in World News 1970 Hearing Reveals ADHD as Government-Funded Drug Experiment on Children
Guest post by Joe Hoft at JoeHoft.com and AbleChild. republished with permission
In 1970 a lawmaker wanted to know if the federal government had a hand in drugging school-age children that largely has today remained an unspoken, well-funded, uncontrolled clinical drug trial.
September 29, 1970, New Jersey Congressman Cornelis E. Gallagher held a hearing into the federal government’s role in promoting the use of amphetamines and Ritalin as behavior modification of grammar school children.
Fifty-four years later, AbleChild applauds Representative Gallagher for presiding over the House Special Studies Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations investigation as it was one of the first hearings to draw attention to the government’s funding of experimental drug research using school-age children.
Gallagher wanted to know from the experts how it was okay to drug children with amphetamines and Ritalin to modify behavior in school, while at the same time pushing an active national campaign against drug abuse stating that “speed kills.”
The Congressman was concerned about whether the drug therapy being used by the child would become a permanent part of the child’s school record, thus years later negatively impacting the child’s life.
And, finally, the Congressman raised concerns “about the mislabeling of the child and packaging an ill-conceived program as an answer to our ills in the education of our children.”
At the time of the 1970 hearing, researchers were then labeling hyperactive children with Minimal Brain Dysfunction (MDA), then renaming it as Hyperkinetic disorder (HKD) or Hyperkinesis and finally settling on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
At the time of the hearing, none of the experts testifying could provide any scientific data proving the alleged brain abnormality existed.
Still, fifty-four years later, there is no science to prove the alleged brain abnormality ADHD exists.
Ironically, one of the experts that testified at 1970 hearing warned that the drug therapy would “zoom” from its then usage in approximately 200 to 300 thousand American children.
The prophecy was fulfilled. In 2020 alone, 9,585,203 Americans were taking some form of psychiatric mind-altering drug as “treatment” for the alleged ADHD.
Almost four and a half million Americans between the ages of 0 and 24 alone were prescribed ADHD drugs in 2020.
The “experts” testifying before Gallagher’s subcommittee were as clueless then as the “experts” are today when it comes to any understanding of how the drugs worked as “treatment.”