Ritalin, the prescription drug used to counteract Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is being sold on a developing black market in American playgrounds.

Legitimate use of the stimulant has exploded seven-fold in the past ten years, and it is now taken by approximately two million children with ADHD.

In conjunction with this growth of legal use, abuse has also increased. According to today’s issue of the Times from England, “teenagers say that the drug, also known as methylphenidate, can be popped, snorted and even dissolved and injected for a high
comparable with a caffeine-jolt or even a slower-acting form of cocaine.” It sells for two dollars to $20 a pill on the black market.

According to a survey of 6000 children in Massachusetts, 13 % of secondary school pupils had taken Ritalin without a prescription. One third of pupils prescribed ADHD drugs were approached to sell or trade drugs in Wisconsin and Minnesota. These kinds of invitations led to complaints of harassment in Chicago. Many children pretend to be prescribed so that they can sell the drug.

There are concerns that early abuse of this drug could lead to the abuse of other more serious drugs. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, 30 to 50 percent of teenagers in rehab centres in Indiana, South Carolina and Wisconsin had used methylphenidate to produce an effect, even though it was not their principal drug.

The buying and selling is so widespread, that the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has launched an inquiry into the stealing and sale of Ritalin in schools. Pressure is being put on school nurses and staff, and on those responsible for administering prescriptions during school hours. There have been cases of questioning and convictions of staff for theft. One head is even known to have replaced Ritalin with sugar pills.

HASSELA NORDIC NETWORK