TEENS OD ON RITALIN

Prescription pills taken by pair on school grounds

Two teens overdosed on Ritalin yesterday morning at Elizabeth Sutherland
School in Spryfield.

The drug is a stimulant used to treat people with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder. One student, who has a Ritalin perscription,
brought the pills from home and gave some to another teen.

"I think it's a very stupid mistake made by a couple of individuals," said
Halifax Regional Police Sgt. Mike Spearns.

Police were treating the incidents as overdoses.

The kids were checked out by ambulance attendants and then taken to
hospital by their parents.

"Ain't no story here," said one woozy-looking teen as his parents lead him
to their car.

Ambulances rushed to the school after being told five students were
unconscious because of an overdose.

But Spearns said that report was wrong.

"There was no medical crisis, and this was not an incident of dealing in an
illegal, banned substance," he said.

Principal Sharon Lee said the inflated numbers might have been due to a
large crowd of students standing around at the time.

The pair took the drug just as students were coming into the school, said Lee.

"One students started not feeling well and associated it with having taken
this medication," she said.

Spearns stressed kids shouldn't take any drug that's not perscribed to them.

"You don't pick up chips that were dropped on the ground, so why would you
take someone's medication out of someone's hand?" he said.

Children with attention deficit disorder are more restless and hyperactive
than other kids their age, said Russell Barkley, a professor of psychiatry
and neurology at the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre.

"They're just very impulsive, brash, heedless kind of children," said Barkley.

Stimulants such as Ritalin increase the inhibition system in the brain, he
said.

"Having ADHD is a lot like driving a car with no brakes. You're going
somewhere, but you're out of control," he said.

"What the stimulant is doing is giving you the brakes."

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski