Better living through chemistry

If it is agreed that no sane person would commit the acts of violence which are the basis of the gun control discussion the following list is worth consideration;

*Patrick Purdy, 25, in 1989 opened fire on a school yard filled with children in Stockton,Calif. Five kids were killed and 30 wounded. He had been treated with Thorazine and Amitriptyline.
*Steve Lieth of Chelsea, Mich., in 1993 walked into a school meeting and shot and killed the school superintendent, wounding two others, while on Prozac.
*In Springfield, Oregon, on May 21, 1998, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his parents and then proceeded to school where he killed two and wounded 25. Kinkel had been taking the antidepressant Prozac. Kinkel had been attending anger management classes and was also under the care of a psychologist.
*In April of 1999, near Notus, Idaho, 15-year-old Shawn Cooper fired two shotgun rounds in his school, narrowly missing students. He was taking a prescribed SSRI antidepressant and Ritalin. He also had been seeing a psychiatrist.
*On the infamous date of April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, 18-year-old Eric Harris and his accomplice, Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher and also wounded 26 others before killing themselves. Harris was on the antidepressant Luvox. Klebold’s was probably on psychotropic medication but his medical records remain sealed, leaving the public to wonder what the government was hiding. Both shooters had been in anger-management classes and had undergone counseling. In the same familiar pattern, Harris had also been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting.
*In Conyers, Georgia, on May 20, 1999, 15-year-old T.J. Solomon was being treated with the stimulant Ritalin when he opened fire on and wounded six of his classmates. Ritalin is meth, pure and simple. How could any reasonable person expect a different result?
*On March 7, 2001, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 14-year-old Elizabeth Bush was taking the antidepressant Prozac when she shot at fellow students, wounding one.
*On March 22, 2001, at El Cajon, California, 18-year-old Jason Hoffman, while taking the antidepressants Celexa and Effexor, wounded three students and two teachers at his High School. He, too, had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shooting.
*At Wahluke, Washington, on April 10, 2001, Sixteen-year-old Cory Baadsgaard held 23 classmates and a teacher hostage. He had been taking the antidepressant Effexor.
*In Greenbush, New York, on February 10, 2004, a 16-year-old, Jon Romano, strolled into his high school in east Greenbush and opened fire with a shotgun. Romano had been taking medication for depression. He had also been seeing a psychiatrist.
*At Red Lake, Minnesota, in March 2005, 16-year-old Jeff Weise, while prescribed Prozac, shot and killed his grandparents, then went to his school where he killed seven students, a teacher, and wounded seven before killing himself.
*At Huntsville, Alabama, on February 5, 2010, 15-year-old Hammad Memon shot and killed another Discover Middle School student Todd Brown. Memon had a history for being treated for both ADHD and depression. He was taking the antidepressant Zoloft. He, too, had been seeing a psychiatrist as well as a psychologist.
*In 2007, 18-year-old Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen had been taking antidepressants before he killed eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School in southern Finland, then committed suicide.
*In Cleveland, Ohio, on October 10, 2007, 14-year-old Asa Coon stormed through his school and shot and wounded four students before taking his life. Coon had been placed on the antidepressant Trazodone.
*In Finland, in 2008, 22-year-old culinary student Matti Saari shot and killed 9 students and a teacher, and wounded another student, before killing himself. Saari was taking an SSRI and a benzodiazapine. Interestingly, he was also seeing a psychologist.
*At Dekalb, IL., in 2008, 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium. According to his girlfriend, he had recently been taking Prozac, Xanax and Ambien. He had also been seeing a psychiatrist.

Seems to me that there just might be a connection here. The basic problem here seems to be that quick fixes are over prescribed and quick diagnoses let the doctor move on to the next patient in the most financially efficient manner.

Brings to mind a lyric from a popular song of the late 1960's-early 1097's entitled "White Rabbit";

"One pill makes you larger and the other one makes you small. And the one that mother gives you, don;t do anything at all. Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall."

How many of us know someone, (perhaps in our own family), who has been prescribed one of these "happy pills" as an "easy fix"? How many of us are related to or live next door to the next headline maker?