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Ritalin Nation: Are We Killing Our Children?
The Rutherford Institute ^ | 6/14/04 | John W. Whitehead

Posted on 06/15/2004 6:05:13 PM PDT by wagglebee

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If Ritalin is so bad, why is it being used on schoolchildren? The sad fact is that our public schools and parents have been duped by the psychiatric and drug industries. “A quintessential truth was unearthed about the educational experience children encounter today,” write Thomas G. Whittle and Linda Amato in Freedom magazine (Spring 2004). “Psychotropic drug makers, parasitic on the school system, have created a lucrative market for their own enrichment by ‘pathologizing’ childhood behavior as mental disorders, with pseudo medical labels obediently supplied by the very psychiatrists who prosper from this corrupt arrangement.”

Teachers (many not all) today would rather sedate their students and the drug companies are making a fortune as a result. The problem is that ADHD is really just kids not being disciplined properly, so they are given drugs that can really screw them up or even kill them.

1 posted on 06/15/2004 6:05:15 PM PDT by wagglebee
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To: wagglebee

Yes.

http://www.ritalindeath.com


2 posted on 06/15/2004 6:09:41 PM PDT by rogueleader
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To: wagglebee

Wait a minute. These kids are all potential chad voters. This getting rid of drugging the next generation must be stopped! Each child has the right to become incapacitated at an early age. Let's just quit parenting, and let Hillary have her village.


3 posted on 06/15/2004 6:11:48 PM PDT by widowithfoursons
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To: wagglebee

Wait a minute. These kids are all potential chad voters. This getting rid of drugging the next generation must be stopped! Each child has the right to become incapacitated at an early age. Let's just quit parenting, and let Hillary have her village.


4 posted on 06/15/2004 6:11:49 PM PDT by widowithfoursons
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: wagglebee

Why do foxes seek out chicken farms?


6 posted on 06/15/2004 6:12:23 PM PDT by bvw
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To: wagglebee

The "hyperactivity" displayed by many children nowadays is due to behavioral troubles, not chemical imbalances. When children are ignored at home, they act out in order to try to get some attention. The teachers and parents who don't want to deal with paying attention to what is truly wrong are all too happy to drug these kids into more docile behavior.


7 posted on 06/15/2004 6:13:40 PM PDT by AQGeiger (Have you hugged your soldier today?)
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To: wagglebee
No one's willing to admit that the emperor has no clothes...that most of today's 'ADHD' cases are in fact bratty behavior redefined as a medical condition.

Teachers love it cause they can get the pain in the ass students sedated. Parents love it because they can blame their kids' brattiness on a health disorder rather than their own neglectful absentee parenting. Pharmaceuticals love it cause they're raking in the dough and creating a zillion present and future customers.

There's a doctor at www.adhdfraud.com who's trying to get the word out.

8 posted on 06/15/2004 6:16:16 PM PDT by Lizavetta (Gun control = hitting your target)
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: wagglebee
Teachers Parents (many not all) today would rather sedate their students children and the drug companies are making a fortune as a result. The problem is that ADHD is really just kids not being disciplined properly, so they are given drugs that can really screw them up or even kill them.

Is that better...

10 posted on 06/15/2004 6:23:36 PM PDT by tubebender (Look for me when you see me coming...)
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To: wagglebee
This year, approximately six million children—roughly one out of every eight—will take Ritalin .....

let's clarify this a bit more .... when you take SEX into account here that would make it ...

25% of male children being drugged!


11 posted on 06/15/2004 6:32:18 PM PDT by steplock (http://www.gohotsprings.com)
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To: AQGeiger
>>...The "hyperactivity" displayed by many children nowadays is due to behavioral troubles, not chemical imbalances...<<

I wonder too, how much is due to the massive amounts of caffeine kids ingest. Cokes, candy, etc are eaten much much more than when I was a kid in the 1960's.

Kids' bodies are much more sensitive to stuff like that than adults.

When I was a kid you MIGHT get to buy a Coke on Saturday and MAYBE a chocolate bar. No cases of ADHD in my school. Nowadays, they're drinking the stuff constantly (not my kids, though).

