Grieving dad fighting to ban deadly substance his son bought online for just $13: That was the price of my sons life
A heartbroken Colorado father whose son ended his life with a cheap, readily available online substance delivered to their home in an inconspicuous package is now leading the charge to get the substance banned nationwide in high, concentrated dosages.Bruce Brown said that in November 2022, when a UPS package containing an odorless, yellowish-white powder arrived for his 17-year-old son Bennett, he believed it was a workout supplement for the competitive soccer player, USA Today reported.Still curious about the powder’s exact purpose, the Colorado lawyer texted his son that evening to find out.
Sadly, however, Bennett would never answer.The 17-year-old had ordered sodium nitrite, a chemical compound mainly used for food preservation that can be fatal for humans in high concentrations.Bennett would ingest the powder the day after it arrived but soon after regretted taking it, reaching out to his family that he needed to go to the hospital “immediately.”Unfortunately, it was too late, and the teen died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
“My son did not want to die,” Brown told the outlet.“After he took this poison, he went to a family member and said, ‘I need help.’ That’s really common for people who commit suicide.”The grieving father said his son suffered from long-term COVID, which not only affected him physically, causing the teen to have severe lung problems — leaving him up all night and mostly housebound — but also took a massive toll on his mental health.
Matters only worsened when Bennett lost consciousness, fell, and suffered a concussion, his father said.He was forced to drop out of Arizona State University, where he was an English major, which further affected his mental health, according to CBS News.“A symptom of concussion is suicide.
I did not know that.Nobody ever told me that,” Brown told USA Today.
“I think that just exacerbated the preexisting sadness that he was feeling.”Brown later discovered his so...