Pubdate: Sun 14 Nov 1999 Source: Denver Post (CO) Copyright: 1999 The Denver Post Contact: http://www.denverpost.com/ Section: Editorial POLITICIANS ON DRUGS The Colorado State Board of Education diluted a resolution that originally assailed the use of psychiatric drugs down to meaningless pablum Thursday before adopting it 6-to-1. But the board's action, coupled with an impromptu and ill-starred legislative hearing Tuesday, where self-styled "experts" from the Church of Scientology berated the medications, still risks stigmatizing troubled children and discouraging them from getting the help they need. The fact that suicidal Columbine High School killer Eric Harris was taking the drug Luvox has prompted hysterical charges that the drug caused that massacre and similar killings elsewhere. But the simple fact is that there are an estimated 6 million people taking such drugs. If you gave 6 million people a glass of water, it would be a safe bet that some of them would commit violent acts within the year. But only state Rep. Penn Pfiffner, who chaired Tuesday's farcical hearings at the state Capitol, or state Board of Education member Patti Johnson would go on to demand that water be banned from our schools. In addition, the 6 million people using such drugs are far from a random sample - they have been prescribed medication precisely because they suffer from serious behaviorial disorders. There is, in fact, ample medical evi dence that psychotropic drugs such as Ritalin, Prozac and Paxil can reduce the incidence of such problems. But doctors also know the drugs are far less than 100 percent effective. In short, such drugs, under careful medical supervision, can reduce violent or self-destructive behavior in some patients but cannot eliminate such behavior completely. Pfiffner and Johnson might as well spend their time trying to outlaw seat belts - which dramatically reduce deaths and injuries suffered in traffic accidents but cannot totally eliminate them. There is indeed, as the watereddown Board of Education resolution said, "much concern regarding the issue of diagnosis and medication and their impact on student achievement." But such legitimate concern is no reason to ban such drugs or to stigmatize the people who take them. Rather, it underscores the need for such drugs to be used under close medical supervision to ensure that patients don't take too much - or too little - medications and are receiving treatment appropriate to their needs. Given the unpredictability of the human mind and body, youths with behavior disorders need to be watched over by the closest possible partnership of patients, parents and supervising physicians. There is no room in that tight teacher-doctor-patient-parent circle for grandstanding politicians. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea