By Matt Agorist

The deranged psychopath responsible for the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history may have been on dangerous psychotropic drugs according to a report out of Reuters on Thursday. What’s more, government officials knew this information but told a witness to not to say anything about it.

In their mad rush to use this tragedy further the American police and warfare state, the federal government has been steering the narrative to further their own agenda — truth and facts be damned.

Last week, we reported that Marco Diaz, the current fiancé of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen’s former wife Sitora Yusufiy, told Brazilian television station SBT Brazil that Yusufiy believed Mateen was gay and that she had witnessed Mateen’s father call him gay several times, but that “the FBI asked her not to tell this to the American media.”

Yesterday, we reported on a man claiming to be Mateen’s lover, who explained the reason for the shooting was not based on Islamic fundamentalism, but rather a form of “revenge.”

Now, we are finding out that investigators had knowledge Mateen could have been on psychotropic medication, knew it was affecting him, and chose to cover it up.

Speaking with anonymity to Reuters, an acquaintance, who frequently ran into Mateen at work, said they watched him drastically change just prior to the shooting. According to the source, who saw Mateen the day of the shooting, he dramatically changed his appearance that fateful day. Mateen shaved his head and face and seemed agitated and surly just before he went on a killing spree.

But that is not all; the acquaintance said that Mateen was infatuated with anti-psychosis medication in the days before the shooting. Mateen told the acquaintance that he was tired from staying up all night researching the drugs.

According to the report in Reuters, the acquaintance passed the gate where Mateen worked as a security guard for years, and the two became friendly, making small talk several times a week.

About three weeks before the attack, he noticed Mateen seemed agitated and asked him if he was all right, according to the report. Mateen said he was worn out from staying up all night to research psychiatric medication, although he did not say he was taking specific drugs.

“He’d been real worried about whether or not he’d slipped into psychosis,” the acquaintance said. “He wasn’t as friendly. He was obsessed with researching medication online.”

“The last month, he looked worried, he looked upset, he looked confused,” the acquaintance said. “He didn’t seem himself.”

Approximately 18 hours before Mateen would walk into Pulse nightclub, the acquaintance would see him for the last time. In the early morning hours of June 12, the acquaintance drove up to the gate, but Mateen was not there.

After waiting for a few minutes, Mateen finally appeared — silent, with a transformed look, shaved head and face, and without his glasses.

When the acquaintance asked if he was okay, the usually polite Mateen responded, “What’s it to you, anyway?”

As Clinton, Trump, and the rest of the blowhards in Washington use this tragedy to push for gun control and more war, they are grossly misleading the public.

As Jay Syrmopoulos pointed out this week, the U.S. homicide rate has hit a 51-year low as gun ownership has increased 141% over that same period. America does not have a gun problem — however, we most certainly have a drug problem.

To discount Mateen’s potential use of anti-psychotic drugs would be grossly irresponsible.

Suicide, birth defects, heart problems, hostility, violence, aggression, hallucinations, self-harm, delusional thinking, homicidal ideation, and death are just a few of the side effects caused by the medication Mateen was researching.

There have been 150 studies in seventeen countries on antidepressant-induced side effects. There have been 134 drug regulatory agency warnings from eleven countries and the EU warning about the dangerous side effects of antidepressants.

Despite this deadly laundry list of potential reactions to these medications, the use of antidepressants has skyrocketed by 400% since 1988.

Currently, 11 percent of all Americans 12 years of age and over take antidepressant medication, this is a higher rate than all other countries in the world.

There are most certainly people of all ages that can benefit from certain prescription medication. However, the most worrisome aspect of Mateen’s ties to anti-psychotic medication is that the majority of mass shooters in recent U.S. history have links to these same meds.

This is not some conspiracy theory either. The side-effects listed by the drug companies themselves include delusional thinking, suicide, and homicidal ideation.

One single psychiatric medication prescribed to help people quit smoking has been tied to an epidemic of aggression and suicide.

In only five years, 544 suicides and 1,869 attempted suicides were reported to the FDA as “adverse events” in connection with the drug Chantix, according to documents obtained by America Tonight under the Freedom of Information Act.

The website SSRIstories.org has also been documenting the link between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and violence. On the site is a collection of over 6,000 stories that have appeared in the media (newspapers, TV, scientific journals) in which prescription drugs were mentioned and in which the drugs may be linked to a variety of adverse outcomes including violence.

As the establishment continues to scramble for a narrative on the Orlando shooting that fits their agenda, a very severe potential cause for this man snapping and murdering people is not only being ignored, it is being actively suppressed.

Matt Agorist is the co-founder of TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. He is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Follow @MattAgorist