Dr. Phil focuses on cannabis, ignores antidepressants, in Omaha Mall Shooting

Last year there was a horrible tragedy in Omaha when Robert Hawkins, 19, went to the mall and began shooting innocent people, killing eight and himself. Yesterday, Hawkins’ mother Molly appeared on the Dr. Phil television program so the two of them could “get real” (to mock one of Dr. McGraw’s favorite catchphrases) about what led her son to go on a shooting rampage.

While Dr. Phil did emphasize Robert’s troubled family life, history of depression and psychotic episodes, and easy access to an AK-47 assault rifle in exploring the reasons behind Robert’s suicidal rampage, he also goes to great lengths to emphasize Robert’s use of cannabis. (I hope you enjoy this… Dr. Phil charged me $6 just to get the transcript of the program…)

TRANSCRIPT from JANUARY 07, 2009

McGRAW: Robert Hawkins’ mother says she did not see the warning signs because it was one year ago that her 19-year-old son walked into the Von Maur department store at Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, with an AK-47 and killed eight people. According to the police chief, Robert fired more than 30 rounds, then he took his own life.

… Your questions to me–and I get so many of them–are, `Dr. Phil, why? Why, why does this happen? Who does this? How can we spot it before it happens to protect ourselves or our children?’ Maybe it’s one of your own children acting strange. Maybe it’s one of their friends. Maybe it’s a co-worker or somebody that you’re around. You say, `How can we protect ourselves?’ We’ve seen this all too often. Columbine, Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University, the Utah Trolley Square shooting. There are tragically just too many to name. But could these have been prevented?

… Did you smoke marijuana with this kid?

MOLLY: Yes, I did.

McGRAW: At what age?

MOLLY: When he was eight–he was 18 1/2, almost 19.

McGRAW: OK. And you understand that’s illegal, right?

MOLLY: Absolutely.

McGRAW: But you did it anyway.

MOLLY: Yes.

McGRAW: He gets depressed, starts abusing alcohol and drugs, you knew that was going on.

MOLLY: Yes.

McGRAW: While you were smoking marijuana with him.

MOLLY: Yes.

McGRAW: Did it seem like you were contributing to the problem?

MOLLY: I didn’t view it as contributing to the problem as much as I viewed it as trying to wean him off of those kind of things.

McGRAW: OK. It’s during this period, just a few months before this happened, that you’re smoking marijuana with him, correct?

MOLLY: Right.

McGRAW: How long before the shooting was that going on?

MOLLY: I only did it one time with him and it was in–it was like the day of Thanksgiving.

Robert Hawkins was estranged from his mother at the time of the shooting and was living with another adult woman and her son. Dr. Phil is speaking with the other woman when he turns to address Hawkins’ mom, Molly:

McGRAW: OK. You say you have a total and complete disrespect for her.

MOLLY: Absolutely.

McGRAW: Why is that?

MOLLY: Mainly because she knew exactly what Robert was doing. One of the reasons that I smoked marijuana with Robert is because Robert told me that she and her son smoked marijuana and he really enjoyed that relationship that they seemed to share.

…McGRAW: And I’d say there’s a–there’s a point at which, as parents, we have to recognize we are in over our heads. And if you are dealing with someone that is actively suicidal and talking about it on a regular basis, is abusing drugs and alcohol, is involved with a history of threats, of violence against stepmother, friends, family, whoever it may be, there’s a point at which you have to say, `I need to get some help with this. I don’t know what to do.’ And when that–when you get to the point that you say it makes sense to sit down and smoke illegal drugs with your underage son, then that’s bad judgment.

Dr. Phil references Robert’s marijuana smoking four times (3 “marijuana”s and 1 “smoke illegal drugs”). Do you suppose he’s trying to influence his audience by leading them to think marijuana use turns people into violent sociopaths? Because if Dr. Phil is looking for a pharmacological reason for Robert’s imbalance, he’s not paying very close attention to all the possibilities?

Running a search on the words “depressant” and “medication” and “anti-” brought me exactly one match in an entire 60-minute show / 19 page transcript:

McGRAW: All right. Let’s talk about what led up to this. Timelinewise, you say that Robert was molested in the first three years of his life, correct?

MOLLY: Yes.

McGRAW: And that had become violent during pre-school.

MOLLY: Yes.

McGRAW: Was put into a mental hospital at age four.

MOLLY: At three and a half he was there.

McGRAW: OK. He was diagnosed with depression and PTSD and put on anti-psychotics for a month.

And that led me to my good friend, The Google. I wonder what fascinating things I can learn about young male spree killers and anti-depressant medications…

Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN (where the transcripts are free):

SHAWN SANDERS, FRIEND OF ROBERT HAWKINS: I’m not sure to the level of his depression. I just know he was on antidepressants for the last couple of months. And I guest — I guess it was just getting worse over time, with the loss of his job. And I guess he had issues going on with a girlfriend at the time.

Let’s take a look at the horrible mass shootings perpetrated by depressed sociopathic young men, some of which Dr. Phil mentioned earlier (from Citizens Commission on Human Rights):

• September 28, 2006: Bailey, Colorado: Duane Morrison, 53, entered Platte Canyon High School and shot and killed one girl, and sexually assaulted 6 others. Antidepressants were found in his vehicle.
• March 21, 2005: Red Lake Indian Reservation, Minnesota: 16-year-old Native American Jeff Weise was under the influence of the antidepressant Prozac when he shot and killed nine people and wounding five 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.
• March 7, 2000: Williamsport, Pennsylvania: 14-year-old Elizabeth Bush was on the antidepressant Prozac when she blasted away at fellow students in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, wounding one.
• 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 23 others before taking their own lives in the bloodiest school massacre to date. The coroner confirmed that the antidepressant was in his system through toxicology reports while Dylan Klebold’s autopsy was never made public.
• April 16, 1999: Notus, Idaho: 15-year-old Shawn Cooper fired two shotgun rounds in his school narrowly missing students; he was taking a mix of antidepressants.
• 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.

It isn’t even controversial to point out that these antidepressant drugs lead to violence and suicidal ideation among young men. Such warnings are clearly printed on the labels of many of these drugs.

“Antidepressants increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior … in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder and other psychiatric disorders,” the warning begins. Those risks must be balanced against clinical need, the label indicates in a warning surrounded by a black box, hence the “black box” designation.

The new warnings will be carried by all antidepressants, including Anafranil, Aventyl, Celexa, Cymbalta, Desyrel, Effexor, Elavil, Lexapro, Ludiomil, Luvox, Marplan, Nardil, Norpramin, Pamelor, Parnate, Paxil, Pexeva, Prozac, Remeron, Sarafem, Serzone, Sinequan, Surmontil, Symbyax, Tofranil, Tofranil-PM, Triavil, Vivactil, Wellbutrin, Zoloft and Zyban.

Most of the rest of the civilized world won’t even allow doctors to prescribe these medications to young people, but here in the United States, there is a lot of money to be made by scaring people to “tell their doctor”* to prescribe the latest pill to make up for bad or negligent parenting.

Why wouldn’t Dr. Phil pay as much attention to the cocktails of anti-depressant pharmaceutical medications Robert Hawkins was taking as to the cannabis he was smoking? Short answer: cannabis doesn’t buy any commercials on the Dr. Phil show.

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* Where I come from, when you tell someone to give you drugs, that person is a drug dealer. Back in the day, pharmaceuticals couldn’t be advertised; if you needed a certain drug, your doctor would prescribe it to you. How we Americans allowed our very health to become a commodity to be bought or sold is one of the sorriest episodes in our history.