I’m going to say that the root of some significant part of this is poor parenting skills.
My son is bi-polar and has ADHD. Risperdal has been a life saver-for him and our entire family.
I am not a lazy parent. My son comes from a loving, intact family.
I fought medication for YEARS. The improvement has been so wonderful I wish I had done it sooner.
More like unwilling to participate in any parenting skills. It's all about 'ME', not the kids. I see this everyday. You have parents that would spend money on a tattoo and not on a child's meal, or glasses, and so on.
(I am not picking on the tattoo and pierce crowd, it is just a generalization)
It is like the War on Terror, it is not over in one afternoon, so people complain. With kids, they have to be looked after and their parents don't want to put in the 18 or so years of service the kids require. After a couple of years they are tired of it already and want to 'drug' the kids so they don't have to do their job. Another example is full day kindergarten. This is just another way to get day care, and get rid of the kids as soon as possible.
We treat kids in this country worse than Vick treats dogs (allegedly).