D.C. Attacker Said Frineds/Roommates Drugged Him with Xanax

News out of the U.S. today is about Noah Green driving his car into officers at a Capitol barrier, killing one officer. The article at the Washington Post mentions that he thought he was drugged with Xanax in college. I wonder if he was living with the fall out from an abrupt discontinuation of the benzo.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/noah-green-capitol-attack/2021/04/02/74f75802-93fe-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html

 

Sad story no matter it rolled out. I hope people do not think Xanax causes violence, but it could be helpful to get Xanax out in front of the general public as a drug that can be dangerous for users.

Hi Lilyann,

I'm unable to read the article because a pop-up appears, asking me to subscribe. Can you write a little summary, perhaps? I think it would not be okay to copy and paste the whole article here, but a summary might allow people like me a chance to know the major points -- especially about Xanax.

Thanks for letting me know you can't see the article.

 

I copied just the information about Xanax here:

 

"Family and friends said he blamed former teammates and roommates for drugging him with Xanax in 2019, which one teammate said most people regarded as unmoored from reality. Noah Green felt the episode left him addicted to the drug and suffering withdrawal symptoms.

 

Noah Green moved out into his own apartment in Newport News, but he continued to suffer hallucinations, heart palpitations, headaches and suicidal thoughts that could have been related to drugs or mental illness, his brother said.

 

Brendan Green said that Noah suddenly abandoned his Newport News apartment one day and moved to Indianapolis, saying that the drugs had inspired him to go there. When he was in Indianapolis, Noah Green began to tell his brother that people were breaking into his apartment."

 

Some of those side effects mentioned sure do sound like those that can come with stopping the use of a benzo.

 

Again, I certainly don't think that people who have taken or do take benzos go out and do these sorts of things.

Thanks, Lilyann, for sharing that info. Interesting, for sure. Maybe some further investigation will be done into his medication history, but of course, some details might be impossible to uncover, e.g. how much was taken, how often, start/stop dates, etc.

From reading around, it appears that Noah Green believed that teammates/roommates or friends slipped him Xanax without him knowing. Then, he became medically dependent but later did not have access (so was suffering from w/d side effects).

 

I am not familiar with the illegal market or with prices, but it always seems odd that someone would use their stash to impair another person. Seems like that would get expensive. And, the person with the drugs might come up short for their own use.

 

Several reports indicated that Green was suffering with mental illness, so the Xanax connection could have been something that he believed to be true that was not.

Yes, it seems best not to make any assumptions without having proper information.

Since it was a big part of the Washington Post story, I felt it would be of interest to members. If he was in benzo w/d with a mental illness, that would be brutal. It does not excuse killing the officer of course. Maybe it making the news will result in more study and more care as far as prescribing in the future. That is what I would hope would come of a discussion.

My heart breaks for him, imagine suffering from hallucinations and chest palpitations and not knowing the cause, scared and alone with no way to alleviate the pain since he did not have a prescriber nor knew the dangers of it. I suppose his roommates thought they were helping him calm down with a substance, but there's a reason why it's controlled. (I don't know the rest about the crimes he committed though, but in that particular sliver I see the humanity in his suffering)