SCHOOLYARD DEATH TRADE IN ATTENTION-DEFICIT DRUGS

DRUGS given to children for psychological disorders are being traded
in the playground, with one child already dead from taking an
unprescribed dose.

The girl died after taking a drug she had bought illicitly at school,
which she thought was amphetamine-based medication used to treat
attention deficit disorder.

The revelation was contained in a study by the Centre for Independent
Studies on drug consumption in Australia.

"The over-prescription of ADD drugs has created a user-culture in some
schools where children are selling the drugs to other children in the
schoolyard," it says.

"At least one child has died as a result of taking sedatives that she
had bought illicitly, believing them to be ADD amphetamines."

The Australian Medical Association says thousands of children had been
wrongly diagnosed with ADD and prescribed mind-altering and
unnecessary drugs, creating a "roaring" black market trade.

Federal AMA general practice committee chairman Joe Kosterich said the
most common drug used to treat ADD contained an amphetamine
derivative. While children aged three had been reported as diagnosed
with ADD, drugs were most commonly given to those aged 7-12.