According to a May 2006 report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, side effects and “problems” with widely prescribed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) drugs send 3,100 people to the ER every year — 80 percent of them children.

“Problems” most often include overdosing or accidental use, and side effects can include chest pain, high blood pressure, rapid heart rate, stroke and sudden death. Between 1999 and 2003, 25 deaths linked to ADHD drugs were reported to the FDA, 19 involving children. In addition, 54 cases of other serious heart problems were reported, including strokes and heart attacks. (The drugs include amphetamines, such as Adderall, and methylphenidates, sold as Ritalin, Concerta, Methylin and Metadate.)

The FDA said it has tallied an additional 26 deaths between 1969 and 2003 in ADHD patients involving death by suicide, intentional overdose, drowning, heat stroke and from underlying disease. Other sources indicate 160 deaths from Ritalin for the years 1990-1997 and 26 deaths from 1998 to 2000, 186 deaths for the decade.

Matthew Smith suddenly fell over while playing with friends and died on March 21, 2000. The cause of death was determined to be from the long-term (age 7-14) use of Methylphenidate, a drug commonly known as Ritalin.  According to his father, Lawrence, “Putting him on Ritalin was the worst decision I’ve ever made.”  www.ritalindeath.com

In the following article Evelyn Pringle lists a large number of murders or violent acts committed by people using ADHD drugs. While no one can know at this point whether the crimes would have been committed by those people if they had not been on the medications, it does make one think.

FDA Forgot A Few ADHD Drug Related Deaths and Injuries

What does all this have to do with the public schools?

Estimates indicate that anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of children in public schools are taking attention deficit disorder medications daily with the numbers continually increasing. Young white males are most likely to be medicated.

Pressure is often used by teachers and administrators to force parents to medicate their children. In extreme cases Children’s Protective Services have accused parents of neglect when they refuse to place their children on the medications.

”This thing is so scary,” remarked Patricia Weathers, of Millbrook, a suburb of Poughkeepsie. 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. She said a drug cocktail including Ritalin, the anti-depressant Paxil, and Dexedrine, a stimulant like Ritalin, caused her boy to hallucinate. ”My son was a guinea pig,” said Weathers, who now sends the child to a private school.

Like thousands of children, 7-year-old Kyle Carroll takes Ritalin for a diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. And like thousands of parents, Michael and Jill Carroll worry about the drug’s side effects, including sleeplessness and loss of appetite. But they keep their child on the medication, in part because they fear child welfare workers will take him away if they don’t.

Earlier this year, administrators from the Berne-Knox-Westerlo school district called Albany County Child Protective Services, alleging child abuse when the Carrolls said they wanted to take Kyle off the drug. As a result, the Carrolls are now on a statewide list of alleged child abusers, and they have been thrust into an Orwellian family court battle to clear their name and to ensure their child isn’t removed from their home.