SCHOOL EXPELS STUDENT FOR DISTRIBUTING RITALIN

By Paul H. Johnson

SIMSBURY Simsbury school officials have expelled a middle school student
for distributing Ritalin, a stimulant widely prescribed to treat attention
deficit disorder but increasingly abused by students who snort it to
achieve a high similar to that produced by cocaine.

Police are investigating the incident in which the student is accused of
distributing the drug on school property. The school board on Monday
expelled the student for 50 days, according to Superintendent Joseph
Townsley.

While the abuse of Ritalin is not considered to be widespread, it is a
persistent problem faced by schools largely because students represent the
majority of those prescribed the drug.

Government statistics estimate that between 3 percent and 4 percent of
schoolage people nationwide take the drug for treatment of attention
deficit disorder. The number has grown sixfold in the last five years.

Reported instances of Ritalin abuse in the area include a November 1996
arrest in West Hartford where police charged a 16yearold youth who was
allegedly seen by a security guard crushing Ritalin tablets into powder. In
October 1994, Glastonbury police arrested a Danbury man on a charge of
trying to pass a forged prescription for Ritalin.

Ritalin is a controlled substance illegal to distribute. Students who are
prescribed the drug receive one bottle for home use and one bottle for the
school medical office. Nurses must keep one bottle of the drug for every
student with a prescription. A new prescription is needed each time the
drug is refilled.

Health officials said that users either snort or inject Ritalin
intravenously to achieve an effect such as that produced by cocaine or
methamphetamine or ``meth.''

``It's a stimulant drug,'' said William Bailey, professor of applied health
science at Indiana University and the author of an Internet Web page about
the dangers of the misuse of Ritalin.

Ritalin contains hydrochloric acid, a substance that poses no problems when
digested orally, but can damage the nose and other organs when snorted.

Abuse of the drug can lead to nervousness, insomnia, dizziness, heightened
heart rate, psychotic episodes and, sometimes, deadly overdoses.

Bailey said the drug reaches the black market through illegal prescriptions
or through young people who use the drug and sell it illicitly to classmates.

``Even some of it that's legitimately prescribed is diverted,'' Bailey
said. While hard numbers do not exist on Ritalin abuse, growing legal use
of Ritalin is leading to greater misuse of the drug, he said.

In Connecticut, school systems are reviewing their policies for handling
the drug in the schools.

Winsted schools, for example, require review of a Ritalin prescription
every three months by a doctor. The system has a doctor on call to review
students' prescriptions, according to Winsted Schools Superintendent
Raymond Powell. Powell said his district has not seen any incidents of
abuse of the drug.