January 16, 2008
Parents at their wits' end, wearing long sleeves to hide bruises and bite marks inflicted by their own offspring. Psychiatrists struggling to cope with children as young as 2 who show intractable behavior problems. Drug companies ready to suggest powerful drugs that can produce marked changes in a child's behavior -- getting heavily involved in state-level determinations of which drugs should be prescribed for which conditions. And a state struggling to keep up with rapid changes that have pushed Medicaid costs for powerful anti-psychotic drugs from $9 million seven years ago to almost $30 million in 2006.
January 16, 2008
Most Americans are too busy in their daily lives to face the obvious: we are a society dependent on drugs. We fought only half the war on drugs. "Just Say No" should have targeted not only street drugs but all detrimental drugs including prescription ones.
There is little ethical or moral difference between a drug pusher in the school yard seducing kids into buying the latest feel good drug and the pharmacological/medical industry dispensing antipsychotic medication to children as young as toddlers. Both the street drug or the prescription drug will lead the child down the same path of chemical dependency that ends in being a taker from rather than a giver to society.
According to the national Teen Drug Survey released Dec. 11 by the White House, teenagers are turning from street drugs to prescription drugs such as OxyContin and Vicodin. The study conducted by the University of Michigan Institute on Social Research, found a modest decrease in marijuana and other street drugs and an increase in prescription drugs. John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said, "71 percent of young people have reported their source of supply is their parent's or friend's medicine cabinet." Theo Milonopoulos, "Survey Finds Teens Smoking Less Pot, But Popping More Pills," Tampa Tribune, Dec. 12, pg. 13.