I don't like our culture's dependency on Ritalin either; it's evidence of
priggish instance that everybody ought to be the same, or that keeping a
classroom quiet is more important than making sure that children get the
parenting and teaching they actually need. I suspect that in lots of
cases hyperactivity is a side effect of sloth--too much time eating sweets
in front of a TV and not enough playing and running around outside. There
also seems to be a bizarre assumption that a six-year-old's natural state
ought to be quiet, attentive obedience, no matter how boring or inane the
class....
On Fri, 19 Jan 2001, Bob Henderson wrote:
> 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]
> +++++++++END EXTRACT++++++++++++
>
>
Marvin Long
Austin, Texas
