LAW AND attention deficit disORDER: The prison system refuses to medicate people with ADD/ADHD.

Mr. Garrett fought a costly battle with the courts to argue that he was correctly diagnosed in prison to have ADD/ADHD but, in spite of this, denied medication treatment. After all, people with diabetes are given insulin and those with kidney failure are treated with dialysis, when indicated.

After his trial began, the State of California did provide him with Ritalin for a while. But, as Mr. Garrett claimed in his trial, the prison policy to prohibit the dispensing of stimulant drugs, even though approved by the FDA for the treatment of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, was again enforced.

The explanation for such a prohibition is said to be that Ritalin is too dangerous a drug to dispense to inmates of a high security State prison. This was the reasoning, believe-it-or-not.

You be the judge of whether or not allowing teenage children to have access to Ritalin is more or less "dangerous" than to have a nurse dispense Ritalin to incarcerated men in a high security prison.

The following memorandum was sent to me by Mr. Garrett: