Teen Dies by Suicide Using $13 Chemical He Bought Online — Now His Dad Is Fighting to Limit Sales

Mar. 15, 2025

CBS News

Colorado teen Bennett Brown loved video games likeMinecraftandRocket Leagueand was a competitive soccer player.

But the 17-year-old also struggled with his mental health afterlong Covidleft him with lasting lung problems, his father, Bruce Brown, tellsUSA Today.

After nearly three years withlong Covid,Bennettwas able to get his GEDand graduate from high school early — and was accepted to Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., where he began studying for his English degree in 2022.

But then the teen faced another setback: He lost consciousness and fell, sustaining a concussion so severe he had to drop out of college. Bruce told the outlet it “exacerbated the preexisting sadness that he was feeling."

In November 2022, the teen ordered a substance online for just $13 — a powder that his dad, at first, thought might be a nutritional supplement.

Stock image of sodium nitrate.Getty

Getty

But as Bruce Brown toldCBS News, it was the opposite of a health supplement. Bennett had learned about the powder from an online group that not only encourages suicide but suggests methods. The powder,sodium nitrite, can be used as a food preservative — or as a rocket propellant — according to theNational Library of Medicine.

And if ingested, it can cause methemoglobinemia, which “is a condition with life-threatening potential,” theNational Library of Medicinesays. Essentially, it stops the blood from carrying oxygen.

Shortly after ingesting the powder, Bennett reached out to a relative for help, but asUSA Todayreports, it was too late.

“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. It is not a well-thought-out act. It is an impetuous act.”

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After Bennett died on November 8, 2022, his father turned grief into action. He threw his support behind a bill in their home state of Colorado that limited online sales of sodium nitrite.

Now, Brown is broadening his advocacy on a national scale with theYouth Poisoning Prevention Act, which would ban the sale of the powder in high concentrations across the nation.

The bill passed in the House of Representatives and awaits a vote in the Senate.

source: people.com