Peter Hitchens is correct. OK?

I am about to say something astonishing.

Peter Hitchens is correct. There I have said it. It's today only. We share a view on which we have corresponded in the past. It's a bit of a puzzle to both of us that few others have noticed. About 80% of mass killers were on drugs - usually anti-depressants or anabolic steroids. 

The blame for most of these terrible tragedies is sought on the availability of fire arms. The failure to observe out-of-character aggression by drug-users is disregarded.

Peter Hitchens writes today:

"It's the drugs, stupid. In hundreds of square miles of supposed analysis of the Norway mass murder, almost nobody has noticed that the smirking Anders Breivik was taking large quantities of mind-altering chemicals.

In this case, the substances are an anabolic steroid called stanozolol, combined with an amphetamine-like drug called ephedrine, plus caffeine to make the mixture really fizz. I found these facts in Breivik’s vast, drivelling manifesto simply because I was looking for them.

The authorities and most of the media are more interested in his non-existent belief in fundamentalist Christianity. I doubt if the drugs would ever have been known about if Breivik hadn’t himself revealed this. I suspect that mind-bending drugs of some kind feature in almost all of the epidemic rampage killings that Western society is now suffering. 

I pointed out some time ago how many shooting incidents involved people who had been taking these suspect pills. Patrick Purdy, culprit of the 1989 Cleveland school shooting, and Jeff Weise, culprit of the 2005 Red Lake High School shootings, had been taking ‘antidepressants’. 

So had Michael McDermott, culprit of the 2000 Wakefield massacre in Massachusetts. So had Kip Kinkel, responsible for a 1998 murder spree in Oregon. So had John Hinckley, who tried to murder President Ronald Reagan in 1981. They were also found in the cabin of the ‘Unabomber’ Ted Kaczynski.

On February 15th 2008  Peter Hitchens e-maied me:“Note that Stephen Kazmierczak,(picture right) shooter in North Illinois killings, is said to have recently come off (un-named) medication'. Any guesses as to what that medication might have been? Bet it wasn't Night Nurse.”

There are only two things on which Peter and I agree. The non-existence of ADHD and the anti-depressants link in nearly all the school shootings.  Peter Hitchens spotted this EDM which I put down after the Finnish tragedy in 2008.

That this House is horrified at the recent increase in school shootings; is puzzled that the English language media failed to mention that in the Finnish tragedies, Mr Pekka-Eric Auvinen said that he 'ate SSRI anti-depressants' which, he said, made him feel 'aggressive'; notes that the perpetrators of 28 other school shootings, including at Columbine and in Minnesota, were also on anti-depressants; notes that anti-depressants, especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), have been proved to both sweep away self-regulating internal inhibitions while triggering explosive acts of violence and murderous behaviour; and calls for a study of the links between SSRI use and almost all school shootings and a rethink on the wisdom of the mass prescribing of anti-depressants to young people.

In the Norway case, drugs were only a factor, not the main cause. Nevertheless these merciless attacks were carried out by someone whose mind was unhinged. This subject has never been investigated. It's time it was.

 

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Comments

[HM]

“About 80% of mass killers were on drugs - usually anti-depressants or anabolic steroids.”

What is the source of this statistic? I’ve been following Peter Hitchens’ articles on this subject with interest, and would very much like to know.

[Frank Hodson]

Mr. Hitchens is eminently wise. I've been prescribed antidepressants, and have even indulged in cannabis of my own foolish volition, and both have debilitated me severely in a social and employable sense.

[Frank Hodson]

Additionally, I do not deny that environmental factors and stresses have played a part in my general mental breakdown, but the drugs have certainly exacerbated my mental precariousness.