The Risks of Psychotropic Drugs 

�Ritalin took me as low or lower than anything else I used in the 60s and 70s�including heroin, cocaine, LSD�the whole horror show �,� said one Ritalin addict from New Zealand. �The rush was euphoric�it�s like poor man�s coke. But the side effects were devastating. You�d get paranoid even faster than with coke. � You�d think your friends were going to turn you in, the cops were about to beat down the door, that you�d taken an overdose and your heart would jump out of your chest. But I was so addicted to the few seconds of euphoria, I�d put up with the hours of insanity, pain and [aggression].� 

At the same time that child psychiatric drugs are broadly promoted as safe and effective, many governments classify them as abusive and as addictive as morphine, opium and cocaine. The stimulants pre- scribed for ADHD were already listed as controlled substances under Schedule II of the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances because they constitute a substantial risk to public health, have little therapeutic usefulness but have a high potential for addiction.

According to a special study by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, �Psychotic episodes, paranoid delusions, hallucinations, and bizarre behav- ioral characteristics similar to amphetamine-like stimulant toxicity, have been associated with methylphenidate (Ritalin) abuse. Severe medical consequences, including death, have been reported.�

Even when not abused, side effects of Ritalin include blood pressure and pulse changes, angina (severe pain, often in chest), arrhythmia (heart irregularity), weight loss and toxic psychosis. Suicide is a risk during withdrawal.

Studies also reveal that stimulants do not actually improve academic performance.

Journalist Lou Dobbs reports that while the U.S. federal government spends nearly $1 billion a month to fight the war on illicit drugs, more than 1 million prescriptions were written for a new drug for ADHD in its first six months on the market.

Nearly 3 million U.S. adolescents ages 12 to 17 abuse many highly addictive prescription drugs such as painkillers, tranquilizers and sedatives.

In Japan, large numbers of methylphenidate addicts and �advisors,� called �Ritalers,� use the Internet to promote how to best use the drug and offer drug swaps.

Robert Whitaker, science writer and author of Mad in America said, �What we have after years of soaring use of psychotropic drugs is a crisis in mental health, an epidemic of mental illness among children. Instead of seeing better mental health with ever more medicating, we see a worsening of mental health.�

�It�s big money,� says Peyton Knight, legislative director of the American Policy Center, �The more diagnoses there are every year, the more Ritalin and other mind-altering drugs they are going to be able to market and sell.�  

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