HOW SCHOOLS CREATE DRUG ADDICTS

The number of young children hooked on powerful narcotics has skyrocketed
in the past 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.
Kids are now doped by doctors at the same rate as adults.

As shocking as it is that more than 6 percent of children are popping pills
daily, the study merely confirms what has been apparent for years. 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 zonked
out enough that he is no longer a "problem."

In an instant-gratification society, the doping of kids to alleviate
annoyance of adults should not come as a shock. Parents have busy lives,
and dishing out a few pills a day keeps behavioral issues at bay. So even
if someone has a sinking feeling about the 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 where
"victims" are celebrated, 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 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 with 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 still legal.

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 properly modify 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?