While Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has done more to shine a light on the harms associated with prescription psychiatric drugs, no one in authority has addressed the possible connection between the mind-altering drugs and violence. There still are many in the old guard still “psychsplaining” about the need for such drug “treatments” but AbleChild argues that real data will be the final arbiter of this life-or-death argument and recently passed Tennessee legislation should be the gold standard for all states trying to understand what may be causing so much random violence.

The original 2025 legislation championed by Tennessee State Senator Rusty Crowe was expanded in 2026 to include toxicology testing for psychiatric drugs in cases where mass shootings occurred with wounded instead of the original four or more dead requirement.  The results of those toxicology tests on the shooters will be collected by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (HSC) for study and report quarterly to lawmakers in the state to then make that information publicly available for review.

This landmark legislation is an enormous leap forward for finally beginning to gather important information about the possible causation between prescription psychiatric drugs and violence. That there is violent behavior associated with prescription psychiatric drugs has been known for decades. 

For example, most of the antidepressants on the market today carry an adverse events section in the drug insert that certainly must be considered as contributing to violent behavior including “aggressive behavior, confusion, mood and behavior changes, agitation, anxiety, nervousness, emotional lability, aggravated depression, aggressive reaction, depersonalization, mania, paranoia, abnormal thinking and dreams, hallucination, psychotic disorder, psychosis and suicidal ideation” to name a few.

Given the above information, the fact that law enforcement agencies throughout the country have yet to institute any kind of standard data collection of violent offenders taking prescription psychiatric drugs at the time of arrest is a scandal. These data, along with data that are made available in the new Mental Health court system, should be gathered nationally for public review. 

How many offenders within the court system have been prescribed psychiatric medications? The charging law enforcement agency must know this information before transferring the alleged perpetrator to a state holding cell as the state must provide that “medication” while awaiting trial. Further, the new Mental Health Courts are fully aware of what prescription drugs have been prescribed to all defendants. 

With one in five Americans taking prescription psychiatric drugs daily, it is unfathomable that these drug data would not be important information that numerous state and federal agencies could benefit from and, perhaps, get some to answers to what may be causing mass killings…or not.

Further, AbleChild attended the recent MAHA Institute Summit in Washington, D.C. where the focus of the experts and the HHS Secretary was the “de-prescribing” of psychiatric drugs. It was during this conference that AbleChild met New York Times reporter, Elizabeth Williamson, providing Williamson with AbleChild founder’s son’s ADHD checklist provided by the school and its quasi-diagnosing. 

AbleChild had hoped the Times reporter would take seriously the issues AbleChild had raised with Williamson during the summit and report on mental health in the nation’s schools. To date Williamson has not written about the mental health push in the nation’s schools or the bogus list of “criteria” that makes up the alleged ADHD diagnosis. AbleChild believes this disinterest in reporting on the ever-increasing mental health presence in schools is a disservice to American families as the nation’s schools play an enormous role in testing and referring America’s children for mental health services. 

Of course, this psychiatric interference in America’s schools is funded by the federal government through Medicaid. Remember, Medicaid is the largest payer of mental health services and drugs in the U.S.  One must wonder why the federal government feels the need to pay for mental disorders that literally cannot be identified. And, worse, while American schools are full of mental health information and how to get “treatment,” there is no equal time for information that is contrary to the psycho/pharma industry spiel.

The Tennessee legislation is Pandora’s Box for the behavioral health industry. The last thing the psycho/pharma industry wants is data being made public that reveals the number of violent acts that are committed by people on prescription psychiatric drugs.  Would ninety out of 100 violent acts committed by those on psychiatric drugs prove causation?  No. But would the public begin to make a connection between psychiatric drugs and violence? Yes.  

And the “psychsplaining” espousing the virtues of psychiatric drugs may finally be over. The fraudulent diagnoses are out of the bag as are the known dangers associated with the psychiatric drugs. The outrageous and ever-increasing number of Americans being diagnosed and drugged for “abnormal” behavior has finally been outed and lawmakers are starting to ask the right questions. Laws are being enacted that directly address a growing skepticism of the legitimacy of the modern mental health industry and the real dangers associated with prescription psychiatric drugs.

Tennessee did something right and good for its citizens and should be the model for all states. Tennessee, the home of the Nashville school shooter, Audre Hale, wants to know whether its citizens are committing crimes while on these mind-altering drugs. Maybe with that information changes can be made and lives can be saved. Why wouldn’t other states want to know this information too? 

AbleChild is a 501(3) C nonprofit organization that has recently co-written landmark legislation in Tennessee, setting a national precedent for transparency and accountability in the intersection of mental health, pharmaceutical practices, and public safety.

What you can do.  Sign the Petition calling for federal hearings!

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