Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children

[snow <snow@smoke.suba.com>]

On Mon, 8 Jul 1996, Arun Mehta wrote:
> Ritalin is a lifesaver for a small % of children who suffer from a condition
                               ^^^^^^^
     Key word here.            |||||||

> Ritalin... mother was furious.  
> 
> Some of the kids who use foul language (a very small %) have Tourette's
> disease, and also need medicine (a different one)... by and large the

     Bullshit. Most kids (these days) who use profanity are simply 
undisiplined louts. Yes, I use profanity today, at 28. However, I would 
NEVER have called my mother a "Fucking Asshole" under ANY circumstances, 
My father would have torn my head off. In fact if my father had caught me
speaking like that to ANYONE at 8 years of age, I would have had trouble
sitting for a couple days at least. 

     Of course my parents made sure not to talk like that around me. 

> politically correct thing is sometimes to label a kid as sick rather than
> bad or spoiled, this is probably why drugs are over-used.  But we can't
> throw the baby out with the bathwater!

     On the other hand, if only 20% of the children that are being drugged
need it, that means that we are sacrificing 80% of these children to save 
20%. 

     Drugs are supposed to be for fun, not for long term behavior 
modification. People need to learn to deal with life. 

Petro, Christopher C.
petro@suba.com <prefered for any non-list stuff>
snow@crash.suba.com