Finnish School Shooter Joins List of Drug-Induced Kid Killers including Eric Harris, Kip Kinkel and Jeff Weise

ST. LOUIS: The mental health watchdog group, Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), says the antidepressant-induced school shootings plaguing the U.S. have now spread to Europe; Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen is the tenth recent school shooter reported to be taking psychiatric drugs documented to cause violence, suicide, psychosis and mania. The death toll from these recent school shooters under the influence of mind-altering drugs now totals 39 dead and 84 wounded. Increases in these senseless acts of drug-induced suicide and violence prompted the watchdog to launch a new series of Public Service Announcements, warning parents to “Get the Facts. Fight Back.”

According to news reports, 18-year-old gunman 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. CCHR maintains that drug-induced tragedies such as this demonstrate the urgent need for more public awareness of the deadly side effects of the psychiatric drugs being prescribed to children—the reason for their new public service announcements that have been translated into 15 languages.

An estimated 63,000 suicides have been attributed to antidepressants, and after decades of denial from the psychiatric/mental health industry, the FDA finally required all antidepressants to warn of suicide risks for children and teens in 2004. Yet despite documented side effects of mania, psychosis, violence and homicidal ideation, and 10 recent school shooters documented to be under the influence of such drugs, the mass drugging of children and teens continues.

* Springfield, Oregon – May 21, 1998: 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his parents and then proceeded to school where he opened fire on students in the cafeteria, killing two and wounding 22. Kinkel had been taking the antidepressant Prozac.

* Notus, Idaho – April 16, 1999: 15-year-old Shawn Cooper fired two shotgun rounds in his school, narrowly missing students. He was taking a prescribed SSRI antidepressant and Ritalin.

* Columbine, Colorado – April 20, 1999: 18-year-old Eric Harris and his accomplice, Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 26 others before killing themselves. Harris was on the antidepressant Luvox.

* Conyers, Georgia – May 20, 1999: 15-year-old T.J. Solomon was being treated with Ritalin when he opened fire on and wounded six of his classmates.

* Williamsport, Pennsylvania – March 7, 2000: 14-year-old Elizabeth Bush was taking the antidepressant Prozac when she shot at fellow students, wounding one.

* El Cajon, California – March 22, 2001: 18-year-old Jason Hoffman, on the antidepressants Celexa and Effexor, opened fire on his classmates, wounding three students and two teachers at Granite Hills High School.

* Greenbush, New York – February 2004: 16-year-old Jon Romano strolled into his high school in east Greenbush and opened fire with a shotgun. Special education teacher Michael Bennett was hit in the leg. Romano had been taking “medication for depression”.

* Red Lake, Minnesota – March 2005: 16-year-old Jeff Weise, on Prozac, shot and killed his grandparents, then went to his school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation where he shot dead 7 students and a teacher, and wounded 7 before killing himself.

* Cleveland, Ohio – October 10, 2007: 14-year-old Asa Coon stormed through his school with a gun in each hand, shooting and wounding four before taking his own life. Court records show Coon had been placed on the antidepressant Trazadone.

To view the PSAs, go to www.cchr.org/psas/. For a detailed report on psychiatric drugs and violence read CCHR’s publication, Psychiatric Drugs and Anger Management Curricula—A Perspective on School Violence.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is an international psychiatric watchdog group co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights. Contact CCHR St. Louis at 314-727-8307 or cchrstl@cchrstl.org.

An estimated 63,000 people have committed suicide on antidepressants, some as young as five

Based on thousands of documented cases of psychiatric drug-induced suicide and violence, the mental health watchdog group Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) has launched a new public awareness campaign, “Get the Facts. Fight Back,” featuring Public Service Announcements (PSAs) on the deadly side effects of psychiatric drugs on the nation’s most vulnerable: children.

CCHR says that as far back as 1991, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the mental health industry have been aware that antidepressants can cause violence and suicide. Due to pressure from CCHR, concerned doctors, scientists and victims, the FDA held hearings into this issue but because of the vested interests of psychiatrists on the review panel with direct ties to the pharmaceutical industry, the information was buried for more than 14 years.

