NRA President Oliver North has been criticized and mocked by just about every mainstream news media outlet for stating that psychiatric drugs have played a role in mass shootings in the distant and recent past.
Experts are coming out of the woodwork to criticize Mr. North’s observations, stating that there is absolutely no connection between Ritalin and other psychiatric drugs and increased aggressiveness that commonly leads young men such as Dimitrios Pagourtzis to pick up a gun and shoot innocent bystanders. However, even cursory research makes it clear that the NRA may be onto something.
Mainstream health websites clearly state that Ritalin increases dopamine levels in the brain, resulting in mental and/or emotional changes in the person taking the drug. Some of the many negative side effects of this particular medication include depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, psychotic episodes and increased aggressiveness.
Two decades ago, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration issued a warning that there was a connection between Ritalin and psychotic episodes, violent behavior, bizarre mannerisms and other serious symptoms. Even other developed countries such as New Zealand and Australia have long warned that Ritalin can have serious negative side effects. Furthermore, Ritalin isn’t the only dangerous psychotic drug that has been shown to cause aggressive behavior in children and adults. Atomoxetine, Adderall, Modafinil, Provigil, Desoxyn and antidepressant drugs for children have all been linked with aggressive, manic behavior.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a reputable mental health watchdog that has investigated school shootings for the last two decades, accurately notes that over three dozen school shootings and/or other serious acts of school violence were committed by young people who were taking one or more psychiatric drugs at the time.
Columbine shooter Eric Harris was taking anti-depressants at the time of the massacre. Seung-Hui Cho took Prozac shortly before his shooting rampage which led to the deaths of over thirty students at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Adam Lanza, who murdered eighteen children and nine adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School, was reportedly taking Fanapt, an anti-psychotic medicine that the FDA has initially rejected. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Nikolas Cruz was taking psychotropic medications for ADHD, although it is not known which ones he was prescribed.
The CCHR also notes that its list of shooters on anti-psychotic drugs is far from complete, as family members of mass shooters often do not provide information regarding medications the shooter used in the days, weeks or months leading up to the event. It is telling that Dimitrios Pagourtzis’ attorney has been quick to dismiss Mr. North’s warning about the connection between anti-psychotic medications and mass shootings without categorically denying that his client was taking medication.
Unfortunately, the link between mind-altering medications and mass shootings is continually buried by an industry that benefits from having millions of people take their drugs on a daily basis. It has been estimated that pharmaceutical companies have spent a whopping $2.5 billion on lobbying and funding members of Congress over the past decade. These companies make good use of the fact that their industry generates a higher profit margin than any other industry on the face of the planet, and use the money to fund politicians from both sides of the aisle in order to suppress bills that would impinge on their ability to make even more money.
Big Pharma’s effort works hand in hand with those of anti-gun activists who are so dedicated to their ultimate goal of gun control that they refuse to notice the fact that there are other factors involved in mass shootings besides guns.
The recent mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas has reignited debate over the Second Amendment as liberals decry the fact that guns can be purchased by any law-abiding citizen who is over 18 years in age. However, the fact is that guns have been freely available in the United States for hundreds of years and mass shootings have only become commonplace in the last few decades.
It may be wise to consider the NRA point of view that there may be other factors at play in mass shooting events in order to prevent such tragic incidents from occurring in the future.
~ Conservative Zone
Want total government control, as in WWII Germany-remove all weapons first. Then the people can’t fight back. Like the British, why the 2nd Amend. was written.
When my son was very young, he was proscribed Ritalin by a doctor, for he claimed he had ADHD. This drug Ritalin is commonly proscribed for ADHD! This drug hurt my son’s mental health for several years after we stopped him from taking this drug. When he would come down from this drug he would go into violent uncontrollable rages. The Drug Ritalin should be stopped and red flagged and taken off the market. This drug will affect your children for many years until finally out of their system. Also in my opinion Ritalin is capable of making someone do a mass murder. In my opinion this drug seems to destroy reasoning and no fear of outcome or destroy the conscience! Like what will happen when I do this mass murder. It seems to target the anger in us all and multiply it 100 fold! This drug is capable of ruining your children’s lives just from the side effects. I am giving my opinion and telling you the truth so help me God! Oliver North is right on this one. Thank you for your time and God Bless you!
