Naughty Kids Need Discipline Not Drugs

"Official figures from the Department of Health show that more than 1,000 prescriptions for powerful drugs are doled out every day to treat behavioural disorders in children. GPs prescribed drugs such as Ritalin, known as the "chemical cosh*", on 384,000 occasions last year - a fourfold increase since 1997. An estimated 32,000 children are being drugged every day, at a cost to the NHS of £13.5million a year.

"So far, so bad. But I also learn that drug companies secretly fund support groups for parents of kids diagnosed with behavioural problems. In other words, they are fueling this Ritalin bonanza - despite evidence linking their very profitable drugs to sudden deaths and heart problems."

—Naughty Kids Need Discipline Not Drugs, Paul Routledge, Sunday Mirror, 17 November 2006

*a heavy stick or bar used as a weapon