http://www.santa.inuk.com/frame.htm
"...When a senior person at the Department of Education was interviewed for the PBS documentary by John Merrow, he was asked whether he knew CHADD received considerable funding from Ciba/Norvartis, to which he replied that he had no awareness of such monies. By that time CHADD had made a several hundred thousand dollar grant to the Department to make a video about ADHD, and was also helping to author materials for the Department of Education. Yet the Department of Education had no idea of CHADD's significant ties with the industry. The Department's spokesperson was then asked if he thought it he had been mislead by CHADD, and that the organization was doing the work of the drug company. Indeed he did.
In part because of the Merrow Report, the DEA decided against softening the classification of Ritalin. Instead, it published a report that was highly critical of CHADD. Mary Eberstadt summarizes the report in her 1999 Policy Review article "Why Ritalin Rules":
Backed by scores of footnotes and well over a 100 sources in the medical literature, this report amounted to a public excoriation of CHADD's efforts and a meticulous description, alarming for those who have read it, of the realities of Ritalin use and abuse. 'Most of the ADHD literature prepared for public consumption and available to parents,' the DEA charged, 'does not address the abuse liability or actual abuse of methylphenidate [Ritalin]. Instead, methylphenidate is routinely portrayed as a benign, mild stimulant that is not associated with abuse or serious effects. In reality, however, there is an abundance of scientific literature which indicates that methylphenidate shares the same abuse potential as other Schedule II stimulants.' Ciba-Geigy, the DEA observed, 'stands to benefit from a change in scheduling of methylphenidate.' It further observed that ... 'abuse data indicate a growing problem among school-age children,' that "adhd adults have a high incidence of substance disorders," and that "with three to five percent of today's youth being administered methylphenidate on a chronic basis, these issues are of great concern.'"
Eberstadt also describes how the DEA was contacted by the International Narcotics Control Board of the United Nations, which expressed concern to them about the financial ties between CHADD and Ciba/Novartis. According to the DEA, the INCB charged CHADD with being a vehicle for marketing a controlled substance directly to the public, which is a violation of the Controlled Substances Act of 1971, an international statute to which all signing countries, including the US, are bound.
Despite the dubious nature of CHADD, the organization continues to have enormous power. In 1998, for example, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened a Consensus Conference on whether "ADHD" was a legitimate disorder and whether drugs like Ritalin were effective in treating it, whatever it was. The Consensus Conference consists of a panel of scientists who, after hearing testimony from invited "experts" on the subject, assemble a report that is then published by the NIH. When the Conference was organized, CHADD played a significant role in deciding who would and would not be on the panel. As a result, the report was strongly biased in favor of the disease model of childhood, as well as the use of drugs to "cure" it..."
