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Dateline: 10/21/99
Banning Ritalin in Colorado
"Mind-altering psychotropic drugs which have the potential to create violent or suicidal behavior shall not be dispensed to children for any alleged learning, behavior, or mental disorder which lacks an exact, objective medical diagnostic test such as that used to detect diabetes."
Dateline: 10/21/99
Resolution to Ban Ritalin
Text of a Presentation given
by Patti Johnson
Colorado State Board of Education
in October, 1999
Ms. Patti Johnson is a member of the Colorado State Board of Education.
Text of Ms. Johnson's paper:
The Ritalin phenomenon caught my attention in 1994. As I walked with some children in a parade, one six-year-old boy intrigued me. He was precocious, energetic and a delightful companion. When I dropped him off at his home, I mentioned these traits to his mother. She startled me when she replied, “ That’s not what his teacher says. She told me he has ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and needs to be put on Ritalin.” I urged the mother to have her son tested before drugging him. He was so bright, and his level of energy seemed normal for a little boy. What if he just needed a more challenging curriculum or a different learning environment? Now that I know much more about Ritalin, I feel even more strongly that all options should be explored before resorting to Ritalin.
In 1991, the Federal Education Department said schools could get hundreds of dollars in special education grant money each year for every child diagnosed with ADHD. Since then ADHD diagnosis shot up an average of 21% a year. Ritalin production has increased 700% since 1990. These data suggest a link between money and Ritilan use. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the U.S. buys and uses 90% of the world’s supply of Ritalin. Approximately 4 million U.S. children are on Ritalin. 10 to 12% of U.S. boys are being treated with Ritalin. No other nation is following our example. In fact, Sweden banned methylphenidate (Ritalin) in 1968 after reports of widespread abuse.
Ritalin is highly sought after by the drug-abusing population. According to Drug Abuse Warn Net (DAWN) it represents the greatest increase in drugs associated with abuse, and the highest number of suicides and emergency room admissions. Ritalin is classified as a schedule II, or most addictive drug, on par with cocaine, morphine, PCP and metamphetamines. The DEA has noted serious complications associated with Ritalin, including suicide, psychotic episodes and violent behavior. According to Washington Times [Insight magazine], “the common link in the recent phenomenon of high school shootings may be psychotropic drugs like Ritalin.” The International Journal of Addictions lists over 100 adverse reactions to Ritalin-paranoid psychosis, terror and paranoid delusions among them. Ritalin can have other serious side effects including disorientation of the central nervous system. It is an amphetamine, capable of inducing sudden cardiac arrest and death. Twelve year old Stephanie Hall of Canton, Ohio died the day after her Ritalin dose was increased.
The medical community has expressed alarm over the widespread use of psychotropic drugs for children. Dr. Fred Baughman Jr., pediatric neurologist, said of psychiatrists, “They have proven several times over that chronic Ritalin/amphetamine exposure they advocate for millions of children causes brain atrophy (shrinkage).” The National Institute of Health (NIH) reported, “We do not have an independent valid test for ADHD, and there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to brain malfunction. Further research to establish the validity of the disorder continues to be a problem.” The NIH also reported that Ritalin and other stimulant drugs result in “little improvement in academic or social skills,” and they recommend research into alternatives such as change in diet or biofeedback.
If we care about children’s health, we owe it to them to explore healthful ways to improve their classroom performance and deportment. I would start with an observation: In the 1950’s we did not have millions of children unable to concentrate in the classroom. What has changed? First, the classroom climate. The traditional classroom was expected to be a quiet, well-ordered environment. Desks were arranged so that all students could make eye contact with the teacher, see the demonstrations and read instructions. Students were not permitted to distract or disrupt others. The teacher was presumed to know more than the children, and so gave direct, whole group instruction, guiding students step by step in learning new skills, modeling standard English grammar and syntax in the process. Time was spent learning disciplines of cursive writing by practicing ovals and “push pulls.” Subjects were taught separately. Elementary students had a short recess in the morning, a half-hour recess after lunch and a short recess in the afternoon.
Progressive educators undermined this approach and gave us the open classroom in the 1960’s. Yet, structure makes so much sense. When adults are faced with tasks such as balancing the checkbook or figuring our income tax, we tend to seek out quiet place where we “can hear ourselves think.” Children are more sensitive to stimuli than adults, more easily distracted. Insisting that they become “self-directed learners,” fending for themselves in a noisy, chaotic, confusing, classroom can do them a disservice.
