The Region - News from June 22, 1987

The Citizens Coalition on Human Rights, a public-interest group affiliated with the Church of Scientology, set up a picket line outside Griffith Park, protesting alleged use of behavior-altering drugs in Los Angeles schools. About 300 adults and children, some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with such sentiments as “Psychiatry Kills,” carried signs attacking the psychiatric profession and alleging its members are trying to profit from unnecessary drug treatment of the young. Coalition spokesman Dennis Clarke said he believes that between 4 million and 6 million U.S. schoolchildren are being treated with the drug Ritalin, often prescribed for hyperactivity, but admitted that he had no actual statistics on prescription of the drug to Los Angeles schoolchildren. “We’re extrapolating,” he said, “from pharmacists’ (accounts).”