Psychological Treatment Failed To Prevent Columbine – And Now The Boulder Mass Shooting?

Did psychological treatment in the form of anger management fail to prevent another mass shooting? 

Ahmad Alissa, charged in the shooting deaths of 10 people in a Boulder grocery store on March 22, received psychological anger management as part of his sentence of probation, after pleading guilty to a charge of misdemeanor third-degree assault in 2018.  As a high school senior in 2017, Alissa had attacked a classmate by punching him in the head without warning and continuing to punch him when he fell to the ground. 

Alissa is now being held in Boulder County jail on 10 counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder.  Police found him at the scene of the slaughter with a tactical vest, a semiautomatic handgun and an assault rifle, according to the arrest affidavit.

Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold also received psychological treatment.  After being arrested for breaking into a van and stealing electronic equipment in 1998, both spent 11 months in diversion programs, which included psychological counseling.  Harris’s program also included an anger management class.

Just two months after Harris and Klebold completed their diversion programs, they launched their attack at Columbine High School in April 1999, killing 13 people and wounding 26 others.

Documents later released by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office included a diary kept by Harris, filled with hateful and angry entries written over the two years leading up to the Columbine attack.

In an entry dated November 22, 1998 – just days after completing his anger management class and while his counseling was ongoing, Harris wrote about purchasing weapons and ammunition for the assault he would launch with Klebold the following April, concluding: “It’s all over now, this capped it off, the point of no return.” 

Harris had also been taking antidepressants for at least a year before the Columbine massacre, drugs which have been linked to agitation, aggression, abnormal behavior, mania, psychosis, suicide and violence.  Psychiatrist Peter Breggin and biopsychologist Ann Tracy are among those who make the case that Harris’s anger was fueled by the antidepressants.

Lakewood Teen Charged in Fatal Stabbing Was Receiving Mental Health Treatment – Were Psychiatric Drugs Involved?

The Lakewood teen charged in the fatal stabbing of a Longmont woman on November 18  reportedly had been receiving mental health treatment at the time of the incident.

Aiden von Grabow, 15,  charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of 19-year-old Makayla Grote, was working with school district mental health and community mental health workers, according to a spokeswoman for Jeffco Public Schools.

Did that mental health treatment include psychiatric drugs, which have well-established links to violence?   Is this yet another in the long list of senseless acts of violence linked to the use of mind-altering psychiatric drugs?

Psychiatric drugs were found disproportionately linked to acts of violence in a 2010 analysis of prescription drug side-effects data from the Food and Drug Administration’s adverse event reporting system.

There are at least 28 warnings from international drug regulatory agencies and numerous research studies concerning the violence-related effects of psychiatric drugs.

As a public health matter, the public deserves to know how many of the horrifying, senseless acts of violence that are becoming so commonplace are linked to the use of psychiatric drugs.

WARNING: Anyone wishing to discontinue or to change the dose of a psychiatric drug is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a competent medical doctor because of potentially dangerous, even life-threatening mental and physical withdrawal symptoms.

If you or someone you know has been harmed by psychiatric drugs, we want to talk with you.  You can contact us by clicking here or by calling 303-789-5225.  All information will be kept in the strictest confidence.

Centennial Man With A History of Psych Drugs Allegedly Poisoned His Mother

Part of the ongoing series: Killers On Psych Drugs –
Psych-Drugged Accused Or Convicted Killers


In yet another bizarre act of violence with a link to psychiatric drugs, a man with a long history of mental-health treatment allegedly murdered his own mother.

Ari Liggett, 24, appearing in Arapahoe County District Court Friday, was arrested last October and accused of poisoning his mother, dismembering her body, and driving around the state with her remains in the backseat of his car.

Liggett’s father said Ari had been prescribed numerous psychiatric drugs in many combinations over a long period of time.

While it is not known what psychiatric drugs Ari Liggett was on or in withdrawal from, if any, at the time of the alleged murder, it is well-known that the adverse effects of psych drugs include aggression, mania, violence, homicidal thoughts, and suicide.  Psychiatric drugs are a prescription for violence.

Psychiatric treatment and psychiatric drugs are the common denominator of the growing number of shootings and other acts of violence, which are soaring right along with the soaring prescribing of psych drugs. 

CCHR International is asking the public to sign its petition calling on U.S. lawmakers to immediately open an investigation into the role of psychiatric drugs in school shootings and similar acts of violence, given that data supporting this link has to date been ignored by the U.S. government and mental health agencies.

Research studies and warnings from international regulatory authorities on the links between psych drugs and violence can be accessed through CCHR International’s psychiatric drug side effects search engine.

WARNING: Anyone wishing to discontinue psychiatric drugs is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a competent medical doctor because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms.

If you or someone you know has experienced violence or other harmful side effects from a psychiatric drug, we want to talk to you. You can contact us privately by clicking here or by calling 303-789-5225.  All information will be kept in the strictest confidence. We welcome your comments on this article below.