Finally in 2004, the FDA issued its most severe warning, the black box, on all antidepressants due to the risk of suicide. The toll to the public has been great, and with an estimated 63,000 suicides attributed to antidepressants alone, there has yet to be any federal investigation of the drugs causing violence.

Eight recent school shootings by teens under the influence of psychiatric drugs, now documented by the FDA to cause suicidal behavior, mania, psychosis, hallucinations, hostility and “homicidal ideation,” have resulted in 29 dead and 68 wounded. The list of school shooters on psychiatric drugs includes Jeff Weise in Red Lake, Minnesota, Eric Harris at Columbine, Colorado and Kip Kinkel in Springfield, Oregon.

In September 2005, following confirmation that school shooter Jeff Weise was under the influence of the antidepressant Prozac, the National Foundation of Women Legislators (NFWL) urgently called for a Congressional investigation into the correlation between psychiatric drug use and school massacres. To date there has been no response to this request.

CCHR warns that despite the evidence linking psychiatric drugs to suicide and violence, psychiatrists indiscriminately prescribe the drugs to millions of children and teens based on subjective diagnoses made without any physical tests—such as blood tests, brain scans or X-rays.

Click here to watch the PSAs, which present the deadly side effects of psychiatric drugs being doled out to millions of children. CCHR’s message is featured at the end of each ad for unsuspecting parents who are being pressured to administer these drugs to their children: “Get the Facts. Fight Back.” CCHR says it is imperative that parents have access to information from sources other than those who stand to profit from what has become a billion dollar child drugging industry.

To contact CCHR St. Louis call 314-727-8307 or email cchrstl@cchrstl.org.

CCHR is an international psychiatric watchdog group that has been in the vanguard of patients’ rights since it was co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.

“Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder” (CHADD)

Promotes Pharmaceutical Agenda While Receiving 1 Million Dollars from Pharma

LOS ANGELES: The psychiatric watchdog organization Citizens Commission on Human Rights is warning that consumers nationwide are being mislead by CHADD, which recently made fraudulent claims about the medical validity of “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” (ADHD), calling it a “disease.” CHADD attacked a Virginia school board for sending out valid information about ADHD and the drugs used to “treat” it, including a warning by the United Nations about the dangers of ADHD drugs.

With more than $1 million in pharmaceutical funding in 2004-2005 alone, CHADD has a conspicuous vested interest in trying to convince parents of the validity of ADHD and the drugs used to “treat” it.

Among other facts cited, the memo sent by the Virginia school board states, “The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has issued a strong warning against falsely labeling youth with the psychiatric diagnosis of ADHD and administering powerful ADHD drugs. The committee urges that other forms of management and treatment be used to address difficult behavior in children. The Commission recommended against the prescription of these drugs for anyone under 18.” The memo also lists some of the documented side effects of drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall.

CHADD asked that the memo be retracted and that a new one be sent out stating that ADHD is a disease and requires “treatment.” CCHR says that CHADD’s fraudulent promotion of ADHD as a disease, and their outrage at the school board’s informational memo, is due to the organization’s vested interests in drug companies that market the so-called “treatments.” CHADD also conveniently omits the recent FDA warnings that ADHD drugs can cause hallucinations, psychosis, stroke, heart attack and sudden death.

Despite CHADD’s claims, there are no biological tests, such as blood tests, chemical imbalance tests, brain scans, MRIs or X-Rays, which can confirm ADHD as a medical disorder requiring the administration of dangerous and potentially lethal psychiatric drugs. Pediatric neurologist, Dr. Fred Baughman, who has discovered real physical diseases, says that claiming ADHD is a “disease” or “neurobiological” is “a perversion of science and medicine and is a lie.”

In addition to the strong FDA warnings issued this year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has warned that most of the material prepared for public consumption by groups like CHADD do not address the potential or actual abuse of Ritalin but instead portray such dangerous drugs as a benign, mild substance that is not associated with abuse or any serious side effects. In fact, the DEA classifies Ritalin and Methylphenidate in the same class of highly addictive drugs as cocaine, morphine and opium.