Therapists have had success with children diagnosed as ADHD by providing a calm, soothing, structured environment. Scientists are finding that the discipline of cursive writing develops part of the brain associated with self-control. Recent test scores, common sense, and science seem to lead us toward the conclusion: Traditional classroom instruction and age appropriate recess time is very effective. It is hard to tell today’s “process” classroom from yesterday’s recess. Desks are arranged in groups. Students cannot see the teacher and distract one another. The failed “Whole Language” method has replaced phonics. Students are passed on to the next grade whether or not they have learned to read. Children spend their time ambling around the room, chatting with classmates, playing computer games, and even lying on the floor. Discipline is sometimes lax and supervision is casual. Subjects are combined into long blocks of time. Some schools have abolished recess altogether.
Many of those children go home to empty houses where they play more video games, surf the Internet, and snack on chemically-altered, heavily-sugared, artificially- flavored junk food. Wouldn’t it make sense to provide more attention, more supervision, more exercise, and more nutritious foods before prescribing potentially harmful psychotropic drugs to render children compliant? Could attention deficit disorder really mean that children suffer from a deficit of attention as well as displaying it?
This brings to mind another change since the 1950’s. According to film critic Michael Medved, in the 1950’s the TV camera lingered on one scene an average of 45 seconds, whereas in the 1990’s the average is a maximum of 5 seconds per scene. Children come to school after having watched thousands of hours of flashing cartoons and shows that jump from one scene to the next. We could reasonably conclude that television has contributed to shortening or disrupting children’s attention span. If their television viewing were limited would they be more receptive to classroom instruction?
Recently I listened to a frustrated mother complain on a radio talk show that her 18-month-old had too much energy. She justified why she felt she had to drug him. He was wearing her out. At 18 months he was climbing straight up the bookcase.
Could some cases just be a matter of perspective on what is normal behavior? One frustrated mother’s “hyperactive” child may be another mother’s proud “future Olympic gymnast.”
It is not my intention to judge parents, counselors, and doctors, or to dismiss the genuinely hard cases. My only motivation is to provide information that could help schools and parents make sound decisions about the health and welfare of their children.
Patti Johnson
Colorado State Board of Education, 2nd Congressional District
Broomfield, Colorado 80020
Dateline: 10/23/99
Resolution Against Psychotropic Medications
Draft of the Resolution
presented to the
Colorado State Board of Education
State Board of Education Resolution
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In expressing the sense of the Colorado State Board of Education that our children are too precious to subject them to mind-altering psychotropic drugs which can produce disabling complications including suicidal ideations and violent behavior when the disorder/illness itself and the treatment have not been scientifically validated:
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Whereas, a Consensus Development Panel conducted in November 1998 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to resolve controversies surrounding Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) reported that: "We do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction. Further research to establish the validity of the disorder continues to be a problem", and
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Whereas, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported in October 1995 that "despite the frequent reference to ADHD as a neurobiological disorder, the cause of ADHD remains unknown", and
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Whereas, Dr. Rex William Cowdry, then acting director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) told Congress in 1995 that the cause of mental illness was unknown, and
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Whereas, the NIH Consensus Development Panel reported that stimulant drugs such as methylphenidate (Ritalin) result in "little improvement in academic or social skills", and
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Whereas, methylphenidate is so prone to abuse that it was classified as a Schedule II drug in 1971. Other schedule II drugs include morphine, PCP, methadone, cocaine, methamphetamine, and drugs which can lead to psychological and physical dependence, and
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Whereas, methylphenidate shares many of the pharmacological effects of amphetamines, methamphetamines and cocaine, and
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Whereas, the 1995 DEA report noted serious complications associated with methylphenidate, including psychotic episodes and violent behavior, and
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Whereas, the 1995 DEA report states that "preexposure to stimulants, including methylphenidate, in childhood may predispose these same individuals to the reinforcing effects of cocaine", and
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Whereas, the DEA report said children can commit suicide during stimulant withdrawal, and
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Whereas, methylphenidate's potential to cause violent behavior was demonstrated on April 16, 1999 when 15-year-old Shawn Cooper who had been taking Ritalin opened fire at Notus Junior-Senior High School in Idaho, and again on May 20, 1999 when 15-year-old T.J. Solomon who had been taking Ritalin shot and wounded six classmates at Heritage high School in Conyers, Georgia, and
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Whereas, the package insert for Luvox (a newer anti-depressant of the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI)class) lists "manic reaction" and "psychotic reaction" and "frequent" adverse reactions observed during premarketing clinical trials of the drug, and
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Whereas, the package insert for Luvox (a newer anti-depressant of the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI)class) lists "manic reaction" and "psychotic reaction" and "frequent" adverse reactions observed during premarketing clinical trials of the drug, and
