LISTENING TO RITALIN

The practice of prescribing Ritalin and other psychoactive drugs to
children is widespread -- and that's just about the only statement on
the subject that almost everybody agrees with. Beyond lies
controversy: Is medication the appropriate treatment for children
diagnosed with attention deficit disorder?

What are the long-term effects?

Are too many children being diagnosed incorrectly?

Some people even question whether ADD is a real disease.

Such uncertainly about a topic of great concern to so many families --
by some estimates, 4 million children, most of them boys, take Ritalin
- -- is reason enough for Rep. Penn Pfiffner, R-Lakewood, to have
organized Tuesday's legislative hearing on ADD. It presented differing
viewpoints and endorsed none; it was informative, and that's the
purpose of hearings.

Yet some of the views presented were clearly extreme -- even
outrageous.

Among the witnesses was Dr. Bruce Wiseman, who said, "the use of
psychotic drugs is creating kid killers." He's president of the
Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which according to its Web page
was formed in 1969 by the Church of Scientology to oppose the use of
psychiatry. Pfiffner says he holds no brief for Scientology - - thank
goodness -- and that he's uncomfortable with the cult. "But to the
extent they had information," he says, "I allowed them to present it."

Pfiffner also said that he set up a media room for people to display
materials, "and I didn't think it was appropriate for me as a
legislator to screen what people could say."

In contrast to the general openness of the hearings, a resolution
drafted by a member of the Colorado Board of Education last month
treats these difficult questions as all but settled.

After asserting a lengthy string of dubious or irrelevant claims, it
concludes with breathtakingly audacious recommendations: that children
should not be "adjudicated" as having any behavioral disorder which
lacks an objective diagnostic test; that funds currently used for
treatment be redirected "into effective education programs such as
after-school tutoring"; that mind-altering drugs should not be
dispensed to children and parents should be offered such "effective
and harmless" remedies as phonics and nutritional guidance instead.

We don't expect the board will vote on the resolution in that form.
After a copy was posted on a Web site devoted to ADD, protests alerted
the board to the resolution's recklessness. But we're dismayed that
anyone would believe this was an appropriate board action.

Members of the board have no expertise in this area, and no warrant to
advise either parents or schools on medical matters.

The likely substitute is a resolution to the effect that schools
should not pressure parents to medicate their children.

If that's happening, we agree, it shouldn't be and the board may
fairly comment on it. But it should definitely leave medical matters
to medical professionals.