OPINION:
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, in the wake of the Minneapolis deadly Catholic school shooting by a transgender, said he is investigating whether drugs prescribed LGBTQ youth during their transitioning processes jeopardize their mental health and cause them to commit acts of violence.
At long last.
This is a much-needed investigation that should be expanded to include all the Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder drugs that have been liberally fed America’s youth for decades.
These medications are serious business.
And they bring serious side effects.
On the transitioning drugs for transgenders, Kennedy told Fox News: “We are launching studies into their potential contribution” as well as into the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, or SSRIs, used to treat depression, he said.
“Some of the SSRI drugs and some other psychiatric drugs might be contributing to violence,” Kennedy said, The New York Post reported. “Many of them have black-box warnings that warn of suicidal ideation and homicidal ideation. So we can’t exclude those as a culprit, and those are the kind of studies we are doing.”
Parents need this information — desperately.
Not all ADHD medications are SSRIs. But others, like Ritalin and Adderall, are stimulants — which effect brain activity and the central nervous system — and are classified by the Drug Enforcement Administration as Schedule 2 drugs, alongside Vicodin, cocaine, methamphetamine, methadone, oxycodone, fentanyl and more.
As the DEA notes, Schedule 2 classifications are affixed to those drugs that bring “a high potential for abuse, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence. These drugs are also considered dangerous.”
The side effects are worrisome, to say the least.
The Cleveland Clinic reports the most common side effects as decreased appetite, weight loss and difficulty sleeping. Other negative effects include short-term fatigue, anxiety, physical tics — annotated to clarify “ADHD medication doesn’t cause tics, but it may make them more noticeable” — as well as delays in growth, nausea and vomiting and changes in blood pressure and heart rate.
More alarming?
The National Center for Biotechnology Information at the National Institutes of Health writes that “it is estimated that around one in every 660 patients receiving stimulant prescriptions for ADHD may develop new-onset psychosis.”
Yikes.
Medical News Today writes “Adderall may cause serious side effects … [to include] depression; heart problems, including heart attack and sudden death; rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of muscle tissue); Raynaud’s phenomenon (reduced blood flow in your fingers or toes; stroke; delusions; hallucinations; aggressive behavior.”
The National Library of Medicine reported a 9-year-old girl prescribed methylphenidate — also known by the brand name Ritalin — for her inability to pay attention in school soon after suffered night terrors and hallucinations of bugs on her wall, in her bed, in her hair. A 7-year-old boy also diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed the same stimulant experienced day-long incontrollable erections.
Crushing and snorting Ritalin or any of the methylphenidate drugs gives the same effect as snorting cocaine, the NCBI states.
Amazing.
Disturbing.
What the bleep are we doing to our children?
“According to the Drug Enforcement Agency,” the nonprofit Children and Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder wrote, “the production of methylphenidate in the United States has increased from 1361 kilograms in 1985 to 10,410 kilograms in 1995 … [and] the number of children diagnosed with ADHD has increased 2.5-fold in this same period.”
And the number of youth prescribed such serious meds continues to grow.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about “16.5 percent of school-age children had been diagnosed with a mental health disorder in the United States in 2016” — most commonly, ADHD, anxiety and other behavioral problems.
A parents’s survey reported by the CDC additionally stated that 11.4 percent of children between the ages of 3 and 17 years old were diagnosed with ADHD in 2022.
Drug ‘em up!
“Some people reported aggressive behavior in clinical trials of Adderall,” Medical News Today reported. “New or worsening aggressive behavior was seen with stimulant drugs, including [but not limited to] Adderall. Symptoms … include hostility, anger, harsh language, physical violence, property damage.”
And school shootings?
Kennedy’s investigation will provide a much-needed look at just that. It’s imperative Americans have the answers soon.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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