i misspoke when i asserted ritalin was available over the counter in the states. as methylphenidate is actually more powerful than most cocaine found on the street, it requires prescription. but again, unless these individuals were crushing it and freebasing it or snorting it, it is not going to yield the affects you are likely envisioning. your assertion that ADHD carries over from childhood “infrequently” is naive. while sometimes 50 and 60 percent of individuals are growing out of the disorder in mid adolescence (see shaw et al. 2007), there are still plenty of individuals who live with ADD and ADHD well into adulthood. hell, many of the players in the MLB are still kids for whatever that’s worth. it is also very possible that individuals are not even diagnosed until adulthood. they may not have had access to medical care for plenty of reasons until that point. multisite studies done in 2007 centered out of children’s hospital of cincinatti have shown that ADHD likely affects between 8 and 9 percent of children. only about 4 percent are currently receiving any kind of treatment- behaviorally or pharmaceutically. i can’t speak for the UK specifically, but typically psychiatry is much more conservative across the pond. i only liken myself to an authority on this topic because it was the subject of my senior thesis a little more than a year ago and i also work in a psychiatry lab studying ADHD. i by no means support the abuse of methylphenidate and similar drugs in professional sports, but i do think it’s a slippery slope to jump to conclusions regarding many players that may have struggled with ADHD and other behavioral conduct disorders their whole lives. and since your WADA list also has insulin as a prohibited substance, does that prevent diabetics from being athletes for the same reason? most of the backlash against drugs prescribed for ADHD are the result of fear mongering paid for by scientology and the religious right (scary, i know!).