The Experimental Pharmacology Department of American Cyanamid Company and Merck Index report that Ritalin is no less toxic or safer than amphetamine and methamphetamine. They continue, by stating that upon administration of these drugs, motor activity decreases. Often time's tremors and convulsions occur. Further studies on these amphetamine derivatives show that short-term clinical doses produce brain cell death. Long-lasting and sometimes permanent changes in biochemistry of brain are also a result. Toxicological studies cited by Merck Index showed that Ritalin was more toxic when administered to grouped mice. Moreover, researchers showed that increased excitement observed by maintaining mice in groups while under influence of Ritalin and other methamphetamines was cause of death, but exact mechanism of lethality was unknown. Lastly, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) classify commonly prescribed drug such as Ritalin, Adderall, and Dexedrine in same Schedule II category as methamphetamine and cocaine. Logic says, end of story regarding Ritalin use. Unfortunately, most typical response from parents when confronted with toxicity facts is as follows:

"I'm sure that Ritalin is prescribed improperly in many cases. But, my son definitely has a chemical imbalance. Without Ritalin he is a total mess and it has made his life so much easier! Without it he can't focus, he talks out of turn, he's moody, and he won't listen to anybody. So don't tell me ADHD doesn't exist and that my kid doesn't need Ritalin."

My fist question is what chemical imbalance?

To date, no medical or scientific paper or research group has elucidated cause of ADHD! With our expensive and all-important college and medical degrees professionals have ostensibly hypothesized a cause (brain chemicals) and advocated a cure (stimulants) for ADHD. To back it up we have listed dozens of symptoms of ADHD while at same time sacrificing a few billion brain cells. How can we administer a toxic stimulant to treat a "disorder" that doesn't exist according to a 100 years of research?

Daily, schoolteachers tell us "yes, Ritalin is a great drug".

School nurses assure us that, "Ritalin would be great for little Johnny!"

And doctors assert, "yes, ADHD is a real disease".

When we trace back history of Ritalin (say 40-60 years) we see that medicinal chemists originally derived this synthetic stimulant from natural stimulants, most notably caffeine (isolated from guarana) and ephedrine (isolated from Ma Haung). Scientists found that when given stimulants, rats were more focused, calm, attentive and manageable when large groups were crowded into small cages.

According to FDA:

"The FDA's mission is to promote and protect public health by helping safe and effective products reach market in a timely way, and monitoring products for continued safety after they are in use. Our work is a blending of law and science aimed at protecting consumers."

But times change and unfortunately, sometimes so do mission statements. The growth in knowledge of biochemistry, natural medicine, physiology, molecular chemistry and chemical process methods have yielded millions of new synthetic drugs and treatment options, far more than our grandparents would have imagined at turn of century. To ensure growing profits, these new synthetic drugs are aimed at symptom management rather than cures for diseases or chronic conditions. This can be seen by continued and growing reliance on synthetic medicine. For example, from 1985-1999, there was a 35% increase in medicines used by Americans to treat (not cure) chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, depression, and arthritis. In year 2000, about $116.9 Billion was spent on prescription drugs. The number of prescriptions dispensed is projected to grow to 2.07 billion by year 2005! By way of comparison, our up and coming war on Iraq is estimated to cost about $90 Billion. But $90 Billion for a war somewhere in world every 12 years is chicken feed compared to costs of drugs and medicines that Americans shell out each and every year. This is approximately $26.9 Billion less than what Americans spent on drugs in year 2000. Let's see, $90 Billion for a war once in a while and over $1Trillion (yes that's "T" for toy Trillion) for prescription drugs. That's a lot of pills. As pharmaceutical business has grown, FDA has changed from an institution that was trying to protect public health from bad food to a rubber stamp government organization that only takes public safety into account when it is forced to by some form of gross public error.