"The Howard and Rudd Governments have delegated their concerns about ADHD misdiagnosis and over-prescription to the ADHD Industry, the very industry that has created the problem. They have failed to learn from Western Australia's experience."
The policy implications of the correlation between amphetamine prescribing and abuse rates for government are significant. Western Australia is the only jurisdiction in the world to have experienced such a massive turn around in ADHD child drugging rates. This has been achieved because senior figures in the Western Australian Government, primarily Bob Kucera and Alan Carpenter, and now Mental Health Minister Graham Jacobs have been prepared to intervene.
Other states seeking to replicate WA's downturn in ADHD prescribing rates and subsequent fall in amphetamine abuse rates should consider replicating Western Australia's stimulant monitoring system and measures put in place requiring repeat stimulant prescription to be held by a single pharmacist and dispensed when due. In addition, resources should be dedicated to strategies designed to decrease ADHD amphetamine prescription rates including establishing multidisciplinary clinics to help children with behavioural and learning difficulties. Such measures, if implemented by those who genuinely oppose the use of drugs as a first line treatment, should have the dual benefit of providing more comprehensive non medication treatment services for children with behavioural and learning difficulties, and reducing ADHD amphetamine prescription and abuse rates.
For the Commonwealth Government
The Commonwealth Government spends tens of millions of dollars annually subsidising ADHD medications through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), much of which is diverted for illicit use. Unwittingly the Commonwealth Government is a major sponsor of illicit amphetamine abuse. Surely it makes sense to divert some funding from subsidising pharmacological interventions to services that address the causes of attentional problems for children.
In contrast to the West Australian Government's (both Labor and Liberal) preparedness to intervene, the Howard and Rudd Governments have delegated their concerns about ADHD misdiagnosis and over-prescription to the ADHD industry, the very industry that has created the problem. They have failed to learn from Western Australia's experience. This is a great pity because WA's ADHD story offers hope that we can do more for children with behavioural and learning difficulties than give them amphetamines so that they "Speed Up and Sit Still".