Atlanta HardiPlank For the GUARANTEED Lowest Price on All of Your Fiber Cement Siding Needs 678.714.2170

Printer Friendly Version

Email this article to a friend

Home

Children, antidepressants and murder - Where do we draw the line?

GDO Staff Report

GWINNETT - Children are commonly prescribed antidepressants for many different reasons. Some respond favorably and some don't. In very rare instances - they commit horrible crimes. Sometimes even murder.

Is the medication to blame? If so, could it ever be conclusively proven in a court of law? The experts are split down the middle.

On Tuesday February 15th, a 15 year old boy was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was 12 years old when he took the lives of his grandmother and grandfather and his legal defense was that he was taking the antidepressant Zoloft at the time of the incident.

What is your opion on the topic?

Click Here to respond and we'll post responses in the near future.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Email Response:

NO PROOF !!

NO ANSWER !!

SIMPLE it's only GUESSWORK.

TOO MANY PEOPLE ON DRUGS- ILLEGAL OR PERSCRIBED.

Allbrookx

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Email Response:

He got what he deserved! I was put on anti-depressants for a year, and yes, it did effect me, made me sleep alot, but certainly did not make me fee like killing someone! He, at 12, knew right from wrong!

Michelle - Lawrenceville, Ga.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Email Response:

I raised 4 children in Gwinnett over the last 25 years. At times all of them exhibited behavior that was hyperactive, depressed, angry and so on. I believe these emotions are all part of being a teenager. If I had taken one of them to a a doctor when they were in one of their moods - they would have been prescribed antidepressants.

I didn't take them to doctors during these times, I let them work things out on their own. And now they're successful, productive members of society - still experiencing these emotions as part of the human experience.

Who knows what may have happened to them with the help of today's pharmaceutical technology. We know what happened to 12 year old Christopher Pittman and others with antidepressants.

Treat people with those medications and expect those results. Who on Earth gave them access to fire arms. That stuff should be used as a last result and used with extreme caution.

Maybe much of the blame of these deaths lies with those who were practicing the medicine. Not the guinie pigs.

Tracy B. - Lawrenceville, Ga.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Email Response:

Yesterday Court TV featured the above case. Today they feature a case where a teenage girl took out her parents with a high powered rifle because they didn't approve of her boyfriend. She wasn't on anti-depressants.

I guess kids will be kids.

David - Norcross

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Email Response:

I believe our government needs to decide once and for all at what point a child becomes an adult. A 12 year old child can be tried as an adult and put away for the rest of their life, but they can't drink alchohol, smoke cigarettes, drive a car or vote.

Also, if someone over 18 has sex with someone "under age" they can be sent to jail for a long time on a rape charge because the government feels the minds of the underaged are not developed enough to be able to make such decisions for themselves.

Joseph W. - Atlanta

<-->