{"id":1558090,"date":"2022-07-17T06:30:03","date_gmt":"2022-07-17T10:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1558090"},"modified":"2022-07-17T06:49:44","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T10:49:44","slug":"psychoactive-drugs-often-linked-to-mass-shootings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/psychoactive-drugs-often-linked-to-mass-shootings\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychoactive Drugs Often Linked to Mass Shootings"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpsychoactive-drugs-often-linked-to-mass-shootings%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1558090&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>We do not know if Robert Crimo III, the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/highland-park-parade-shooting-robert-crimo-gun-capture\/\"> confessed<\/a> Highland Park Fourth of July parade shooter, was on psychoactive drugs when he murdered but we do know that police were<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/07\/05\/highland-park-parade-shooting-suspect-robert-crimo-threatened-to-kill-his-family-in-2019\/\"> called<\/a> to his home for suicidal behavior and that he was remanded to the psychiatric system.<\/p>\n<p>Mass shooters in the U.S. tend to be young, obsessive, male loners and many have been prescribed psychoactive drugs. For example, Eric Harris, one of the two shooters at<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Columbine_High_School_massacre\"> Columbine<\/a> High School in Columbine, Colorado in 1999 which ushered in the current spate of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-mass-shootings\">mass shootings<\/a>, was on the psychotropic drug Luvox. Prescribing<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mims.com\/malaysia\/drug\/info\/luvox?type=full\"> information<\/a> for the antidepressant says, \u201cClose supervision of patients and in particular those at high risk should accompany drug therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Weise who fatally shot his grandfather, his grandfather\u2019s girlfriend and<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Red_Lake_shootings\"> seven<\/a> people at the Red Lake Senior High School in 2005, was on the well known antidepressant Prozac.<\/p>\n<p>Two years later Cho Seung-Hui perpetrated the Virginia Tech murders and was<a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/virginia-tech-aftermath-d_b_46280\"> also<\/a> found to be on psychoactive antidepressants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe urgently need a national debate about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-guns\">guns<\/a>. But we also urgently need a national debate about the epidemic of mood-altering drugs being prescribed to young Americans,\u201d wrote Arianna Huffington in 2007 after the Virginia Tech mass shooting in which 32 perished.<\/p>\n<p>The following year, in 2008, another university was targeted. Steven<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1b9o6uDO18sLxBqPwl_Gh9bnhW-ev_dABH83M5Vb5L8o\/edit#gid=0\"> Kazmierczak<\/a> fatally shot seven at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. He had also been<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/03\/15\/us\/15dekalb.html\"> prescribed<\/a> Prozac which he had recently stopped.<\/p>\n<h3><b>The BBC Questions Another Mass Shooter\u2019s Medication<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Few can forget the \u201cBatman\u201d shootings at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater in 2012. James Holmes, the gunman who fatally shot 12 and wounded scores, was on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehook.com\/article\/crime\/antidepressants-play-role-james-holmes-mass-murder-scheme\"> antidepressants<\/a>. The suspicion among some reporters and doctors that the antidepressants explained the rampage was so strong, the BBC created an in-depth<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/resources\/idt-sh\/aurora_shooting#:~:text=a%20prescription%20for%20murder%3F,-By%20Shelley%20Jofre&#038;text=James%20Holmes%2C%20a%20young%20man,a%20part%20in%20the%20killings%3F\"> report<\/a> entitled \u201cThe Batman Killer \u2013 a Prescription For Murder?\u201d in 2017. \u201cWhy else would a clever, shy guy with no history of violence, from a loving home, carry out such a heinous attack?\u201d except the effect of the psychoactive drugs wrote the BBC\u2019s Shelley Jofre Holmes in the report. \u201cHe had no enemies, no terrorist ideology to drive him on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. David Healy, a<a href=\"https:\/\/m.epochtimes.fr\/archive\/front\/12\/8\/11\/n3506838\/dialogue-avec-david-healy-auteur-de-louvrage-pharmageddon.html\"> psychiatrist<\/a> and psycho-pharmacologist who has written<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/s?k=David+Healy+pharmageddon&#038;i=stripbooks&#038;crid=1W6WYOUR28VE2&#038;sprefix=david+healy+pharmageddon%2Cstripbooks%2C61&#038;ref=nb_sb_noss\"> books<\/a> about the risks of antidepressants<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/resources\/idt-sh\/aurora_shooting#:~:text=a%20prescription%20for%20murder%3F,-By%20Shelley%20Jofre&#038;text=James%20Holmes%2C%20a%20young%20man,a%20part%20in%20the%20killings%3F\"> studied<\/a> Holmes\u2019 case and interviewed him in prison. \u201cThese killings would never have happened had it not been for the medication James Holmes had been prescribed,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Wendy Burn, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, on the other hand is quoted in the BBC report as disagreeing and doubting Dr. Healy\u2019s pronouncement. \u201cIn all treatments\u2014from cancer to heart disease\u2014medicines which do good can also do harm,\u201d she said. \u201cCurrent evidence from large-scale studies continues to show that for antidepressants the benefits outweigh the risks.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><b>\u00a0A Mass Shooting Spawned by Racial Hatred<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Dylann Roof\u2019s fatal shooting of nine parishioners at Charleston\u2019s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2015 showed racism and gun violence at its worst. While the U.S. has seen other racially motivated and church shootings, the cold blooded calculation of Roof\u2019s murders brought the nation to a new level of outrage and horror. Two years later, 19 documents<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2017\/05\/16\/us\/dylann-roof-court-documents-competency\/index.html\"> unsealed<\/a> by U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel revealed that Roof, too, was on antidepressants.