This is from an article entitled Talking Back to Breggin, written by Prof.
Russell Barkley. It addresses the claims of the know nothings about the FDA,
DEA etc. and the orchestrated rise in MPH production. As some may know,
Barkely is one of the leading authorities in ADHD diagnosis and treatment.
http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/NegativeBR/breggin.html
Special note to Jan Drew: This is a reprint of the original article so read
it for your education, and you do need one.
The book's biases and unbalanced scholarsl-lip are evident from the very
first page of Chapter 1. Here the author quotes that 'The U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration ... has warned about a record six-fold increase
in Ritalin production between 1990 and 1995.' And that "The International
Narcotics Control Board. . . deplores that 'l 0 to 12 percent' of all boys
between ages 6 and 14 in the United States have been diagnosed as having ADD
and are being treated with methylphenidate [Ritalin]." Withheld from the
reader are the following facts that would have helped to put these
statements in their proper perspective:
Ritalin production does not directly equate with Ritalin prescribing, the
latter being far lower than the former;
this ridiculously large rise in Ritalin production was largely orchestrated
by the DEA itself after having been soundly and rightly criticized in 1993
for allowing a shortfall of this medication to occur in the US. This
deprived some children in some parts of the country from being able to
obtain their medication for several months until the DEA corrected its
mistake. Subsequently, the DEA dramatically raised production quotas so this
would not happen again;
it was the DEA that had informed the International Narcotics Control Board
about the supposedly dramatic rise in Ritalin use in the U.S., and was
thanked by the Narcotics Control Board for this assistance at its press
conference, even though the figures cited by the Board were wrong; and
this press conference was arranged at a time when CHADD, leading scientists,
the American Academy of Child Neurology, and others had petitioned the
government (starting with the DEA) to declassify Ritalin out of the category
of addictive drugs and into a more appropriate category with other
nonaddictive psychiatric medications -- a petition the DEA did not wish to
approve.