Rebecca Riley: I do not know the guilt or innocence of any party with regard to death by an overdose of medication of four year old Rebecca Riley. There is no question, in my opinion, that physicians are too quick to dispense especially psychotropic drugs. There is, it seems to me, no clear understanding of what psychotropic drug to prescribe or what amount of a drug a physician should give. Psychotropic drugs it seems are thrown into a hat, picked out randomly and given to patients some of whom may be children, to try. We are told psychiatry is not an exact science. Its often trial and error.

It is also true we suffer from an obsessive American quick fix disorder. The doctors and the drug companies dutifully oblige. Our media is saturated with never ending, ceaseless drug advertising. Money is always in the equation. In my opinion in the case of Rebecca Riley, it will be determined that she was short changed by all parties involved i.e. the psychiatrist, the pharmacy, DSS and most especially her fractured, dysfuntional mentally disturbed parents. It does seem to me that a bright red flag should have gone up to the physician when a mother, of dubious mental stability, asked for more and more refills as the drugs became allegedly lost or allegedly degraded by water. Then again, doctors do what they have always done pushed pills for the drug giants. Many may, indeed, have good intentions and want to help people. In the case of this little girl, however, lack of profound oversight and error cost a little girl her life!