Only Valium found in Hawkins' (Omaha mall shooter) system

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10221429

Published Tuesday | January 1, 2008
Only Valium found in Hawkins' system
BY TODD COOPER
COPYRIGHT 2008 OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

Typically, autopsies are telling for what's found in a person's body.

Robert Hawkins' autopsy may have been significant for what wasn't found.

A doctor performing the autopsy found that the 19-year-old who killed eight people at the Westroads Mall on Dec. 5 had only therapeutic levels of diazepam - the tranquilizer often known by the trade name Valium - in his system.

No marijuana. No methamphetamine. No cocaine. No alcohol.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said the findings are chilling in that Hawkins apparently didn't feel the need to ingest anything to get "jacked up" to commit the mass killings.

"Sometimes you see people who have abused drugs or alcohol to give them the ability to carry out their misdeed," Kleine said. "In this case, it doesn't appear he had abused either."


FULL story at link.

[Mojambo]

1. That's what good, clean living will do to ya. n/t

[Pavulon]

2. If he was taking benzos

by prescription that is direct evidence of diagnosed mental illness (generally).

[varkam]

4. Could just be insomnia eom

[Pavulon]

5. Could be..

but I have taken insomnia meds off and on for many years and never been prescribed a benzo.

I am no expert however.

[varkam]

6. Typically, people are prescribed non-benzodiazepine hypnotics

such as Ambien, Sonata, or Lunesta. For some people, however, the NBZD drugs aren't particularly effective.

Also, even if it was prescribed for anxiety, it needn't be a diagnosed mental illness. A lot of P. Docs out there will write someone a script if they just say they are having a lot of anxiety without referring to a mental health specialist.

Of course, all this is sheer speculation - he might of taken it from someone else.

[mr_hat]

3. Yeah. Last time I shot up a mall

that's all I was on.

[tavalon]

7. Well, it didn't appear to help

Sorry, gallows humor.

[Richard Steele]

8. Nothing new there- Valium™ works in strange and scary ways on some folks...

It seems to put a lot of users in a "disassociative"
state of mind- seems like that would be entirely helpful
to someone shooting up a mall.

I remember back around 1980 or so, my mum was taking them
for some chronic back pain, and had an accident at the shoe factory-
her hand slipped, and she stitched her thumb to a piece of leather
from thumbnail to wrist.

Her comment was that, due to the valium, "I knew it hurt a lot,
but somehow I just didn't care".

That scared her enough that she stopped taking them.

[Window]

10. Years ago I was on Valium, and

it used to depress me something awful -- even in small doses.

Even though I worked for Hoffmann La Roche, who held the patent and, at that time, was the only pharma that marketed it, I could never figured out why it affected me in that manner.




Peace:thumbsup:

[Hoof Hearted]

9. I still have a hard time believing it happened here. I felt pretty NIMBY about mass killings

I guess. It's just still very hard to wrap my mind around.

[Edweird]

11. So now what?

He was officially "out of his fucking mind", and nobody did anything. Is this going to have any effect on the mental health care in our country, or is going to be "deja vu all over again" the next time somebody comes unglued in a horrific fashion?