I started the new thread because this is a bigger issue than just our area, and also I have no idea what Mr. Lewis' personal issues were related to the use of drugs.
Patches, that PBS show sounds interesting. Diane Sawyer did a news special on the topic of legal drugs and kids in foster care, but her story was a very shallow treatment of the topic, IMO.
HarryP, the parents pushing drugs is a very real issue, it isn't the underclass, like I said I'm meeting the people and the kids. Parents who don't take their kids to the doctor enough or can't get them medicine they need is a huge issue - isn't that half of what "health care reform" was all about, "access to health care"? If I'm coming face to face with the issue, it is pretty common, I'm afraid.
The one little girl I have firsthand knowledge of, her parents are professionals. I would just have described her behavior as odd, before, I saw her since she's been treated for ADHD, which is a catchall term for all kinds of things, and now I would describe her behavior as "ghostly". Seriously. She reminded me of one of those kids in The Shining". Completely flat. What do I do? The teacher thinks this girl is doing better. I guess that staring straight ahead in a trancelike state is more desirable than her attention wandering around the room.

Well stated madamx......talk about 'gateway drugs'?
almost every kid I knew that took ridalyn(sp)....went on to harder (legal/illegal) drugs as they got older.
something to be said about that too!

What are the odds, that children who find themselves in the foster care system, are all in need of large quantities of strong drugs? Many kids end up in care just because there is no one to care for them due to non-medical circumstances. Why would it be, then, that these kids are way, way more likely to be on all kinds of medications? It's like it's a superstitious taint, or something, these kids get labeled for life.
There's something really wrong. There are third world countries where kids are dying from not getting vaccines or medicines they need, and here we are trying to make every nuance of childhood a medical problem.
I think some of these kids are just suffering from a thing called "immaturity" which is normal in people who haven't reached maturity yet, but somehow some parents can't deal with the idea that kids don't mature at the same rate in all areas. If your child has the attention span of a 2 1/2 year old, but is intellectually the same as other kindergarteners, she might just need work on that area, not drugs.

Quoted from Madam X

I think some of these kids are just suffering from a thing called "immaturity" which is normal in people who haven't reached maturity yet, but somehow some parents can't deal with the idea that kids don't mature at the same rate in all areas.

The affliction kids have is non conformity.  Rambunctious children gum up the gears of the conformity factories(also called schools).  Parents faith in these institutions make them incapable of resisting the psychopath school psychologist, whose job it is to assist in lobotomizing children, whether by the structured indoctrination or mind altering chemicals.  The school indoctrinators job is to keep children out of prison by making sure they follow all the rules(laws) and submit to authority.

Parents put their kids on these drugs because school administrators and doctors tell them to.  They encourage their children to take these drugs because when they were in school, their school indoctrination conditioned them to blindly follow authority.  They are incapable to stand up to it.  Even when their children's lives hang in the balance.  They have been stripped of parental instincts.

^5

Quoted from senders

^5

DITTO!

As a parent of a child with ADHD, I can say that there are children out there that do need the medication. I know the difference between a child with it and an overly active child. I work in special ed and I have seen all levels of it. My own child struggled with focusing problems to the point where it was affecting her daily life. Her mind is brilliant but she couldnt focus enough to show it. When she was in third grade, she was given a low dose of Focalin and it worked wonders. Her grades went way up and her test scores were all As. She is now in high school and functioning like a normalteenager. While I do agree that a lot of kids are not diagnosed properly, some really do need the help.

thanks for all this info....very educational....my problem with drugs???...is with Pharm labs.....reps coming with their

wares to doctor's offices....and the doctor's buying what is recommended...

today at a doctor's suite....saw three well-dressed men with their carryons....hawking their wares to the doctors.

made me sick...these guys make 6 figures and maybe they think they are doing the right thing...but....money has

no conscience.....I just had to get this out.....because I will find out what documentary I saw and want to pass

it on....many parents are not giving their children drugs...but doing it with naturally fed diets....and it does work in

some cases.....

For parents with children who need these drugs....God bless....for these kids have no say...so their parents have

to be vigilant and research everything put in front of them..

with that said...God bless..... .

When my insurance changed, Imy child was refered to a doctor that tried to force me to give her a medication that I did not like. I had done my homework on all of the medications out there and I explained the side effects to this doctor. She was up in arms and called me a liar. Really? At least I could pronounce it correctly. Now I see commercials on tvfor lawsuits on this drug. I wouldnt give my child something that could cause serious damage. And anything, including OTCs, I dont even give her the full dose. What scares me is that there are some parents out there that will get their kids on medications when they dont need them. If they can get the paperwork, they get more money from Social Servics. Or they get the medications to supply their own drug habits.

Quoted from Gemini

When my insurance changed, Imy child was refered to a doctor that tried to force me to give her a medication that I did not like. I had done my homework on all of the medications out there and I explained the side effects to this doctor. She was up in arms and called me a liar. Really? At least I could pronounce it correctly. Now I see commercials on tvfor lawsuits on this drug. I wouldnt give my child something that could cause serious damage. And anything, including OTCs, I dont even give her the full dose. What scares me is that there are some parents out there that will get their kids on medications when they dont need them. If they can get the paperwork, they get more money from Social Servics. Or they get the medications to supply their own drug habits.

It's the 'legal drug machine' where there is not only TONS of money to be made....but with the help of both the legal and illegal drugs.....we have an entire dumbed down society!!!

the system is geared to molding cogs for the engineering of society, and if they see fit that a human does not 'fit in' to success
they will drug them into submission rather than follow that human and support that human as they grow and flower into the
human they should be.

if you can't cross your 't's and dot your 'i's at 7years old, there must be something wrong with you because the timetable that
society has engineered must be right and you, human, must be defective.....

gotta love state and time standards of human development

years from now this will be just as bad as smoking is considered now....

humans on amphetamines all for the success of the engineering done by the 'experts'.......

Senders.....right on this time.

Quoted from bumblethru

Well stated madamx......talk about 'gateway drugs'?
almost every kid I knew that took ridalyn(sp)....went on to harder (legal/illegal) drugs as they got older.
something to be said about that too!

If you want to go on anecdotal stuff, I'll play that game...
Both of my kids have/had ADHD and both of them were on Ritalin.
They are full grown now...one drinks alcohol occasionally and one doesn't drink or use drugs at all..

Quoted from 55tbird

If you want to go on anecdotal stuff, I'll play that game...
Both of my kids have/had ADHD and both of them were on Ritalin.
They are full grown now...one drinks alcohol occasionally and one doesn't drink or use drugs at all..

The Ritalin cured them of ADHD?