Big Pharma responsible for another mass shooting? SC church shooter took psych drugs before attack

(NaturalNews) Mass shootings, sadly, have become a part of the American lexicon, and without question the majority of the American people are not comfortable with this fact. The latest outrage: A young white man who allegedly possessed some racist animosity went into a predominantly black church in Charleston, S.C., and opened fire, telling one victim that blacks "rape our women," "are taking over our country" and "have to go."

Predictably, the mainstream and legacy media are using this tragedy as Exhibit A in their relentless push to paint the United States – whites, primarily – as racist, bigoted and intolerant. Unfortunately, and despite government statistics that actually show that whites are more commonly victims of so-called "hate" crimes – too many of our citizens will buy into the lie once more, making it ever more difficult for blacks and whites to reconcile.

But there is another predictable element to this mass shooting as well, and it is a connection getting far less attention in the press and in the political arena than it should: The alleged S.C. church shooter, Dylann Roof, was taking a dangerous mind-altering drug like virtually every other mass shooter ever since the late 1990s Columbine High School shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris.

It's not the guns, folks, it's the medications

As CBS News reported:

Since January, Roof has been arrested twice, both at the Columbiana Mall in Columbia, S.C. According to arrest records obtained CBS News investigative producer Laura Strickler, on February 28, Roof went into a Bath and Body Works store wearing all black and asked "out of the ordinary questions," including how many associates were working, when they closed and what time they leave. ...

The officer noted that Roof was becoming increasingly nervous. He searched Roof and found "orange strips" that Roof said were "suboxone," a Schedule 3 narcotic. Roof was arrested and his 2000 Hyundai Elantra was towed.

A user of this drug on the web site MD Junction noted that her husband "became violent,smashing [sic] things and threatening me," after just a few days of coming off Suboxone.

Another poster at MD Junction tells the story of how his personality completely changed as a result of taking Suboxone. The person related how he became "nasty" and "violent" just weeks after beginning the drug, adding that he would "snap" and be mean to people for no reason.

According to The Courier-Journal, Suboxone "is increasingly being abused, sold on the streets and inappropriately prescribed" by doctors. For a number of users, it becomes even more addictive than the drugs it's supposed to help them quit.

As Natural News has noted, in the vast majority of the mass shootings over the past two decades, the perpetrators have been taking some form of mood-altering, mind-altering, psychotropic drug. And yet, the mainstream media and President Obama have, again predictably, blamed the firearm used by these shooters and not the medications.

Obama, in comments following reports of the shooting, also said that the United States was the only advanced society where such shootings occur on a regular basis. The solution, of course, was to ban more guns. But the president said nothing about the link between the violence and the medications.

We deny this link at our own risk

One reason that other advanced societies don't have so many mass killings could be because they don't poison as many of their children with pharmaceutical drugs. According to a 2008 study, U.S. kids are three times more likely than European children to be prescribed psychotropic drugs.

As reported by US News & World Report:

American children are three times more likely to be prescribed psychotropic medications for conditions such as ADHD and bipolar disease than European children are, a new study finds.

Differences in regulatory practices and cultural beliefs about the benefit of medication for emotional and behavioral problems may explain this dramatic difference, the U.S. researchers added.

"There is significantly greater use of atypical antipsychotics and SSRI-type antidepressants for child mental health treatment in U.S. than in Western Europe," said lead researcher Julie Zito, of the pharmaceutical health services research department in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Maryland. "Since most of the use is 'off-label' -- without adequate evidence of benefits and risks, close monitoring should be considered when these medications are used."

The longer we deny, as a society, that these dangerous drugs are having at least some effect on these mass shootings, the more of them will occur.

Sources:

http://www.cbsnews.com

http://www.mdjunction.com

http://www.drugs.com

http://www.courier-journal.com

http://health.usnews.com