From Deseret News archives:
Depressed over Prozac
Antidepressants dangerous and should be banned, crusader says
After reading about Mark Barton, the Atlanta day trader who killed his family and then drove to work and killed nine more people before also turning the gun on himself, Tracy phoned his mother. It wasn't until six months later that Atlanta police reported that Prozac had been found in Barton's car, so Tracy was operating on instinct when she urged Barton's mother to have his body tested for antidepressants. "Not all coroners check for these drugs," Tracy explains. "It requires a few extra tests, and not all states will pay for it. That's why you need to get to the families right away."
But things don't always work out the way Tracy would hope. In the Atlanta day trader case, she says, she had his body ready to be shipped to an independent forensic toxicologist in Oklahoma City, but Barton's mother changed her mind. Maybe, Tracy says, the coroner told Mrs. Barton that Tracy was a Scientologist.
Vicki Cottrell, executive director of the Utah chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), is sure Tracy has Scientology ties. "She says she's not a Scientologist, but she has the same philosophy," says Cottrell. "Of course I don't have the thing on paper, in writing, but I believe they finance her." Tracy denies any connection to Scientology and says in fact that Scientologists don't like her because she won't go after psychiatrists. She says her war against antidepressants has put her $100,000 in debt (mostly from phone bills and publishing her book). Tracy accuses NAMI of getting money from drug companies.
Cause and effect
Emotions run high because, on both sides, there is a belief that lives are at stake. Mental-health advocates argue that antidepressants have helped millions of people, and they worry that crusades like Tracy's will convince the very people who need drugs to go off them. The stories of people who have committed suicide or crimes while on antidepressants are sad and regrettable, they agree, but anecdotes aren't scientific proof.
4 comments
Recent commentsI have been taking zoloft for most of the last ten years. I have... John Pack Lambert | Oct. 22, 2008 at 2:59 p.m.
re: "how do I get a copy of ann's tapes or cd's". JIm | June 4, 2008 at 12:54 p.m. how do it get a copy of ann's tapes or cd's. thank you cindy | May 17, 2008 at 8:43 a.m. 
Ann Tracy is director of the International Coalition for Drug Awareness, which she runs from her home in West Jordan. Related content
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