Tennessee Law Mandates Testing Mass Shooter for Psychotropic Drugs

A new Tennessee law mandates toxicology testing for psychotropic drugs in autopsies of deceased mass shooters to uncover potential links between prescription medications and violent behavior as part of efforts to increase public safety and accountability for psychotropic prescriptions.

Sheila Matthews of ABLECHILD and Amy Miller, a pharmaceutical reform advocate, helped draft the legislation that also directs the University of Tennessee Health Science Center to study drug interactions in violent perpetrators.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International praised the law as a step toward transparency for the violent adverse effects of psychotropic drugs, noting the high number of Americans taking such medications and CCHR’s call for broader testing and public reporting.

The law requires medical examiners to test for all drugs including prescription psychotropics and share results with the University of Tennessee and Department of Health, but currently only applies to cases where the shooter is deceased and four or more people were killed.