Ritalin for the kids: trouble for the future

On 7 May 2012, Liberal Democrat MP Tessa Munt, was quoted thus by The Daily Mail:

"It is extremely alarming that in the decade up to 2010, prescriptions for Ritalin quadrupled. Statistics show that 90 per cent of prescriptions for this powerful drug in 2004 were used to combat behavioural problems in school-age children. I am shocked that there has been such a huge explosion in use…

We hear teachers tell of their students’ lack of ability to concentrate, from police about increasingly disruptive and anti-social behaviour, and from parents unable to control the actions of young family members… Resorting to powerful drugs only stores up trouble for the future."

The Mail added:

"A report commissioned by the RSPB that found activities in a natural environment appear to improve ADHD symptoms compared with playing indoors and playing outdoors in an urban area. But Mrs Munt said too many youngsters were prevented from enjoying the outdoors due to a lack of school playing fields and the lure of video games and social networking.

The 'school playing fields' and the 'activities in a natural environment' issues were settled decades ago. The drugging-up, dumbing-down and robotification of our children continue apace. Point a robot in particular direction and that’s where it will go. Those who construct such robots invariably send them to the Left.

Jean Gross, the Government’s former speech and language tsar, said a special needs diagnosis can be ‘used as an explanation for failure’ by schools.'

"One-third of nine and 10-year-old boys have special educational needs. It’s at that age that schools start to think they are not going to get a level four… so they get labelled as having SEN… It’s a real incentive to do this when schools don’t hit their floor target."

Thus does an educational establishment, incentivised by a political establishment, place career and reputation before the health and welfare of the nation’s children. The Mail added:

"The number of prescriptions for Ritalin leapt from 158,000 in 1999 to 661,463 in 2010, (the Blair/Brown years) NHS figures have revealed.

Psychologists said they were seeing a sharp rise in the number of children below the age of six, and some as young as three, being prescribed the drug. They also warned dosages were getting stronger…

Ritalin… can cause nausea, fatigue and mood swings and has also been linked to suicides…

Psychologists also warned that children with behavioural problem were increasingly prescribed Ritalin in conjunction with anti-depressants. This was despite ‘little to no evidence about the effect which these cocktails of drugs are having on the development of children’s brains’."

Almost 1.7million children aged 16 and below in England (21 per cent) were recorded with special educational needs in 2011.

This is what the well-programmed robot votes for.