The title is provocative, but this piece from the site Double X is extremely moving. Here’s why you give a child in elementary school marijuana:
My son J has autism. He’s also had two serious surgeries for a spinal cord tumor and has an inflammatory bowel condition. For a time, anti-inflammatory medication seemed to control his pain. But in the last year, it stopped working.
J’s school called my husband and me in for a meeting. Since autistic children like J can’t exactly do talk therapy, this meant sedating, antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal—Thorazine for kids.
Last year, Risperdal was prescribed for more than 389,000 children—240,000 of them under the age of 12—for bipolar disorder, ADHD, autism, and other disorders. Yet the drug has never been tested for long-term safety in children and carries a severe warning of side effects.(Click through the link for more.)