A Sad Day in Dallas as One of Its Best Dies
And all signs point to Chantix, the new Pfizer drug meant to assist smokers in the process of quitting.
Carter Albrecht was unquestionably one of Dallas' finest musicians, having played with everyone from Edie Brickell to Paul Simon and Charlie Sexton, as well as a member of the 5th Tune In Saturdays feature ever, Sorta. Ask just about anyone familiar with the scene who's the best, and the likely reply was Carter. I never had the pleasure of meeting the man, but I knew plenty that were friends of him and loved him, which makes the circumstances all the more horrifying.
Carter and his girlfriend left the bar after a couple drinks Sunday night, when apparently he became completely disconnected from his surroundings. He started to lose control in the car, but really lost it in the house, punching his girlfriend repeatedly before she escaped the house. She drew him outside, and managed to get back to safety inside, locking him out. By all accounts, this had never happened before. Nothing even similar. He was just a docile sort of guy.
Apparently confused, he went to her neighbor's house, and began loudly banging and kicking the door. Frightened, the couple next door tried to fire a warning shot through the top of the door. Unfortunately, Carter was 6'5" and died instantly after he was hit in the head.
Obviously this sounds terrible on him, but seriously, I've never heard anyone say a bad word about the guy. People that have known him, and lived with him for years have never heard anything even remotely similar from him, and his girlfriend Ryann confirmed that he had not only never touched her in that way before, but that he didn't seem to know where he was or who she was during the assault.
Danny Balis, his roommate and producer of a local radio show said this afternoon via a post on MySpace that both Carter and Ryann had begun taking the anti smoking drug Chantix only a few days prior, and both had been experiencing these horrific, vivid dreams that they jokingly called "Chantix dreams." The Dallas Observer did a quick search of "Chantix" and "Psychotic" and found that this isn't exactly an isolated problem.
"My husband who has never had ANY mental health problems, tried to take his own life after being on Chantix for 13 days. He has no recollection of the day it happened."
"My brother in law committed suicide Aug 19. He had taken Chantix and went off it in the spring, then we found out he had started retaking it 7 days before his suicide."
"2 days upon stopping, I went into a complete meltdown of suicidal thoughts, depression, crying for no reason, panic, agitation, lack of concentration....it was a nightmare."
And a post from someone who combined heavy drinking and Chantix, like Albrecht did, from WebMD:
"… While intoxicated I did some things that were completely out of character for me. It is probably in my best interest not to share all of the details here even when posting anonymously, but the police were involved. I just want to make it clear that I did not hurt anyone or anything like that. I apparently just made a few bad decisions even after I was apprehended by the police …. I am not saying that it was the Chantix that caused this abnormal behavior… When I called Pfizer though, they told me that there have not been any studies on the effects of alcohol on people taking Chantix."
Now, obviously it can't be proven at this point that Chantix is the culprit, but for all you smokers out there, be careful. Now it's time for Chantix to speak up and show us the testing they've done, and fix this problem before any other needless deaths happen.
Here's a couple of my favorite songs...
Sorta - 85 feet and falling (mp3)
Sorta - Sweet Little Bay (mp3)
UPDATE: And before you turn your hate mail in my direction, let me be clear that in no way do I condone Carter's actions, just I don't believe in any way that they would have happened unless there was something truly terrible happening inside his head.
UPDATE 2: The NY Times just picked up the story, choosing to focus on another aspect of this story. A new law involving what is called the "castle doctrine" went into effect the day before this happened. It expanded the rights of Texans to shoot those who are threatening their person or property. It'll be interesting to see if this adds fuel to the fire for the anti-gun lobby.
Let's get the word out about Chantix. Digg it. Good tip, JC.