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SCHOOL VIOLENCE The Psychiatric Drugs Connection SCHOOL VIOLENCE The Psychiatric Drugs Connection Psychiatric drugs like Prozac and Ritalin are implicated in recent US school shootings, but the link has largely been overlooked by the media. he massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, took place on April 20, 1999. Astonishingly, for eight days after the tragedy, during thousands of hours of prime-time television coverage, virtually no one mentioned the word "drugs". Then the issue was opened. Eric Harris, one of the shooters at Columbine, was on at least one prescription drug. The New York Times of April 29, 1999, and other papers reported that Harris was rejected from enlisting in the Marines for medical reasons. A friend of the family told the Times that Harris was being treated by a psychiatrist. And then, several sources told the Washington Post that the drug prescribed as treatment was Luvox, manufactured by Solvay. Two days later, the "drug issue" was gone. Luvox is of the same class as Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft. They are labelled SSRIs (selec- tive serotonin reuptake inhibitors). They attempt to alleviate depression by changing the brain levels of the natural substance, serotonin. Luvox has a slightly different chemical configuration from Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft, and it was approved by the FDA for obses- sive-compulsive disorder, although many doctors apparently prescribe it for depression. Prozac is the wildly popular Eli Lilly antidepressant which has been linked to suicidal and homicidal actions. It is now given to children. Again, its chemical composition is very close to Luvox, the drug that Harris took. Dr Peter Breggin, the eminent psychiatrist and author (Toxic Psychiatry, Talking Back to Prozac, Talking Back to Ritalin), told me: "With Luvox, there is some evidence of a four per cent rate for mania in adolescents. Mania, for certain individuals, could be a component in grandiose plans to destroy large numbers of other people. Mania can go over the hill to psychosis." Dr Joseph Tarantolo is a psychiatrist in private practice in Washington, DC. He is the president of the Washington chapter of the American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians. Tarantolo states: "...all the SSRIs [including Prozac and Luvox] relieve the patient of feeling. He becomes less empathic, as in 'I don't care as much’, which means, ‘It's easier for me to harm you’. If a doctor treats someone who needs a great deal of strength just to think straight and gives him one of these drugs, that could push him over the edge into violent behavior." In Arianna Huffington's syndicated newspaper column of July 9, 1998, Dr Breggin states: "I have no doubt that Prozac can cause or contribute to violence and suicide. I've seen many cases. In a recent clinical trial, six per cent of the children became psychotic on Prozac. And manic psychosis can lead to violence." Huffington follows up on this: "In addition to the case of Kip Kinkel, who had been a user of Prozac [Kinkel was the shooter in the May 21, 1998, school massacre in Springfield, Oregon], there are much less publicized instances where teenagers on Prozac or similar antidepressants have exploded into murderous rages: teenagers like Julie Marie Meade, from Maryland, who was shot to death by the police when they found her waving a gun at them; or Ben Garris, a 16-year-old in Baltimore who stabbed his counselor to death; or Kristina Fetters, a 14-year-old from Des Moines, Iowa, who stabbed her favorite great aunt in a rage that landed her a life sentence." Dr Tarantolo also has written about Julie Marie Meade. In a column for the JCSPP (International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology) News, headed "Children and Prozac: First Do No Harm", Tarantolo describes how Julie Meade, in November 1996, called 911, "...begging the cops to come and shoot her. And if they didn't do it quickly, she would do it to herself. There was also the threat that she would shoot them as by Jon Rappoport © 1999 c/- The Truth Seeker Foundation PO Box 28550 San Diego, CA 92198, USA Telephone: +1 (619) 676 0430 Fax: +1 (619) 676 0433 E-mail: tsnradio@aol.com c/- The Truth Seeker Foundation PO Box 28550 San Diego, CA 92198, USA Telephone: +1 (619) 676 0430 Fax: +1 (619) 676 0433 E-mail: tsnradio@aol.com NEXUS - 27 by Jon Rappoport © 1999 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1999