<\/p>\n<p>Two other mass shooting had preceded Roof\u2019s murders. In 2013, Aaron Alexis fatally shot 12 people at the<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Washington_Navy_Yard_shooting\"> Washington Navy Yard<\/a> in southeast Washington, D.C. where he had a security clearance. Less than a month before the killings, Alexis was prescribed the antidepressant trazodone.<\/p>\n<p>The following year, 2014, Army Specialist Ivan Lopez,<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2014_Fort_Hood_shooting\"> fatally<\/a> shot four people on the Fort Hood military base near Killeen, Texas after a highly<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2009_Fort_Hood_shooting\"> publicized<\/a> Fort Hood shooting in 2009. According to the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/fort-hood-shooting-was-sparked-dispute-between-two-soldiers-authorities-say\/2014\/04\/02\/585a4ef8-babb-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_story.html\"> Washington<\/a> Post, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the commander of Fort Hood, said Lopez \u201chad behavioral health and mental health issues\u201d and was taking antidepressants.<\/p>\n<p>Sixty-four mass shootings have occurred in the U.S. since Lopez\u2019 rampage eight years ago including the recent Fourth of July shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, according to a gun violence<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1b9o6uDO18sLxBqPwl_Gh9bnhW-ev_dABH83M5Vb5L8o\/edit#gid=0\"> database<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><b>Disturbing Psychoactive Drug Side Effects Are Well Known<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Awareness of these unpredictable medications is not new. Four days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 when awareness of mass shootings reached a peak, Geoffrey Ingersol of<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/adam-lanza-taking-antipsychotic-fanapt-2012-12\"> Business Insider<\/a> wrote that psychoactive drugs \u201cthe FDA pumped out [had] an ability to exact the opposite desired effect on people: that is, you know, inducing rather than inhibiting psychosis and aggressive behavior.\u201d Antipsychotic drugs, which the Sandy Hook shooter was originally\u2014and mistakenly\u2014thought to have taken \u201care not the only ones that can cause the opposite of their desired effect,\u201d observed Ingersol. \u201cSeveral antidepressant medications are also restricted to adults, for the depression they inspire in kids rather than eliminate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ingersoll is likely referring to the warning about paradoxical and dangerous drug effects in young people that appears on the labels of most psychoactive drugs. For example, on<a href=\"https:\/\/pi.lilly.com\/us\/prozac.pdf\"> prescribing information<\/a> for Prozac a boxed warning, the FDA\u2019s strictest, reads \u201cWARNING: SUICIDAL THOUGHTS AND BEHAVIORS \u2022 Increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children, adolescents, and young adults taking antidepressants \u2022 Monitor for worsening and emergence of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Psychoactive Drugs Are Often Behind Mass Shootings<\/h3>\n<p>Many and perhaps most health care professional dispute a link between mass shootings and psychoactive drugs. \u201cI do not know of any research linking medications to mass shootings and in fact there is some work showing benzodiazepines decrease violence,\u201d Michael Rocque, associate professor of sociology at Bates College told<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wusa9.com\/article\/news\/verify-in-the-past-20-years-did-the-majority-of-mass-shooters-take-psychotropic-drugs-before-committing-a-crime\/65-60d0c48d-9dab-4129-9176-47d58e4a283a\"> WUSA<\/a> Chanel 9. \u201cIn other words, I would not be confident linking the medication to violence, let alone mass shootings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some worry that such a link would eclipse the need to stop killers from getting guns or would stigmatize the mentally ill. Yet writing in the<a href=\"https:\/\/newmalestudies.com\/OJS\/index.php\/nms\/article\/view\/77\"> journal<\/a> New Male Studies a few years ago, Jeanne Stolzer, Associate<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unk.edu\/academics\/family_studies\/jeanne_stolzer.php\"> Professor<\/a> of Child and Adolescent Development at the University of Nebraska-Kearney in Nebraska, observes that \u201cdespite the multitude of international drug regulatory warnings on all classifications of psychiatric medications citing adverse reactions such as suicidal ideation, homicidal ideation, violence, and psychosis, not one local, state, or federal commission has investigated the correlation between the mass shootings in America and the use of psychiatric medications.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clearly all mass shooters are not on psychoactive drugs nor do the drugs always cause out-of- control behavior. On the other hand, a 2019 article on the website<a href=\"https:\/\/thoughtcatalog.com\/jeremy-london\/2019\/09\/37-mass-shooters-who-were-on-antidepressants\/\"> Thought Catalogue<\/a> lists and documents 37 mass shooters who were on psychoactive drugs when they committed their spree\u2014a fact that should make public health and law enforcement officials take notice.<\/p>\n<p>News reports seldom include information about shooters\u2019 psychoactive drug use after a mass killing and we will likely not know about the psychoactive drug status of Fourth of July killer, Robert Crimo III. Still, along with discussion of gun laws, mass depression and anxiety, and violent movies and video games, the effects of psychoactive drugs should be part of the mass shooting discussion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We do not know if Robert Crimo III, the confessed Highland Park Fourth of July parade shooter, was on psychoactive drugs when he murdered but we do know that police<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1574052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1558090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1558090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1574052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1558090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1558090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1558090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}