Among children in the United States there are now close to three million cases of A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder). A.D.D. is a diagnosis applied to children and adults who display the following characteristics: hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity. If you ask around, you may not find too many normal, healthy children who don't display these characteristics. Disturbingly, through, you will find that more and more children don't display them, becuase they are being drugged against their will.

Recently the most popular way to treat this so-called illness has been the prescription of the stimulant drug Ritalin (Methylphenidate). Ritalin is a central nervous system stimulant, similar to amphetamines in the nature and duration of its effects. It is believed to work by activating the brain stem arousal system and cortex. Pharmacologically, it works on the neurotransmitter dopamine, and in that respect resembles the stimulant characteristics of cocaine.

Ritalin is manufactured by Ciba-Geiby Corp., an enormous Swiss pharmaceutical company for whom the drug has been a gold mine. In part, it's been a gold mine because Ciba-Geiby has created not only a product that supposedly solves a problem, but has created the problem itself. An aggressive marketing campaign by Ciba-Geiby has largely invented the disease ritalin treats.

The most visible public advocate for Ritalin use is a "public service" group called CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder). CHADD claims to be an unbiased community resource, providing information on Attention Deficit Disorder. According to CHADD, A.D.D. is a disease of biochemistry--not caused by societal factors. CHADD goes out of its way to debunk any sort of alternative treatments, such as an additive-free diet or lower sugar consumption. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), "A.D.D. is not caused by things such as too much television, food allergies, excess sugar, poor home life, or poor schools." In other words, it can only be "cured" with the assistance of doctors and pills.

CHADD is funded by Ciba-Geiby, of course. And it turns out this astroturf patient advocacy group advocates for a disease that may not exist. The cause of A.D.D.--an epidemic largely confined to the United States, which consumes six times as much Ritalin as the rest of the world combined--is unclear. According to the American Psychiatry Association, "There are no laboratory tests that have been estalished as diagnostic in the clinical assessment of A.D.D." Diagnosis is based solely on subjective observation of the child's behavior by a physician (who, in the brave new world of HMOs, is under pressure to make quick diagnoses and prescribe answers), with prodding by anxious parents who want quick fixes and absolution when more or better parenting skills might be in order instead.

That quick fix comes not only with a price, but with danger. According to the prescription directions, Ritalin can have the following adverse effects on your child: nervousness, insomnia, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, changes in heart rate and blood pressure, dizziness and headaches, abdominal pain, weight loss and digestive problems, toxic psychosis, psychotic episodes, drug dependence syndrome, and severe depression upon withdrawal.

That hasn't prevented Ciba-Geiby, with federal blessing, from using three million of the nation's youth as guinea pigs for its experiments in obscene profitibility. CHADD is now attempting to get Ritalin reclassified from a Schedule II to a Schedule III controlled dangerous substance, thereby making it easier to prescribe and refill. As it stand, the number of Ritalin prscriptions in the U.S. increased 600 percent in the last six years.

Schools--which are in the business of controlling unruly youth--are a major source of diagnoses of Attention Deficit Disorder. And it turns out that there may even be a financial incentive driving the rapid increase in such diagnoses. Cash-strapped schools can receive an extra $420 in federal funds for each student diagnosed with this new "disease."

Everyone, it seems, makes out nicely in this scam--the drug company, the schools, the doctors and HMOs, and harried parents. Everyone except the kids, who are having their physical well-being threatened and their natural imaginations and spontaneity drugged out of them. How useful, as part of their training as future workers and consumers.