THESE KIDS ARE ON DRUGS WITH THE SCHOOLS' OK

The number of young children hooked on powerful narcotics has skyrocketed
over the last 15 years, but the Drug Enforcement Agency won't be doing
anything about it - because the drugs in question are being peddled by
pediatricians. In the most comprehensive study of its kind, a new report
details how legal drug use among youths has more than tripled since 1987,
which means that kids are now doped by doctors at the same rate as adults are.

As shocking as it is to see that more than 6 percent of children are
popping pills on a daily basis, the study merely confirms what has been
apparent for years now. A host of factors have together created this
embarrassing situation: parents who crave an easy solution, doctors who are
all-too-willing to provide it, and - at the root of the problem - the
educational establishment, which has replaced schoolyard drug dealers as
the most persistent pushers of narcotics.

Parents of difficult children are lured into drugging their kids with the
seductive promise of a quick fix. Doctors and teachers explain how the
grass really is greener on the medicated side, persuading parents to ditch
discipline in favor of the "modern" approach. Mind-altering narcotics, not
surprisingly, do in fact pack a powerful punch - particularly for a young
child. The child may not learn how to modify his behavior, but he is
typically zonked out enough that he is no longer a "problem."

In an instant-gratification society, the doping of kids to alleviate
annoyance of adults shouldn't come as a shock. Parents have busy lives, and
dishing out a few pills a day keeps behavioral issues at bay. Even if
someone has a sinking feeling about long-term consequences, it is far
easier to keep quiet.

Although it's easy to castigate parents for abdicating responsibility, many
of them become convinced that drugs really are the best solution. America's
most menacing drug cartel - jointly operated by doctors and the educational
establishment - has steered troublemaking kids away from traditional
approaches (generally some mix of discipline, additional attention and
counseling) and into the warm embrace of a substance habit.

Doctors are so prone to over-diagnosis that many of the kids being
medicated don't have any disease to begin with. In a society that
celebrates "victims," children who act out or simply fidget too much in
class are ripe targets for induction into the cult of victimhood. Sometimes
parents prod pediatricians, but often doctors are so eager to ascribe a
problem child with some affliction - attention deficit disorder is all the
rage - that otherwise healthy, if rambunctious, kids gets branded.

Of course many kids do need medication, and professional help is often
necessary to bring some kids into line. But that is the distinct minority
of cases now being treated narcotics.

It's not easy, but tough love imbued with forceful discipline and clear
boundaries can work wonders on misbehaving kids. Parents who try that tack
at home, however, often see their efforts undermined by the touchy-feely
disciples that run our public schools. Ironically, the very same teachers
and administers who abhor getting tough on troublemakers are the first ones
ready to "handle" children with Schedule II drugs - the most highly
addictive drugs that are still legal.

Children are being rammed through a one-size-fits-all pipeline by the
educational establishment, and if one of the kids doesn't quite fit in,
drugs are whipped out faster than you can say "twelve steps." Schools all
over the country monitor drug use by students - not to keep it from getting
out of hand, mind you, but to blow the whistle when the kids aren't doped
up. Teachers' unions continue to fight - sometimes successfully - to block
children from attending school if they haven't taken their drugs. The trend
has become so pervasive that lawmakers in Vermont last year introduced
legislation to prevent schools from requiring kids to pop pills.

Without being equipped with the necessary skills to modify properly their
behavior, medicated children are likely to become medicated adults. Which
leads us to the $64,000 question: How will today's kids handle their own
problem children?

Joel Mowbray is a reporter for National Review.