SHRINK SLAMS SCHOOL ‘PILL MILL' DISCIPLINE

New York Post ^ | 8/14/02 | DOUGLAS MONTERO

[kattracks]

August 15, 2002 -- A BRONX psychologist is charging that public-school educators are using local clinics as Ritalin "pill mills" to dispense medication to normal kids who don't need them.

A horrified Bernice Bauman, who runs the Independent Consultation Center, says that during the school year she sees about 10 to 15 parents and kids referred to her for Ritalin by school officials.

[GSWarrior]

Small wonder kids take illegal drugs. Why shouldn't they? They are not only following the example of the adults around them, but are hammered with that message by the "experts" writing magazine articles, marketing advertizement,and, of course, prescriptions. And we wonder why we haven't won the "war on drugs". Hilarious!

All excellent points.

Some of these parents who wonder where their kids got the notion to abuse drugs should take a look inside their own medicine cabinets. I could always find percodan and other painkillers kept in a kitchen cabinet when I was a kid. My parents had no clue that percodan was a pretty heavy duty painkiller.

[Wolfie]

Government forces Ritalin down your kids throats by the pound to make them zombies...

Gotta dose 'em up so they'll sit still for the D.A.R.E. presentations, doncha know.

[TigersEye]

I wonder what the long term effects are Ritalin are...I have never heard any stats...Do we know???

I posted some here on this thread about Neil Bush and his son.

[TigersEye]

"In my experience, about two kids out of the thousand I've seen who couldn't sit still in class had a real problem," said Bauman, who has operated the center for more than 40 years.

However, they emphasized that Ritalin and other psychiatric medication have helped some kids and fear the abuse by educators may turn off parents whose children really need help.

This just speaks for itself I think. The kid who really and truly needs drugs is a rare bird indeed. She didn't even say that those two out of a thousand needed ritalin she just acknowledged that that many 'had a problem'.

[Poohbah]

I understand that if your son has taken Ritalin, it will disqualify him for future military service.

False. I took Ritalin in elementary school, and served eight years in the USMC.

[TigersEye]

Gotta dose 'em up so they'll sit still for the D.A.R.E. presentations, doncha know.

You'd sure have to dose me up for one. ; )

[TigersEye]

I went to the pediatrician armed with all this information and I told her how surprised I was when drugs were recommended rather than finding the actual reason for problems in school. She said that typically they would try drugs first and if there weren't a significant improvement then they would look for a learning disability. Is that backwards thinking, or what?!?

That's not medicine. My father was a doctor and I'm telling anyone who will listen...THAT'S NOT MEDICINE!!! Sorry for the rant but this makes me so mad I could strangle that 'doc'.

Unfortunately this sort of behaviour has become rampant in standard practice medicine. I'll get docs that want to flame me for that and people who don't want to hear that about their doctors but that's the way it is and good docs can't just whitewash it with "not all doctors are like that" or "a few bad apples...".

We don't have an 800% increase in psychopharmaceuticals for kiddies in ten years time from a few bad apples. And this is only one aspect of family medicine.

[Al B.]

Freeper Joe Montana used to post on this subject, it is a horror!

Hope he still lurks here. BMP.

[NorCoGOP]

A friend of mine had a child in pre-school.

The pre-school teacher informed him that he should put his child on Ritalin to control his behavior.

This was after the child's FIRST DAY in the Preschool. (It also became his last day at that preschool)

Unbelievable....