SSRI, The Cause of Various Homicides

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April 20, 1999, began as an ordinary Tuesday morning in Littleton, Colorado for the students of Columbine High School who attended school unaware of the massacre that lay in their future. Two of the current students, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, would devastate a community, and open the eyes of the entire country. The boys killed twelve classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives in a similar manner. Additionally, nearly a year later in Boston, Massachusetts, an application support employee of Edgewater Technology, Michael McDermott, murdered seven of his co-workers with an AK-47, 12-gauge shotgun, and .32 caliber handgun. Surprisingly, he did not commit suicide like the preceding story and therefore was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder. What is the connection between these two massacres other than they were both on a Tuesday? Eric Harris of the Columbine Massacre and Michael McDermott of the Wakefield Massacre were both prescribed with anti-depressant drugs before and during their maniacal slaughter of the people who they had seen almost every day. After the Columbine Massacre, the coroner had discovered therapeutic amounts of the over-the-counter drug, Luvox, while Michael McDermott was discovered to have consistently taken a similar serotonergic drug. Although these powerful drugs were found, they were dismissed as probable causes in the massacre with other motives and over-powering urges to commit homicide. It was decided that McDermott’s motive was that his boss was garnishing his wages for the IRS to pay back taxes that he owed. Harris’s motive was consistent bullying. In a plethora of homicidal cases, that have been researched to find a similarity exists among assailants, a majority had be... ... middle of paper ... ...ne (Zoloft) - Drug Class, Medical Uses, Medication Side Effects, and Drug Interactions by MedicineNet.com." MedicineNet.com. N.p., 4 Mar. 2008. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. . Skolek, Marianne. "International Coalition for Drug Awareness." CCHR: Watchdog Information on Psychiatry, Psychiatric Disorders and Psychiatric Drugs. N.p., 28 Mar. 2011. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. . "TeenScreen Truth - The Link Between Psychiatry, Drugs and Suicide." TeenScreen Truth - Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2011. . Tracy, Ph.D., Ann Blake. "The Aftermath Of Prozac, Zoloft, Luvox, Fen-Phen, And Many Other Serotonergic Drugs." Jeff Rense Program. N.p., 2011. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. .

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