Have you ever looked in your medicine cabinet or one that belonged to a friend and wondered what all those pills were doing in there? Doesn't it seem insane that everywhere you turn today, there are advertisements for the "little purple pill" and others that promise to eliminate all of your worries and make life good again?

At our September seminar, Washington Times investigative reporter Kelly O'Meara nearly stopped the show when she revealed the disturbing link between psychotropic drug use in America and the recent violence in our schools.

O'Meara, who won an International Human Rights Award this year for her 12-part investigative series, uncovered that 7 of the 10 boys who were involved in the recent U.S. high school shootings, were under the influence of one or more of the following prescription drugs: Ritalin, Zoloft, Effexor, Prozac, Celexa and Luvox at the time of the attacks.

In her talk, O'Meara suggested that purported disorders like ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivty Disorder) cannot be scientifically proven and have been given convenient pharmacological solutions by our society with little regard for their long-term ramifications.

According to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. buys and uses 90% of the world's supply of Ritalin, with one in every 30 Americans between the ages of 5 and 19 years of age currently taking the Schedule II drug, which is similar to cocaine. The mere thought of offering a highly addictive drug that mimics cocaine to toddlers, teenagers and adults can only be one of two things -- crazy or psychopathic genius.

Do you think that the makers of these drugs were aware that they were producing and peddling a product that would make people drug-dependent? Could there be a reason why pharmaceutical companies spend in excess of $4 billion dollars a year on direct-to-consumer advertising?

How sad that just because parents or schools identify that some children may be learning or behaving in differently than others, they see a need to medicate them -- especially when there have been no studies done on the long-term effects of these drugs. When it comes to learning abilities, whatever happened to respecting the unique differences that make the human race interesting? Have we forgotten that "situational" depression is a common occurrence amongst teens and adults and that events happen to all of us that can cause distraction or depression?

Isn't it possible that we could develop children's minds in different ways that honor and respect their differences?

Bob Doman, founder of The National Association for Child Development (NACD) believes we can and is making great progress with children with learning disabilities and in some instances even reversing symptoms.

The NACD has endorsed chiropractic as an adjunctive treatment for many neurologically- based challenges and is reaping results for today's children with an all-natural therapeutic approach that includes: chiropractic, perceptual training, fine and gross motor exercises, language therapy, sequential processing and dietary modifications. In fact, parents are rarely told that learning, attention, and neurological issues can be understood, treated and often eliminated according to Doman.

Each year, the NACD helps more than 15,000 children with ADHD, cerebral palsy, autism and other disorders. Recently, the NACD shared its latest research in brain development and neurological treatment at one of our seminars. It was a great opportunity for doctors to learn how they and chiropractic can help their patients and community find healthy alternatives to medicating our nation's children.

It's time that we ask ourselves whether we want to create a generation of drugged children, who sleep-walk through life, or stick with the natural remedies that we know will work without negatively altering our children's moods, minds, sleep or social patterns.

This process of inventing "diseases" that cannot be scientifically proven is becoming a dangerous trend in our society. For instance, have you heard of the new condition that is making its way into standard psychiatric "diagnoses" called "Relation Disorder"? People who are diagnosed with this disorder are said to have repeated challenges in their interpersonal relationships, and new drugs are being developed even as I write this article to help treat this supposed condition. This is psychopathic genius.

Now is the time for you to reach deep down into your soul and access that sense of purpose that spurred you to become a chiropractor and see what your role can and should be in the struggle to treat today's maladies. Can you sit idly by and let the consequences of this psychopathic genius take over your community? Start educating yourself, your patients and the citizens in your community and get the resources and "ammunition" you need to make a difference in the future of the children living in your community.

Find your strength and summon the courage to speak out in your communities and help more families live up to their true health potential without drugs. Get involved. With the principles of chiropractic, you can and will make an impact on family health care in your town and the world.