CCHR says the public has the right to know the truth about the dangers of these drugs, as well as the fact that there is no medical/scientific basis to validate ADHD as a disease. The watchdog group urges parents to demand that their right to fully informed consent be upheld and to applaud those individuals and groups that are fighting for informed consent and the right for parents to get all the information available, instead of that coming from groups that benefit from the child drugging industry.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is an international psychiatric watchdog group co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights. Contact CCHR St. Louis at 314-727-8307 or CCHRSTL@CCHRSTL.ORG. Visit CCHR’s website at http://www.cchrstl.org.

Cleveland juvenile court records obtained by the psychiatric watchdog group Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) show that Asa Coon, the 14-year-old Ohio school shooter who wounded four before taking his own life on Wednesday (10/10/07), had been prescribed psychiatric drugs including Trazodone, an antidepressant, and Clonidine, prescribed for “ADHD.”

Although The New York Times reported that Coon had refused to take his “medication,” it failed to mention that the court records also state that the “Child shall be evaluated by a psychiatrist to review his medication and he shall follow all recommendations, including taking medications as prescribed.” This was in June 2006, and by November, the court determined that these conditions were met and the boy’s probation was consequently terminated.

CCHR’s long-standing investigation into the correlation between suicidal and homicidal effects of antidepressant drugs, predating the FDA’s black box suicide warnings by more than 15 years, maintains that the drugs are often linked to acts of senseless violence yet this fact is often swept under the rug.

Recent school shootings by teens under the influence of psychiatric drugs, documented by the FDA to cause suicidal behavior, mania, psychosis, hallucinations, hostility and “homicidal ideation,” have resulted in 29 dead and 68 wounded. With many other school shooters, their psychiatric drug use has never received the investigation merited by the violence-inducing effects of the drugs.

Frequently, toxicology reports or medical records are never disclosed, or in the case of Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter, toxicology tests were only done on blood and not tissue, which would reveal if the shooter was experiencing violent withdrawal symptoms.

A thorough toxicology report was merited by Cho’s former roommate’s observation of the shooter taking “prescription medication” as part of his daily routine, along with the fact that Cho’s records reveal he was prescribed psychiatric drugs in high school.

School shootings committed by individuals under the influence of psychiatric drugs include:

March 21, 2005: Red Lake Indian Reservation, Minnesota: 16-year-old Jeff Weise, reportedly under the influence of the antidepressant Prozac, went on a shooting rampage at home and at his school, killing nine people and wounding seven before committing suicide.

April 10, 2001: Wahluke, Washington: 16-year-old Cory Baadsgaard took a rifle to his high school, and held 23 classmates and a teacher hostage while on a high dose of the antidepressant Effexor.

March 22, 2001: El Cajon, California: 18-year-old Jason Hoffman was on two antidepressants, Effexor and Celexa, when he opened fire at his California high school wounding five.

May 20, 1999: Conyers, Georgia: 15-year-old T.J. Solomon was being treated with a mix of antidepressants when he opened fire on and wounded 6 of his classmates.

April 20, 1999: Columbine, Colorado: 18-year-old Eric Harris was on the antidepressant Luvox when he and his partner Dylan Klebold killed 12 classmates and a teacher and wounded 26 others before taking their own lives.  The coroner confirmed that the antidepressant was in his system through toxicology reports while Dylan Klebold’s autopsy was never made public.

May 21, 1998: Springfield, Oregon: 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his own parents and then proceeded to school where he opened fire on students in the cafeteria, killing two and wounding 22. Kinkel had been on Prozac.

Following the Red Lake Indian Reservation shooting in September 2005, the National Foundation of Women Legislators, together with American Indian tribal leaders, called for a Congressional investigation into the correlation between psychiatric drug use and school massacres. However, Congress has yet to investigate the psychiatric drug link to these senseless acts of violence. According to CCHR, an immediate Congressional investigation into this link is necessary to help prevent further tragedies in our nation’s schools.

For more information, read CCHR’s publication, Psychiatric Drugs and Anger Management Curricula—A Perspective on School Violence.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is an international psychiatric watchdog group co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights.  Contact the CCHR’s Media Department at 800-869-2247 or humanrights@cchr.org.