Take a look at the number of deaths caused by medical error and unnecessary surgery, and then multiply that by ten to get the number of deaths attributed to the negative effects of prescribed drugs.

Sure, the individual seeking treatment may need to take some responsibility here, but there is a reason we can't go buy these drugs without a doctor's prescription.

What's even worse is the current shortage of Adderol and other ADHD medications for people who actually need it, because of the number of middling high school and college students using it to stay up all night to study. Last year, the Dallas Observer ran a little piece on the number of Southern Methodist University students on Adderol who were selling pills to fellow students so they could pass exams, and the interesting part was the complete lack of response from the school. Well, there was, but in a "Well, ALL schools are like this" sort of way.

Keep this story in mind as the gun debate transitions into a mental-health debate. If any action is actually taken, it will basically involve throwing pills at the problem.

Psychiatry is a pseudo-science. It is primarily now an arm of the drug industry that makes Billions of dollars on drugging anyone who walks in the door seeking help. Add in the Millions of kids that are forced to be drugged because they are kids and you have a society close to totally out of control.

Placebo tests show that people are more likely to be helped just by thinking their getting help.

I predict we will look back at this era of mass drugging - now something like 20-30% of the population - as one of the most misguided and devious misuses of medical treatment and authority as we have ever seen.

Horrible story, and an area of drug addiction I was not aware of. Prescription drug deaths are now widely thought to exceed illegal drug deaths three-fold. There's a lot of focus now on the explosion in painkiller addictions and their consequences. Doctors hold the keys to those kingdoms but they have not been doing a good job and their associations are beginning to be very aware of it.

Interesting that they're able to discuss that dead person's medical history, but are unable to discuss dead mass shooter's medical histories and what drugs the shooters were taking.

"Sure, the individual seeking treatment may need to take some responsibility here, but there is a reason we can't go buy these drugs without a doctor's prescription."

Sorry, but this is backwards. The individual, in any rational conversation, must take 100% responsibility for any and all drugs they take.

That means one does NOT just take a prescribers word for something; you go find out info for yourself. If you're reading this you have all the skills you need to know EVERYTHING there is to know about any drug you take.

The fact our system supports patients not knowing what they're taking doesn't change that. It simply shows how stupid some people are, and how greedy, amoral and self serving others are.

I read the story. I have sympathy for all the doctors involved. Not that sympathetic toward the nurse practitoner who started it all. This kind of tragic nonsense will intensify under Obamacare.