LETHAL VIOLENCE by youths has risen with the increase in psychiatric drug prescriptions. A sample of recent killers documents the trend.
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On May 21, 1998, Kip Kinkel, 14, killed his parents and went on a shooting spree at his Springfield, Oregon, high school killing two more people and injuring 22. Kinkel was taking both Ritalin and Prozac.
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On May 20, 1999, 15-year-old T.J. Solomon opened fire on and wounded six classmates at Heritage High School in Georgia. Solomon was being treated with Ritalin.
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Eighteen-year-old Jeremy Strohmeyer raped and murdered a 7-year-old girl in the ladies room in a casino on May 25, 1997, one week after starting to take the drug Dexedrine.
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On September 27, 1997, Sam Manzie, 15, attacked, raped and strangled to death an 11-year-old boy who had come to his familys New Jersey home selling items door-to-door for the local PTA. Manzie had been receiving regular psychiatric treatments including the drug Paxil.
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Eric Harris, an 18-year-old senior at Columbine High School in Colorado, led the killing spree on April 20, 1999, which took the lives of 12 students and a teacher, before he and his partner took their own lives. Harris had been taking Luvox.
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The Hidden Hand of Violence continued...