Kennedy ties up drug bill

July 2, 2004

By E. Vascellaro, Globe Correspondent | July 2, 2004

WASHINGTON -- A bill banning schools from coercing parents into putting their

children on psychotropic drugs, passed with near-universal support in the House,

is being tied up in a Senate committee by Senator M. Kennedy, who

contends it requires more study.

Supporters of the bill, which sailed through the House 425 to 1, said it will

help prevent an epidemic of children on drugs like Ritalin and Prozac, and that

Kennedy is being influenced by his longstanding ties to health and

pharmaceutical associations, which contend the bill will discourage the

diagnosis of mental illnesses that could be easily treated.

The Child Medication Safety Act has sat in the Senate Committee on Health,

Education, Labor, and Pensions all year. Proponents say Senate leaders never

told them why the bill had not come up for a vote, but this week Kennedy, who is

the committee's ranking member, confirmed to the Globe that he is seeking to

delay its consideration.

''This is a complex question that demands a serious study, " Kennedy, Democrat of

Massachusetts, said in a statement. ''Until we know the extent of the problem,

any further action is unwarranted. "

The bill was prompted by complaints from parents that school officials were

threatening to keep their children out of class unless they took

behavior-altering medication. About 11 million schoolchildren and adolescents

took prescription drugs for mental health in 2002, and the number is rising.

The bill denies federal funds to schools that fail to implement a policy to

''protect children and their parents from being coerced into administering a

controlled substance in order to attend school, and for other purposes, " such as

extracurricular activities.

Among the drugs it targets are behavioral drugs such as Adderall and Ritalin and

antidepressants such as Prozac and Paxil. Prozac is the only antidepressant

approved by the Federal Drug Administration for people under 18, and the FDA is

expected this summer to release a study on whether antidepressants increase the

risk of suicide.

If the bill fails to make it onto a tight Senate scheduled squeezed by two

national conventions and an August recess, it would have to return to the House

next year.

Representative Max Burns, Republican of Georgia and sponsor of the bill in the

House, said that he will meet with the House leadership next week to explore

ways to pressure the Senate to bring the bill to the floor.

''It's hard to be optimistic because it has been there for over a year, " he

said. ''[but] we need to find a way to shake this bill loose. "

Kennedy's office said that it is important to separate the roles of schools and

doctors but that any legislation limiting schools' ability to push for treatment

of children with mental-health issues should wait until further study of the

benefits and detriments of psychiatric drugs.

Libby Nealis, director of public policy for the National Association of School

Psychologists, said that her organization has been fighting the law and is

confident that it will not pass.

Nealis called the bill a ''knee-jerk reaction to anecdotal stories " and said it

would deter schools from discussing crucial mental health information with

parents.

The battle over schools' role in recommending psychiatric drugs has been fought

on the state level for years. Nine states have already passed or introduced

legislation prohibiting schools from threatening to limit children's

participation in classes or activities if they do not go on medication.

Personal stories have sparked political activism. Sheila s of New Canaan,

Conn., said she was told by a school psychologist that her son had attention

deficit disorder and that psychiatric drugs was his only alternative. In

response, she helped found Parents for Label & Drug Free Education, an

organization advocating parents' rights to refuse medical treatment for their

children. Ablechild now has almost 200 members and has launched a petition

supporting the bill.

s said that she has frequently contacted Kennedy's office about the bill

and believes his appeal for research is a cover for his support for health and

pharmaceutical groups. Since 1999, Kennedy has received $171,601 in campaign

contributions from health professionals and $97,050 from the pharmaceutical and

health-product industry, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

But Dr. Harold Koplewicz, director of the New York University Child Study

Center, said Kennedy's opposition is warranted: The bill would undermine the

detection of children with mental health problems, a pressing concern when 80

percent of cases go undetected.

''There is no medicine in all of pediatrics that has been tested as many times

as Ritalin, " he said. ''We have definitive evidence that it's an effective

treatment. "

The greater danger comes not from overmedication but from failing to detect

mental problems in children. ''We are doing a horrible job, and this bill will

encourage less identification, " he said. ''This bill is offensive. "

July 2, 2004