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Whereas, a study published in The Journal of The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in March 1991 found that self-injurious ideation or behavior started or intensified during treatment with fluoxetine (Prozac) in a significant number of adolescents studied, and
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Whereas, The New York Post reported on January 31, 1999 that documents they had obtained through the Freedom of Information Act exposed tests the New York Psychiatric Institute was conducting with Prozac on six-year-plds. The documents revealed that "Some patients have been reported to have an increase in suicidal thoughts and/or violent behavior". The article also stated: "Another major potential Prozac side effect - wild manic episodes - also was acknowledged in researcher's internal records., " and
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Whereas, the Clinical Psychiatry News reported in June 1999 that "SSRI-induced psychosis has accounted for 8% of all general hospital psychiatric admissions over a recent 14-month period," and
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Whereas, a psychiatrist and expert on psychotropic drugs stated in April 1999 that "mania is a psychosis which can produce bizarre, grandiose, highly elaborated destructive plans, including mass murder", and
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Whereas, The Rocky Mountain News reported on June 21, 1999 that 18-year-old Eric Harris began seeing a psychiatrist and taking Luvox in about January 1998 and,
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Whereas, The Washington Post reported that Harris began planning the massacre one year prior to the April 20, 1999 Columbine shooting - indicating that his destructive mania emerged shortly after he began taking Luvox, and
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Whereas, an autopsy found a "therapeutic level" of Luvox in Eric Harris's bloodstream, and
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Whereas, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel had been taking both Prozac and Ritalin before killing his parents and proceeding on to his Springfield, Oregon high school where he killed two fellow students and injured 27 more in May 1998, and
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Whereas, Georgetown University Medical Center research professor, Candace B. Pert, said she is "alarmed at the monster that Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Solomon Snyder and I created when we discovered the simple binding assay for drug receptors 25 years ago... The public is being misinformed about the precision of these selective serotonin-uptake inhibitors... A new paradigm has evolved, with implication that life-style changes such as diet and exercise can offer profound, safe and natural mood elevation, and
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Whereas, a Danish medical study reported in 1995 that withdrawal from psychotropic drugs can cause "fear, terror, panic, fear of insanity, failing self confidence, restlessness, irritability, aggression, an urge to destroy, and, in the worst cases, an urge to kill, and
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Whereas, the National Preferred Medicines Center, Inc., comprised of New Zealand physicians, issued a report on "Acute drug withdrawal" in 1996 stating that withdrawal from psychoactive drugs can cause rebound effects that exacerbate previous symptoms and new symptoms unrelated to the condition that had not been previously experienced by the patient. The anti-depressants can create "agitation, severe depression, hallucinations, aggressiveness, hypomania and akathisia," and
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Whereas, people who stop taking psychoactive drugs can, therefore, be suffering violent withdrawal effects from the drug, and
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Whereas, it is misleading to advise parents their child needs a mind altering drug to correct a "chemical imbalance," "neurobiological" or "genetic condition" when science has been unable to establish the existence of such maladies, and
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Whereas, medical research shows that psychiatric symptoms are often a sign of an undetected medical condition, nutritional deficiency, or allergy, and
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Whereas, the NIH reports that public school expenditures on behalf of students with ADHD may have exceeded $3 billion in 1995, and
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Whereas, this figure does not include expenditures for other alleged psychiatric "learning disorders," and
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Whereas, this money would be better spent on workable academic programs which actually raise the child's level of academic competence and thus his self-esteem.
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Be it resolved by the Colorado State Board of Education that
1. Colorado schools are halls of learning. The duty of a teacher is to ensure the academic achievement of the student using methods of instruction that have been proven workable
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2. No child shall be adjudicated as having ADHD or any other alleged learning or behavior disorder when the disorder has not been scientifically validated and lacks an objective, medically accepted diagnostic test.
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3. Funds currently used in the schools for treatment of the psychiatric learning disorders which have not been scientifically validated should be redirected into effective education programs such as after school tutoring. We urge the Colorado General Assembly to enact legislation which will bring this change about.
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4. Mind-altering psychotropic drugs which have the potential to create violent or suicidal behavior shall not be dispensed to children for any alleged learning, behavior, or mental disorder which lacks an exact, objective medical diagnostic test such as that used to detect diabetes. Tutoring, vision testing, phonics, nutritional guidance, medical examinations, allergy testing, standard disciplinary procedures and other remedies known to be effective and harmless shall be recommended to parents as their options.
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5. The parents of any child, which is currently taking psychotropic drugs, should be advised that the cause of the alleged disorder is not known and provided with complete information on the physical and emotional complications the drug may cause. The parents should also be informed that such a course of treatment may adversely affect the child's future employment and military service options.
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