I'm sticking my neck out again, something I try not to do but I can't resist this one. Be aware, I can and will delete any comments that I don't like. I reserve the right to be arbitrary and biased on this one.
First of all the juxtaposition of the article with the ad for Concerta is just too choice to miss (Concerta is an extended release form of ritalin).
Second of all, I'm sorry but since when do medical marijuana advocates recommend marijuana for school children and as a treatment for ADHD? In my mind giving pot to your kid is tantamount to child abuse. I know it is a free country but really. So your 5 year old has trouble sitting still and concentrating--what give him a little "medical marijuana"? Are we insane? This makes me so glad I don't live in California.
I am trying very hard to picture a classroom of stoned first graders. I might just have to write to the Comedy Network about this one. According to this writer, Jennifer L., there are 20 clinics in Oakland California dispensing marijuana to teens with ADHD. My brain hurts--hey, I forgot, weed helps with that too. I will not dignify Ms. L. with a link or even the use of her last name. I have no wish to engage her in a dialogue or promote her brand of insanity. You can see it on the screen shot if you use a magnifying glass and if you are really desperate for a laugh I will personally e-mail you the link. Ms. L. finishes her blog post with the following words:
"If I had a child with ADD, I think I would prefer they were on cannabis rather than Ritalin because it is a natural remedy." To which I reply, arsenic is natural too. As are ricin and tetrodotoxin. But I don't give them to my kids. What is the world coming to?
5 comments:
I know we disagree on this topic, but personally I'd rather see ADHD kids on neither Ritalin (or the other ADHD drugs) nor marijuana. I'm not a big fan of drugging kids in general, think that there are other ways to work through these behavioural issues.
add my link to friendship
I don't know about the science involved on either side of the debate, really, but having been around stoners before I am not sure they were very attentive, less disruptive (perhaps), but wouldn't they be impaired?
On a more humorous sidenote, I love the fact that 'delayed back pain' is listed as a side effect for ED drugs. Well, yeah, if you haven't 'exercised' in a while, your back is gonna be sore.
Well, I wasn't really initiating a debate on the merits of ritalin--just seeing the humor/irony of using marijuana on our kids as a mental health measure.
I agree with Jud that most of the stoners I've known had serious concentration problems.
I'm not sure how many of the 'low-income' kids I babysa- I mean, taught, were high at any given time, but I know I had a few fourth and fifth graders whose parents kept them stoned a lot. They didn't learn anything, but according to the other staff they were such horror shows when not 'medicated' it was likely not entirely a bad thing.
In the middle schools a significant proportion of the students were on drugs of various kinds, legal or otherwise. The high school? Pot was a standing joke, it was so prevalent.
As far as actual, legal shrink-type medications, various things were prescribed by doctors for those with decent-enough health insurance (less than half the student body), mandated by court orders (the violent ones), and bought in various ways by kids' parents/guardians, and sometimes the kids themselves, in little baggies from street corner 'pharmacists'.
Sarala, I don't mean to be mean, but I think you're naive about the sheer level of drug use, legal and otherwise, in general legal minor culture. Much like I'm no longer shocked by 7-year-olds with tattoos, I'm not surprised by the suggestion of prescribed pot use for minors. Why not? You accept the use of one (legal) drug for people that honestly, I'm not kidding, CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A LEGAL DRUG AND OTHERWISE, why differentiate?
In the lower income brackets, people get their drugs from so many sources 'legal use' ceases to have any meaning at all. I think the official prescription of pot in a classroom is kind of pathetic, but after what I've seen, hey, why the hell not?
nurgus!
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