Jeffrey Marks – an amazing spokesman, I listened to his take on the shooting-murder of two of his people by the disgruntled ex-employee. His response was both heartfelt and ethical, it showed a man of values and integrity…and I don’t say that often.

It is what many of us believe, that there is no fathoming of the ‘why’, because their simply can never be a ‘why’, because so doing justifies the act. And the act really has no justification – it is insanity. A cold blooded murderer has to be insane and anything else just isn’t – possible.

It is no different than James Holmes opening fire in a movie theater. Of course he is insane! There is no other way we can wrap around such an action. What we need to do is have a separate insanity plea that means the guy acknowledges he is eternally insane and that he has to be committed to an institution of some nature – for life. Of course, yes, I know, an insane person cannot acknowledge anything – but that’s when the common rule of three unaffiliated psychoanalysts will confirm – not his insanity, but the fact that he can not be ‘repaired’.

Some in the media would label this rampage ‘a workplace grudge’. But a grudge is a feeling, not a venge filled brutal murder. A grudge is something far less than the planned, videotaped, assault on innocent people who have done nothing to justify this action. And to call it such minimizes their death and minimizes the terrorism with which this man acted.

Again, this speaks to mental illness, and the lacking command of the US to tend to a growing epidemic. In a paper released by NIH, the author addresses the fact that insanity in the US is increasing, and it’s increase is not simply a product of a growing population, but a product of ratios.

Mental health issues have survived as long as mankind. Their causes are vast including environmental, genetic, and conditional – that is, a result of a life event(s). But we’ve also witnessed a new form in the past few decades, a mental illness that is created as a result of medications. When I had breast cancer my oncologist prescribed Arimidex, a type of chemo drug with vast side-effects. When I confronted him with the side-effects (blurred vision, extreme pain, numbness, severe dizziness, swollen legs, high blood pressure, arthritis, bone loss, vomiting, fatigue, weight gain, sleep disorders, hair falling out, hives, breast lumps…) his response was to casually declare that all side-effects could be handled with an additional prescription medication. He calculated that a lot of women took upwards of 12 different meds as a result – all of which gave him kick-backs (he didn’t say that part).

Of course the other mistake was the fact that this medication is used for ‘post-menopausal’ women only and I had not even begun menopause. A gross misdiagnosis with me as the patsy.

The point is that America has become the land of prescription drugs. Something wrong? Give it a drug. More things wrong – more drugs.

Facts: One in four children take one or more prescription drugs. Age 65 and older the rate rockets to 9 out of 10. Overall, 70% of Americans are on some type of prescription drug. 13% of the population is on painkillers, and another 13% on anti-depressants.

Do drugs exasperate mental health issues or mask them? They certainly don’t cure anything.

According to Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 20% of Americans have mental health problems, although they say the reality could be as high as 30%. According to their study, the states with the highest incidence include; Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia. So we have a problem, a big problem. Bigger than cancer, guns, heart disease, this is a travesty ignored. How can we possibly deny that these killers are anything but insane? And what are we doing to mitigate this? Giving more pills and making gun laws will do nothing to curb insanity…

According to a report in 1894, the biggest causes of insanity included; epilepsy, hereditary, intemperance, morphine, masturbation, and that ubiquitous class, ‘other’. And while we think we have progressed beyond some of the more inane causes stated in 1894, think again… Some researchers state that cigarette smoking leads to schizophrenia, and synthetic drugs (like the ones prescribed to combat depression and anxiety may cause insanity). In other words, a lot of what we do to battle illnesses will cause mental illness. But the most obvious of all seems to be a defective gene. As researchers have come around from blaming red meat, mushrooms, tomatoes, potatoes, nuts, as culprits, as the primary cause of cancer, the true demon would appear to be a defective – gene.

And while this does not rule out that situations, trauma, and psychological factors play a part, or contribute, it would make sense that in the billions of genes that make and create who we are physically and mentally could easily risk having a deformity, however slight, that will alter our being.

How we look to cure that – is still a far leap in the future. But recognizing it is a first step, albeit a baby step.