Chewable, candy-flavored ADHD meds being sold to kids
Forget the candy canes and M&M’s. If Pfizer has its way, Santa may as well be putting chewable speed in our kids’ stockings!
Parents practically have to fight their way out of pediatricians’ offices these days to keep their children from being prescribed ADHD meds — including the powerful stimulant Ritalin.
They’re handing this stuff out like candy to kids who aren’t even potty trained yet!
And it looks like that gave someone at Big Pharma a big idea.
Because Pfizer is getting ready right now to roll out the first ever chewable, candy-flavored drug for ADHD.
It’s called QuilliChew, and it could get millions of young kids hooked on ADHD meds before they’ve had their first day of school.
And that’s if it doesn’t kill them first.
For years we’ve seen ADHD drugs given to kids who are barely old enough to walk and talk.
They must be putting it in the kids’ teething rings!
But instead of banning the practice — or lifting a darned finger to protect these infants — the FDA has practically guaranteed that more of them will end up on the meds.
And that’s where QuilliChew comes in.
QuilliChew is Pfizer’s new chewy, cherry-flavored med with the same active ingredient as Ritalin that gives young kids a constant supply of the drug all day long.
Chewable? Cherry flavored? Have you ever seen a more blatant attempt to market a dangerous medicine to kids?
They’ll be using cartoon characters next! How about Drugs Bunny and Porky Pill?
Right now, QulliChew is approved for kindergartners as young as six years old — but don’t bet a wooden nickel that Pfizer or our government are stopping there.
You can be sure that QuilliChew is going to be prescribed “off label” for babies and toddlers right away.
Now you’d hope that before they’d let such a heavy-duty, mind-bending drug near our children, at least someone would have done their homework on QuilliChew.
Well, not exactly.
I dug into the research on QuilliChew (something I wish the FDA had spent five minutes doing) and here’s what I found. This cherry chewy was tested on a study of 90 kids! And that test wasn’t even to see if the drug is safe. It was a “laboratory classroom study” to see if kids were paying more attention.
Are you kidding me?
You wouldn’t give your kids cough medicine that hadn’t been proven safe — let alone some drug with the same active ingredient as Ritalin.
And let’s face it. What we already know about the side effects of these drugs — among adults and much older kids — is horrifying.
I’m talking about increased blood pressure, stunted growth, and even sudden death!
Christmas is just a few days away. And the best gift you can give your kids and grandkids is to keep them a country mile away from QuilliChew…
Because it won’t be long before this cherry-flavored menace starts leaving a bad taste in all of our mouths.
Sources:
“FDA clears chewable methylphenidate (QuilliChew) for ADHD” Megan Brooks, December 7, 2015, Medscape, Medscape.com