The reason the facts about RIDLIN CHILDREN are hidden is the the EDITORS are taught to “spike” any story that might hurt BIG PHARMA.
Why is facebook not let me share conservative articles via government?
The Godless, Satan worshiping, power-mad NWO-elitist ghouls want everybody but them on drugs in order to control them and kill them as well as the dumb-(m)asses killing each other! Every day a new drug is advertised on TV and sadly there are many sheeple that buy into the dumbing and numbing down of themselves while they also get rich – “TRANSFORMED & TRANSGENDERED AMERIKA” is a success! REVOLUTION will be the final SOLUTION – guaranteed!
Drugged and indoctrinated by the deep state. Go ahead and lol. A corrupt FBI, CIA, DOJ, DOD and the list goes on! Theory? Sure, but I believe I’m spot on! The objective? To take weapons out of the hands of the people. As long as the people are armed, they will never take this country. Take a long look @ the rest of the world. Tell me I’m wrong.
Molon Labe!
Natural News published a list of many shooters’ medications. Also, medication are studied singularly, not when multiple medications are given together.
EVERYONE SHOULD FIRSTLY GET IN TOUCH WITH REALITY,RIGHT??? SINCE THE INVENTION OF THE [ CELL PHONE ] THE CHILDREN HAVE USED THIS DEVICE TO SPREAD [ GOSSIP ] AND HATRED, JEALOUSY, RACIAL BIAS, BULLYING, AND OTHER FORMS OF CIVIL UNREST TO INCITE VIOLENT RESTITUTION BY THE TARGETED INDIVIDUAL’S WHO BELIEVE THAT SHOOTING THE RESPONSIBLE ( INSTIGATOR’S ) IS THEIR ONLY SOURCE OF RESTITUTION, RIGHT ??? THOSE RESPONSIBLE ARE THOSE WHO ARE TOO BUSY TO ADDRESS THE SEVERITY OF THE SITUATION AND BRING IT TO THE ATTENTION OF THE PEOPLE WHO CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, THE [ PARENT’S ], RIGHT???
Agreed, cellphones, tablets, androids and other gizmos that children should not be using while in school are a big part of the problem, but they’ve also become part of the culture. Does it make them right? No. Speaking with some friends in USMC.Marine.Vet, one guy said “When we still had child control, there were no school shootings.” Until the ’90s except for a very few (maybe three cases) there were no mass shootings in school. Even Atavin an innocuous drug can cause the same effects as Adderal.
Write your Congressional Representatives and demand they look into the connection between children on psychotropic drugs and school shootings and/or other threatening behaviors.
by writing your congressmen or women you are protesting to the BOUGHT AND PAID FOR fool that causes the problems of the big-pharma. they are getting paid for NOT DOING ANYTHING about the drug problem of our kids.ALMOST EVERY PROBLEM OF THE SCHOOL-SHOOTERS WAS CAUSED BY PSYCOTROPIC DRUGS OF SOME KIND..
There exists listings of the behavior connected to SSRI’s. One such is ssri stories followed by dot and a com. The brazen fact that so called ‘Judges’ force Gag Orders onto the witnesses following these atrocities, bears testimony to the absolute fear instilled into anyone trying to tell the facts.
Adam Lanza’s med history [as true for Every mass atrocity related to Leftists desired destruction of the 2nd amendment] was sealed, as were any contents of the house, including the records that were in any way related to meds. All other items were dutifully recorded and released to the public. NOT the Meds.. The Deep State fawning for totalitarian rule, is comprised of a quagmire of molten lava. Every bit as destructive to individual Freedom.
It’s hightime all of us look to find the real source of this rising trend of school murders. And if it leads to psychiatric drugs, then let’s do something to prevent the disastrous effects of these drugs.
Obviously these shooters are psychotic; not surprising that they have been taking some anti-psychotic drugs; but that does not mean the drugs caused the psychotic behavior. Maybe the problem is that these anti-psychotic drugs just don’t work?
I feel the main reason for continued shootings is the media! STOP SPREADING IT ALL OVER THE TV, RADIO, AND NEWSPAPERS!
The only people of a shooting spree that need to know about it, is the people in that city! If the media had kept their mouths shut and not broadcasted it all over the world others wouldn’t try to copy it. These demented people think well I can do more than that and it just keeps snowballing. Don’t give anyone else the urge to do shootings to try and outdo the others.
