TV? :)
I was reminded of the above when I read a forwarded article from Detroit
News. I have removed the introduction.
+++++EXTRACT BEGINS++++++++
Between 4 million and 6 million American children line up to receive doses
of a powerful drug called Ritalin every school day morning. These
youngsters, mostly boys, have been diagnosed with
"attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a multiple-choice
checklist of symptoms that is coming under increasing scientific attack for
its vagueness and vulnerability to abuse as a tool for control."
The drug does not enable learning. Dr. Rosemary Tannock, of the Hospital for
Sick Children in Toronto, reported last year that Ritalin has no effect on
children's short-term memory or the "phonological processing required for
reading." This year, both the Archives of General Psychiatry and the
National Institutes of Health have conducted studies that cast extreme doubt
on the idea that Ritalin is effective for anything except making children
stay in their chairs and keep quiet. Numerous other studies confirm that
Ritalin is remarkably effective in achieving what old Mrs. McGillicutty in
the one-room schoolhouse of a less credulous age could accomplish with a
look.
"The effect is, the child moves less and is less aware of competing
stimuli," says Steven Ingersoll, president of Smart Schools Inc. in
Brighton, which runs four charter schools.
Ingersoll says 22 percent of the students were on Ritalin when one charter
school began in 1996. That same year, fourth-grade students scored last in
their district on the state achievement test. Three years later, less than 1
percent of the kids are on Ritalin, and 100 percent of the now seventh
graders scored in the top category on state tests for reading and math.
Ingersoll argues that television has played an important role in attention
deficit-type behavior, but that "drugging is not what the child needs.
Ritalin is a powerful stimulant that "shares many of the pharmacological
effects of amphetamine, methamphetamine and cocaine, according to the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Agency. As one would expect, Ritalin is being stolen from
nurses, stations at schools and sold on the street for its effects.
Most disturbing of all are recent reports from New York and elsewhere where
parents who question whether their child should be placed on Ritalin are
turned in to the authorities. In recent testimony before Congress, Dr. Peter
Breggin, author of Talking Back to Ritalin: What Doctors Aren't Telling You
About Stimulants for Children, put the matter bluntly: "Parents ... are
being pressured and coerced by schools to give psychiatric drugs to their
children. Teachers, school psychologists and administrators commonly make
dire threats about their inability to teach children without medicating
them. ... They even call child protective services to investigate parents
for child neglect."
This is no movie. All over Michigan, Ingersoll says, parents face opposition
for refusing to give Ritalin to their children. But few are willing to come
forward for fear of reprisal. As of 1998, Michigan was No. 3 in the nation
in Ritalin use.
In fact, Ritalin use is at an all-time high. The financial windfall from
Ritalin sales surpasses that of Valium, Viagra or Prozac.
The company that manufactures the drug, Novartis, a multinational
pharmaceutical company, is facing a class-action lawsuit that claims the
company "colluded to create, develop and promote the diagnosis of Attention
Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
in a highly successful effort to increase the market for its product
Ritalin. The company denies the charge.
If this sounds to you less like the progress of a disease and cure and more
like a sinister marketing plan aimed at children, you're not alone. For more
information, just do a Web search on "Ritalin", and get ready to be
outraged.
Samuel Walker is a communications specialist for the Mackinac Center for
Public Policy, a Midland-based public policy education and research
institute. Write letters to 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226, or fax them
to (313) 222-6417 or send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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