Facts about Ritalin and its generics

Ritalin is little more than “coke” for kids.

FACTS

1. On any given day in North America, almost five million kids take Ritalin, a powerful psychostimulant drug.
2. In 1990, 900,000 American kids were on Ritalin. Today some estimate the total number of children on Ritalin has increased to 5 million or more per year.
3. Emergency room visits by children ages 10-14 involving Ritalin intoxication have now reached the same level as those for cocaine, which indicates escalating abuse of this highly addictive drug. According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, massive amounts of Ritalin are being diverted by adolescents and adults into recreational use, where it’s often crushed up and snorted, or even injected.
4. 80% of children on Ritalin are boys.
5. Stimulants do not provide a cure. Parents have been encouraged to believe that pharmacological control will boost their child’s learning and social skills, but this rarely happens. Dozens of objective studies have assessed the long-term effectiveness of stimulants on children’s academic performance, social development and self control. None has shown them to be effective for anything but controlling kids’ behaviour – an effect that vanishes once the drug wears off.

The side effects of Ritalin addiction include but are not limited to:

• drug addiction
• nervousness and insomnia
• loss of appetite
• nausea and vomiting
• dizziness
• headaches
• changes in heart rate and blood pressure (usually elevation of both, but occasionally depression)
• skin rashes and itching
• abdominal pain
• weight loss
• digestive problems
• toxic psychosis
• psychotic episodes
• severe depression upon withdrawal

High doses of stimulants produce a predictable set of symptoms that include:

• loss of appetite (may cause serious malnutrition)
• tremors, tics and muscle twitching
• fevers, convulsions and headaches (may be severe)
• irregular heartbeat and respiration (may be profound and life threatening)
• anxiety, restlessness
• paranoia, hallucinations, and delusions
• excessive repetition of movements and meaningless tasks
• formication (sensation of bugs or worms crawling under the skin)

While death due to non-medical use of Ritalin is not common, it has been known to occur. Is this what you want for your beautiful child?