On Fox News Sunday, the National Rifle Association’s incoming president Oliver North partially blamed the increase in school shootings on the ADHD medication Ritalin:
“The problem that we’ve got is, we’re trying like the dickens to treat the symptom without treating the disease, and the disease in this case isn’t the Second Amendment; the disease is youngsters who are steeped in a culture of violence. They’ve been drugged in many cases. Nearly all of these perpetrators are male, and they’re young teenagers in most cases, and they’ve come through a culture where violence is commonplace. Many of these young boys have been on Ritalin since they were in kindergarten. Now, I am certainly not a doctor, I’m a Marine, but I can see those kinds of things happening.”
Over at CNN, psychology professor George DuPaul of Lehigh University counters North’s bullshit:
“No, there is no evidence of that. In fact, if anything, there’s stronger evidence that Ritalin and other medications that are used to treat ADHD would reduce violence and aggressive behavior.”
(CNN)