Plus, every time you turn around they're being given candy. After soccer games, birthday parties (when did it become standard to send kids home with "goodie bags"?), at parades (when I was a kid, only Santa threw out a few peppermint candies, now every float in the parade dumps tons of candy at kids)

12 posted on 06/15/2004 6:37:36 PM PDT by FReepaholic (War On Terror: If not us, who? If not now, when?)
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To: William Creel

*nods in agreement* I have a 7 yr old high functioning autistic son and I get asked a lot what medicines he is currently taking, which is NONE. Behavior modification is the key for kids like my son JJ (see profile for obligatory show off picture *s*)


13 posted on 06/15/2004 6:48:16 PM PDT by Severa (Wife of Freeper Hostel, USN STS3(SS))
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To: wagglebee
"Methylphenidate, a schedule 2 substance, has a high potential for abuse and produces the same effects as cocaine or the amphetamines."

I would like to put forth a different view... one in which a parent has a cocaine addiction. This parent allows\forces the child to be put on Ritalin in order to get the drug for THEIR USE!!!

14 posted on 06/15/2004 6:50:31 PM PDT by Dacus943
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To: wagglebee

It's a very serious problem indeed. But as Tonto said to the Lone Ranger, "Who is this 'we,' White Man?" I suspect that if you looked into it you'd find that the great majority of parents who have been persuaded to use these dangerous drugs on their children are probably liberals.

Why? In the first place, because behavioral problems in modern children are largely a result of listening to Dr. Spock and not giving them any discipline. In the second place, because liberals tend to turn to these sorts of easy solutions more easily than conservatives. It wasn't conservatives who flocked to LSD and "tuned in, turned off, dropped out" back in the 60s.


15 posted on 06/15/2004 6:55:47 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: wagglebee

Ritalin Nation: Are We Killing Our Children?

Yes by choice.

There is no reason to put kids on drugs like that.


16 posted on 06/15/2004 7:26:52 PM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: AQGeiger

"The "hyperactivity" displayed by many children nowadays is due to behavioral troubles, not chemical imbalances. When children are ignored at home, they act out in order to try to get some attention. The teachers and parents who don't want to deal with paying attention to what is truly wrong are all too happy to drug these kids into more docile behavior."

Absolutely right! Looking for attention for all the worng reasons and ways.

Parents love the drugs because the kids will be docile and teachers love it for the same reason. Too bad no one really cares about the child.


17 posted on 06/15/2004 7:32:00 PM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: wagglebee
In my opinion, I think that the widespread use of Ritalin has more to do with overbooked parents and teachers than with problem kids. Because both parents often work and there is so little wiggle room in their schedules, anything that causes a disruption is a problem. Children are in school for longer times with less activity. From the minute a child enters school, he or she is supposed to sit down, shut up, and fill in the blanks. The parents panic and want a quick fix when the child doesn't behave as he/she is supposed to. Many teachers are also overbooked parents. Any child that doesn't fit in right away must be a problem which needs a quick and permanent solution. It is much easier to say that the problem is with the child than the parent or the school.
Sadly, I know many overbooked conservatives that just want the quick fix for their children. They don't have the time or patience to look beyond what is convenient.
18 posted on 06/15/2004 7:43:51 PM PDT by Essie
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To: Severa

Our son is severely autistic, and 11 years old. It horrified me when we were first finding out about autism, that when he was 4, 5, 6 years old, to different "psychiatrists" wanted to dope him up on PROZAC! One "doctor" tried to prescribe it before she had even EXAMINED my son. They had no studies to show that (a) a powerful psychotropic drug like Prozac wouldn't be harmful to my small child, or (b) that Prozac actually helps autistic children. We told them both where they can stuff their medicine.

Don't let anybody tell me that doctors arn't trying to overmedicate the population.


19 posted on 06/15/2004 9:43:39 PM PDT by Choose Ye This Day (4 months in the Mekong don't make up for 30 years of lies and shameful votes since then.)
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To: Choose Ye This Day

should read: "two different psychiatrists"


20 posted on 06/15/2004 9:44:36 PM PDT by Choose Ye This Day (4 months in the Mekong don't make up for 30 years of lies and shameful votes since then.)
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