RITALIN HIGH ATTRACTS ADULTS IN WISCONSIN

Tracking Abusers Difficult, Officials Say

Ritalin was once considered a wonder drug for hyperactive children, but
there is growing evidence that adults are becoming hooked on its
caffeine-like jolt and breaking the law to obtain it.

Take the case of Jennifer McNeil, a 33-year-old mother of two from Ozaukee
County who is suspected of robbing eight pharmacies to obtain it. She
described to authorities an addiction so out of control that she fashioned
toy weapons and hogtied clerks while apologetically robbing pharmacies.

Or Gerald Smith, a 50-year-old elementary school principal who was
sentenced to 30 days in jail last year after stealing Ritalin from a safe
at his school in Orem, Utah.

Or Robert Tice, a 44-year-old police officer in a Baltimore suburb who was
suspended without pay in 1999 and charged with altering a prescription to
obtain it.

And Cynthia Long, a Cedarburg mother who was charged in January with a
misdemeanor accusing her of stealing Ritalin twice last year from a school
her child attends. The 30-year-old woman said she needed to make phone
calls in the principal's office and then took bottles of the drug from
behind a counter, according to a criminal complaint.

Wisconsin officials are frustrated because they lack a centralized system
for tracking abusers of prescription drugs such as Ritalin, said Cindy
Benning, leader of the state Controlled Substances Board. Without this
information, law enforcement officials cannot get a grip on the extent of
the problem, she said.

Benning has called for a computerized data system that would identify
people with addictions to legal drugs who might otherwise slip through the
cracks.

"If somebody's getting 600 doses of a particular drug in one month - and
they're visiting six doctors for prescriptions and six pharmacies to get
them filled - the computer would spit out that person's name," Benning said.

Benning has testified before a special legislative committee investigating
problems related to Ritalin and similar medications given to juveniles, but
she couldn't give lawmakers as much information as they wanted, she said.

"I don't know how we'll ever get a handle on all the illicit stuff going
on," she said. "We don't have any way to get concrete data on abuses
involving drugs like Ritalin."

Other states track

Centralized tracking systems have been established in 26 states. Though
extremely effective, these systems are costly to install and the
information does not pop up instantly on computer screens at pharmacies,
Benning said. Rather, the data needs to be sorted by the government and
then letters identifying abusers are mailed to pharmacies.

Creating a computerized tracking system sounds like a good idea but would
have trouble in reality, some pharmacists say.

Drug abusers could quickly find a way around it, said Marty Becker, a
pharmacist at Port Apothecary in Port Washington. For example, some abusers
might hide from such a system by paying for prescriptions with cash,
lessening the paper trail that would lead to them, he said.

"Is it a good idea? Yes. But would it be attainable? I don't think so,"
Becker said.

Ritalin, the trade name for methylphenidate, is a prescription drug used
widely to treat highly active children diagnosed with a condition known as
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. ADHD, formerly known as ADD, is a
common neurobehavioral condition that affects 4% to 12% of all school-age
children, particularly boys. It is characterized by impulsive behavior,
difficulty in paying attention and an inability to keep still. ADHD often
occurs in association with depression and developmental disorders such as
speech impairment or learning disabilities.

Though classified as a stimulant, Ritalin has been touted for helping
children concentrate.

But for children and adults who do not have this disorder, the
amphetamine-based chemical produces an emotional high resembling an extreme
caffeine-like buzz.

The drug can overstimulate the heart and cause sleeplessness and appetite
loss. Ritalin users are frequently driven to complete fatigue.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, children prescribed
Ritalin do not become addicted when they take the drug in treatment
dosages. Some researchers, however, say that students who have used Ritalin
as children have introduced the drug to college campuses, where it is sold
for as much as $10 a pill.

Ritalin production soars

Ritalin's availability has soared in recent years. Production increased
650% between 1990 and 1997, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration.

Manufacturing the drug at this rate opens the door to abuses, said Eric
Heiligenstein, a physician who studied the habits of students using Ritalin
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"Accessibility adds to the problem," said Heiligenstein, director of
clinical psychiatry at the campus' University Health Services. "When there
is more availability, there is just more opportunity to get it."

Ritalin and its generic equivalents accounted for 13% of all drugs stolen
or missing from hospitals, pharmacies and physicians' offices in 1999 and
2000 in Wisconsin, said Mike Grafton, an investigator at the Drug
Enforcement Administration.

No one yet sees Ritalin's connection to crimes as an epidemic.

Still, the cases such as McNeil's and others show the lengths people might
go to to feed a Ritalin habit.

McNeil is charged in Washington County Circuit Court with robbing the
ShopKo pharmacy in West Bend and police say she has confessed to robberies
in Elm Grove, Brookfield, Menomonee Falls, Grafton, Sheboygan and Eagle River.

"She is an example of how addiction to any drug, even a prescription drug
like Ritalin, drives someone to do something they never thought of in their
wildest dreams," Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens said.

McNeil told authorities that, sometimes using a toy gun and even a duck
call device disguised as a gun, she entered eight pharmacies and demanded
cash and drugs, police say.

McNeil used duct tape to bind pharmacy workers' hands behind their backs,
authorities say, then apologized on her way out.

During one robbery, a frightened pharmacist turned over all the money and
checks in his cash register.

But all she wanted was the Ritalin.