Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : The Fraud of Biological Psychiatry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yogizuna who wrote (168)	8/17/2000 10:39:09 PM
From: Don Pueblo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 444

Pharmaceutical blackmail - Authorities use a heavy hand to keep kids on drugs. Editorial Wednesday, August 16, 2000 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal The Albany Times Union, in a May 7 story, tells what happened to parents Michael and Jill Carroll when they tried to take their son, 7-year-old Kyle, off Ritalin. Kyle Carroll was first prescribed the drug last year, after he fell behind at school. Teachers drew up an "individualized education plan," a standard course of action for children with "special needs." But last fall, when Kyle started second grade, the Ritalin didn't seem to be doing much good. Furthermore, the Carrolls grew concerned that Kyle was only sleeping about five hours a night and eating just one meal a day -- lunch. So they told school officials they wanted to take Kyle off the Ritalin for two weeks to see if that helped. That's when they got a call, and then a visit, from a child protective services worker, based on a complaint from Kyle's school guidance counselor. The charge? "Child abuse," in the form of "medical neglect." As a result, the Times Union reports the Carrolls are now on a statewide list of alleged child abusers, and find themselves "thrust into an Orwellian family court battle to clear their name and ensure their child isn't removed from their home." The child remains on the medication, "in part because they fear child welfare workers will take him away if they don't," the Albany daily reports. Furthermore, the Albany paper found the Carrolls' case is far from unique: "Public schools are increasingly accusing parents of child abuse and neglect if they balk at giving their children medication such as Ritalin, a stimulant being prescribed to more and more students." The American Academy of Pediatrics reports as many as 3.8 million schoolchildren, mostly boys, have now been diagnosed with "attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder," characterized by a short attention span, jumpiness and impulsive behavior. At least a million children now take Ritalin for this condition, and use of the drug has risen manifold in recent years. But even the AAP acknowledged in a recent study that many cases are misdiagnosed. "This thing is so scary," says Patricia Weathers, of Millbrook, a suburb of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Officials at the Millbrook School District called police and child protective services when she took her 9-year-old son, Michael Mozer, off medications earlier this year. "Absent evidence that the lives of children are at stake when they're not on Ritalin," USA Today editorialized this week, "no arm of the state should be ramming the drug treatment down parents' -- and children's -- throats." Amen to that. The underlying problem here is the notion that children belong first to the state -- that biological parents are allowed to retain custody only at the discretion of school and "child welfare" officials, who after all have professional diplomas, and thus know best. No free country can long operate under such a presumption, with its inevitably corrosive effect on the family. (emphasis mine)