2. ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorder of childhood, affecting 10 percent of school age children in the United States according to the a 1999 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) report.

IMS Health, a health information company in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., reports that preemption rates for Ritalin have increased 390 percent in the last five years as of June.

3. Psychiatrists say the proper diagnosis of ADD/ADHD takes time and careful evaluation. Dr. David Fassler chairman of the Council on Children, Adolescents and Their Families for the APA, emphasizes it is important to ensure a child has received a comprehensive professional evaluation, including family, school and medical history, before being diagnosed with a disorder.

4. Children, and adults, diagnosed as having ADD/ADHD often experience difficulty concentrating on a specific task or sitting still for extended periods of time, exhibit a tendency towards impulsive behavior, and demonstrate poor social skills. Ritalin, which is a central nervous system stimulant, has become the drug of choice for treating ADD/ADHD patients.

5. There are many, who do believe in drug treatment. In 1995, there were over two million children in the United States taking Ritalin. However, many health professionals, as well as a growing number of parents and educators, believe that ADD/ADHD is a disorder, but they don't agree that a long-term course of medication is the answer.

6. While it is true that most children do show improvement while on Ritalin, the effects last only several hours. Increasing the dosage to increase the effects often has side effects of poor appetite and insomnia.

7. Instead of rushing into a course of medication for ADD/ADHD patients, some health professionals are advocating that the underlying causes for their patients' behaviors be identified and dealt with first.

This might include ruling out food allergies, family problems, problems at school (personality clash with a teacher or another student), or some sort of learning disability.

Once the causes for the behaviors have been identified, it's quite possible that they can be dealt with by some means other than medication. These medical professionals believe that a stimulant medication, such as Ritalin, should be used sparingly and only for a limited time.

8. The reason for the widespread use of Ritalin and other psychotropic drugs on children, according to Dr. Sharon Presley, a libertarian psychologist with Resources for Independent Thinking, is "as a method of social control. It's a lazy way of keeping kids under control. Instead of dealing with their children's problems in an in-depth way, parents and school administrators drug them to shut them up."

9. Hyperactive children and adults tend to easily become addicted to alcohol, heroin, and cocaine. They also are often classified as excessive compulsive.

10. It’s bad enough that the medical profession thinks giving ritalin to young children is a solution to behavior problems, but now the word is out that ritalin causes cancer in lab mice. An Associated Press story carried in most of the nation’s newspapers on January 13, 1996 notified the world that researchers conducting the usual cancer causing tests with mice discovered some of the test animals developed liver cancer from high doses of ritalin.

This should start alarms ringing everywhere; after all, nearly 3 million young people are taking ritalin every day, a fact that is cause for alarm all by itself.

11. According to vocal opponents of ritalin, the side effects include: “zombie-like behavior; growth suppression; behavior or thought disorders (exactly what it is supposed to treat) seizures; headaches; blurred vision; scalp hair loss; Tourette’s syndrome—including tics; barking like a dog and babbling profanities.” It can also result in mood swings, depression, drug dependence and inclination for criminal activity. Why then, would anyone give such a drug to any child?

12. From our newspapers.

SPOTLIGHT - November 1st, 1999

PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS. Psychiatric drugs such as Ritalin have been linked to the shootings by teenagers in Littleton, Colo.; Conyers, Ga.; Springfield, Ore.; and Jonesboro, Ark. That shouldn't be surprising. The World Health Organization reported 28 years ago that Ritalin is "a Schedule II drug-- the most addictive in medical usage. . . it joins morphine, opium, cocaine and the heroin substitute methadone."

WASHINGTON (TABLOID NEWS SERVICES) -- Millions of children are taking a powerful prescription amphetamine known to speed freaks as the champagne of uppers.

And everyone wants the kids to take more, more, more!

According to a recent report from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the number of U.S. kids who take the drug Ritalin is skyrocketing, thanks to greedy drug companies, impatient parents, overwhelmed school systems and dope-happy quacks.

Although it was banned in Sweden in 1968 and is considered a controlled substance by the DEA, Ritalin is the drug of choice in treating Attention Deficit Disorder -- a nebulous diagnosis that teachers, doctors and parents eagerly slap on energetic kids who act up in class.

Ritalin prescriptions have increased by more than 500 percent in this decade, and in some schools as many as 20 percent of students are hooked on the pills. Speed freaks and coke fiends love the stuff, too.

Most of the Ritalin kids are white and upper middle class -- and many don't get diagnosed with hyperactivity until they start school.

Kids have gotten so hooked that Ritalin is among the top 10 controlled substances stolen from U.S. pharmacies. And it's available through corrupt pharmacies across the Mexican border -- giving pushers and addicts easy access to the stuff.

In 1991, U.S. emergency rooms reported less than 25 Ritalin overdoses. By 1995, that number was up to 400 cases for children aged 10 to 14 -- about the same as the number of cocaine overdoses reported in this age group. And snorting of crushed Ritalin was blamed for three deaths.

Meanwhile, schools around the U.S. routinely keep large stocks of the drug to dispense freely to their speed-happy charges. As kids get older, they continue taking Ritalin, and many believe it's a "smart drug" that helps them study.

There are powerful incentives to foist the drug on children.

School districts get millions of federal dollars to care for children who are labeled ADD or ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Insurance companies eager for quick and cheap treatments push the pills on doctors. And Mommy and Daddy would rather blame a child's minor behavior problems on a mysterious disorder than on divorce, 70-hour workweeks and complete abandonment of kids to malls and television.

Doctors are all too happy to oblige.

The U.S. consumes more than five times as much Ritalin as the rest of the world combined -- and the United Nations International Narcotics Control has twice warned America about its growing addiction to this sanctioned speed.

Hundreds of doctors continue to tout the drug as a miracle cure to a wide variety of behavior problems.