The story the media downplays in mass murders

The killers in both the Charlotte and Chattanooga mass murders were on (and easily could have abused) powerful prescription drugs like anti-depressants. As we have noted in the past, the positive effects of these drugs on many should not cause us to shove under the rug evidence that they can, for a small but deadly minority, encourage violence and suicide. 

WND - Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof was a known drug user who was caught with the powerful mind-altering narcotic Suboxone when apprehended by police during an incident on Feb. 28.

Suboxone is used to treat addiction to opioid drugs such as heroin. It’s adverse effects include anxiety, irritability, depersonalization, confusion, suicidal thoughts and irrational, sometimes violent behavior.

Other drugs linked to mass killers have more often been geared toward treating mental illness. According to a data set of U.S. mass shootings from 1982-2012 prepared by Mother Jones magazine, of 62 mass shootings carried out by 64 shooters, the majority of the shooters (41) were noted to have signs of possible mental illness — the precise kinds of mental illnesses that psychotropic medications are prescribed for.

It is a well-documented fact that in the 1980s, a shift occurred in the direction of treating the mentally ill. Rather than institutionalize them, the preferred method was to “mainstream” them, encouraging them to function in society while being treated with a mind-numbing array of new anti-depressants being developed by the pharmaceutical industry.

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 Says one of his classmates, “He used drugs heavily a lot. It obviously harder than marijuana. He was like a pill popper, from what I understood. Like Xanax, and stuff like that.”

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CBS News -  CBS News correspondent Adriana Diaz reported that classmates alluded to Roof having a drug habit, describing him as a "pill popper" who "told racist jokes." As investigators piece together more information about Roof's background and past behavior, experts can shed some light on the drug he's accused of possessing.

Suboxone is the brand name of a narcotic that's considered milder than others drugs in its class, such as oxycontin, heroin and vicodin. It is prescribed as a step-down drug for the treatment of opiate and painkiller addictions. It comes in both pill form and thin film strips that dissolve on the tongue, the type Roof had, according to police.

Doctors and researchers in the field of addiction say that Suboxone been a helpful tool in fighting opiate addictions without the need to send patients to methadone clinics. It is sometimes called the "middle class methadone."

"While its safer than heroin or methadone if you take it as directed, if you don't it's as dangerous as any of these other drugs," Dr. Eric Wish, the Director of the Center for Substance Abuse Research at the University of Maryland, told CBS News.
In addicts, opioids can cause unpredictable mood swings, manipulative behaviors, lying, and an inability to meet responsibilities, according to The National Alliance of Advocates of Buprenorphine Treatment.

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 Corbett Report - In 2010, the Public Library of Science published a study titled “Prescription Drugs Associated with Reports of Violence Towards Others” which examined how 484 drugs were associated with 1,937 documented cases of violent behavior. Of those 484 drugs, 31 of them were responsible for 79% of the violence, including 11 antidepressants.

When incidents of school massacres in the US are charted against prescription of psychiatric medication, the correlation is undeniable. Further research is needed to establish if there is a causal linkage between these pharmaceuticals and the incidents of violence, but critics of the big pharmaceutical manufacturers complain such research is hampered by the low standards for reporting that these companies are held to.

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PLOS One, 2010 - Acts of violence towards others are a genuine and serious adverse drug event associated with a relatively small group of drugs. Varenicline, which increases the availability of dopamine, and antidepressants with serotonergic effects were the most strongly and consistently implicated drugs. Prospective studies to evaluate systematically this side effect are needed to establish the incidence, confirm differences among drugs and identify additional common features.

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Legal drugs linked to violance

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