Thursday, February 06, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
LETTERS: 'Overdiagnosis' of children is a myth
To the editor:
The rambling, ranting, scientifically challenged commentary authored by Joel Mowbray in the Jan. 16 Review-Journal alleging American children are being "doped up" with "addicting drugs" at yet a more horrific rate seems oddly out of sync. One week prior, the Review-Journal briefly mentioned a 13-year study by Harvard expert Dr. Russell Barkley which found no increased incidence of adult substance abuse in stimulant-treated ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) children. This report was published in the prestigious journal Pediatrics.
An accompanying review of North American and German research by another eminent Harvard professor, Dr. Joseph Biederman, found nearly twofold reduction in rates of adult substance abuse in treated vs. untreated ADHD children, confirming the results of 11 prior studies.
"Overdiagnosis" of ADHD in children and "overtreatment" with medication are preposterous myths, easily propounded and trumpeted as if true by know-nothing journalists like Mr. Mowbray, but without any basis in scientific fact whatsoever.
CORYDON G. CLARK, M.D.
LAS VEGAS
The writer, a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist, is medical director of the Las Vegas A.D.D. Clinic.
Eliminate funding
To the editor:
If Gov. Kenny Guinn is so courageous, why did he wait to pursue a tax increase until after he was guaranteed re-election to his last term as governor?
Given the magnitude of the tax increase he now proposes -- and the fact that the governor is considered a budget expert -- surely he has been aware of the need for a tax increase for several years.
Let's call a "spade a spade." We have not witnessed political courage. This is just another instance of political manipulation and underestimating the intelligence of the public to see through the masquerade.
I would like to make a three pronged suggestion to the governor and Legislature. It is based upon the information I have been able to gather from the tax debate and other circumstances facing Nevada.
First, we should obtain a $100 million to $200 million annual payment for giving up the hopeless battle against Yucca Mountain.
Second, we should eliminate funding for any new programs.
Third, we must say no to government employees in Nevada who expect compensation packages far greater than their private-sector counterparts and their counterparts in jurisdictions outside of Nevada.
SHANNA WADE
LAS VEGAS
To the bone
To the editor:
Will Rogers once said, "All I know is just what I read in the papers." If he were alive today, he would know that Nevada faces a budget crisis and that we severely underfund education and health care programs for children, the elderly and the poor. He would also know that Gov. Kenny Guinn is trying to change things for the better.
Gov. Guinn says we need to raise taxes, and he is right. Nevada is near the bottom when it comes to per-pupil funding of education and we are the bottom (dead last) in spending on Medicaid, the program that provides health care to the poor.
How does this affect our state? We have one of the highest high school drop-out rates in the country. And our children who stay in school are behind the national average in reading and in science.
Our children's health care is lacking. We have one of the highest rates of uninsured children in the nation (more than 20 percent) and 25 percent of our children are not immunized. No wonder a national study stated: "Nevada is among the nation's 20 worst states to be born in."
Gov. Guinn has trimmed the budget to the bone over the past four years. It is time to raise taxes and properly fund education and social services.
RUTH MILLS
LAS VEGAS
Gross receipts?
To the editor:
I am the owner of a Chevron gas station and convenience store, and I have been a Nevada resident since 1959. I have also worked in gaming for 20 years, and currently hold a gaming license. I am very concerned that current lawmakers, the media, casino operators and consultants have failed to grasp the economic danger that certain increased taxes will create.
Whenever you tax a product or service before there is a net profit, it is equivalent to a sales tax. This so-called gross receipts tax, however, cannot be collected at the point of sale such as the sales tax, and makes the retailer raise prices to offset this new added tax. The only fair business tax is a tax on net revenues after all expenses are deducted. While this net revenue tax will not generate all of the dollars Nevada needs, it will certainly help.
We should take careful notice that Nevada casinos do not pay a gross receipts tax on money wagered. Casinos are allowed to deduct all related coin pays and jackpot payouts before paying taxes on money wagered in slot and poker machines. If businesses were proposing a gross receipts tax on money wagered, the casino industry would be just as upset as the business owners.
The gross receipts tax is just not a fair tax. If I continue to see the casino owners and the governor promote this gross receipts tax on business owners, I will make sure that every business owner insist that the casino owners pay the gross receipts tax at the same rate as the business owners. That will surely kill any proposed legislation concerning the gross receipts tax.
The mining industry in Nevada would also be crippled by any type of gross receipts tax, which is why this gross receipts tax was defeated in the 1992 Legislature.
GREG CAMPBELL
LAUGHLIN
Stay at home
To the editor:
I watched the mother of those two little girls who were stabbed recently in Mesquite appear on TV -- hysterical -- pleading that the people responsible for what happened be punished to the fullest extent of the law. If she was hoping for some sympathy, she certainly didn't get it from me.
What kind of mother leaves her 3- and 10-year-old kids alone, in the middle of the night, while she's off gambling and partying in a casino? Obviously, anything can happen while kids that age are left alone.
She wants the people responsible punished to the fullest extent of the law? She should look in the mirror.
DEBBIE ROSEWELL
LAS VEGAS