Linda , I agree with you however we must take it one giant step forward . You are looking at It now . The internet is used far more then television , radio and newspapers combined . They all plant the thought of my 15 minuted of fame in these sick kids . Sad but true
I suspect that anti psychotic drugs are merely symptoms of deeper psychiatric problems, not the cause of shootings. All of the recent mass shooters, with the possible exception of Dimitrios Pagourtzis had exhibited signs of serious mental illness well before the shootings. I believe it is time to begin institutionalizing people who exhibit such symptoms as we did in the past. Trying to control the illness with drugs is dangerous to the public. I also believe that if we could limit the publicity given these shooters, it would remove one of the common motives.
So, good point–children on psychotropic drugs should not have access to guns.
The problem has been made worse by drugs, but remember it was the actions of others that caused the individual to seek or stop what he believed was causing his problem. Google has a lot of information that can be used by the individual are far more destructive than guns, and unless society finds a way to stop this, mass killing will only get worse, gun control is not the answer.
Blaming gun violence on psychotropic meds is just another diversion to avoid dealing with the issue. The issue: societies with the most guns have the most gun violence. There are many examples. Just a couple: Texas, the site of the latest massacre outrage has a gun death rate of over 12 people per 100,000. Massachusetts, to take one example, has much stricter gun laws, and their rate is a little over 4 gun deaths per 100,000, one third that of Texas. (Plenty of folks in Mass. have guns, by the way.) Our nearby neighbor, Canada, has stricter gun laws and a much lower gun death rate. Ditto for European countries. Ditto for Australia, ditto for Japan which has extremely strong gun controls and almost NO gun deaths. These are the hard, brutal facts, folks.
Dont bother citing Canada , They are NOT CITIZENS, they are subjects BTW the Brits coming to America to force compliance to the will of the Crown and dis arm US is the reason for the war of independence
I think the problem largely is one of parenting, or lack thereof. For whatever reason, these guys thought violence was the solution to whatever they saw as the problem. Good parenting would have led them not to turn to what was essentially random violence.
when one looks at the overall contents of the trash that the kids are watching on their devices, it is a wonder that they are even able to be released into the public. the average kid can not even hold a coherent conversation with an adult. the blood-and-guts so-called games are DESIGNED to change the way the players are thinking, you add the psycotropic drugs and all you have is a cold-blooded killerin the making.
Worn out lame excuse, how many guns used in all mass shootings? How many guns in the U.S. you want to do the math on total %. Mental health, probably drugs, and a liberal mindset running schools (soft targets) are the problems, fix these and it’s over, really this ain’t rocket science.
When you decide that you are not a good enough parent to handle an alert, active child you give them Ritalin. When it’s too much trouble give direction to a small child and find it easier if they would just sleep, you give them Ritalin. When you are basically a failure as a parent in every sense of the word, you give your child Ritalin. Now, since your child doesn’t associate wrong doing with punishment he or she just does whatever comes into their untrained, drug addled little brain.
EVERYTHING TRUMP SAYS OR TEXTS IS 100 PER CENT TRUE BECAUSE HE IS SMARTED THAN EVERYONE. HIS SUPPOTERS BELIEVE WHAT HE SAYS IS GOSPEL.
ANYONE BELIEVING THAT ALL THE SHOOTERS OF HIGH SCHOOLS ARE DRUGGED WITH RITILIN NEEDS A PSYCH EXAM. BECAUSE UNLESS EACH ONE WAS GIVEN A DRUG TEST THEN IT IS A LIE.
Certainly much evidence that drugs such as Ritalin cause aberrant behavior & psychological depression. Used to be that “boys being boys” were turned into virtual zombies because their teachers were either prohibited from the use of corporal punishment despite thousands of years of doing so in all cultures, or because the “adult in the room” was too damn lazy to take care of business. Do we really know the dangers & long-term effects of such drugs? Dispensing them with impunity is just part of the social engineering that’s been rampant in Western countries since the introduction of the contraceptive pill back in the early 60s. There’s nothing wrong with positive change, but prudence & old-fashioned common sense dictate testing that is sufficient to at least uncover potential unintended consequences. This was not done with mind-altering drugs, nor with other socialist & Marxist government experiments. It’s past time this knee-jerk reaction to perceived ills in society came to a permanent end, & to let the blame fall where it really belongs.