OPINION:
In the early 1990s, I listened to psychologist Laura Schlessinger on talk radio. I was drawn to her bold positions in support of godly principles for human conduct, such as reserving sex for marriage, a lifelong commitment to marriage and support of stay-at-home moms.
She often talked about what was thought to be a faddish new childhood syndrome known as attention-deficit disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. She explained that the drugs to “treat” ADD and ADHD had the same chemical makeup as cocaine and how bad it was to prescribe amphetamines to children.
I was intrigued by how Ms. Schlessinger explained that children — most often boys — were being medicated to keep them calm in the classroom under the guise of helping them concentrate to earn better grades. I raised four boys, and I can attest to hyperactivity. The new phenomenon of medicating children to control classroom behavior was an easy out for teachers and parents who didn’t want to be bothered with disciplining children. In her audacious satire, “Dr. Laura” would say the so-called syndrome was actually children in need of a good spanking.
In my opinion, prescribing amphetamines to young children for whatever reason is child abuse and a crime against children and communities. Using drugs to control children’s behavior eliminates the possibility for a child to learn and master self-control, which is pivotal to a healthy existence in society.
We can’t even begin to enumerate the number of children who have been regularly stimulated by a highly addictive drug to control their behavior. The National Center for Biotechnology Information acknowledges that 1 in 20 children in the U.S. are diagnosed with ADHD and treated with amphetamines. The numbers are most likely higher. It is staggering to believe that for at least three decades, this country has prescribed highly addictive stimulants with the same drug base as cocaine and methamphetamine to children and adults.
Many drug rehabilitation websites talk honestly about the dependence and adverse side effects of the drugs used to treat ADHD. One says: “Meth is a stimulant available both legally to treat ADHD and as an illicit drug. Legal meth is sold under the brand name Desoxyn. Both legal and illicit meth are Schedule II controlled substances, meaning they have a high risk of abuse, addiction and dependence.”
As a mother and aunt of young adults who have struggled for many years with meth addiction, I am so angry to learn that innocent children are prescribed this drug. It is more urgent to me now than ever that we sound the alarm to stand against this injustice on children and society. I have another adult relative whose life has been utterly destroyed by addiction to prescribed ADHD stimulants and antidepressants for 30 years. The government and its private partners have shattered the lives of many by promoting the pseudo syndrome of ADHD and fueling drug addiction with the prescribed treatment.
Moreover, the not-so-talked-about common thread among mass killers is the use of psychiatric medications, especially among young assailants. A study published in PubMed “identified 1527 cases of violence disproportionally reported in suspect drugs including varenicline (an aid to smoking cessation), 11 antidepressants, 6 sedative/hypnotics and 3 drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.”
The winner in this scheme is Big Pharma. They make all the profit from too many prescriptions for too many children. This routine should sound familiar after the profit reports from Big Pharma in recent years for any number of products pitched incessantly by the medical community. Other good sources are Dr. Marc Siegel and Dr. Peter Breggin, who have written extensively about the serious problems with prescribing antidepressants and amphetamines to young children to treat ADHD.
So many parents have been duped into believing the lie that their children must be drugged to get good grades and go to college. What good parents wouldn’t do all they can to ensure their child would achieve these goals? Parents trusted school officials and their pediatricians, who worked together to drug their children. Still, it is not too late to join the movement to end child abuse perpetrated by drugging children to control their behavior.
• Sheri Few is the founder and president of United States Parents Involved in Education, whose mission is to end the Department of Education and all federal education mandates.
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