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

Bruce Brown is fighting to limit the online sales of sodium nitrate after his son, 17, used it to end his life

Colorado teen Bennett Brown loved video games like Minecraft and Rocket League and was a competitive soccer player.

But the 17-year-old also struggled with his mental health after long Covid left him with lasting lung problems, his father, Bruce Brown, tells USA Today.

After nearly three years with long Covid, Bennett was able to get his GED and 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.

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But as Bruce Brown told CBS 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 nitrate, can be used as a food preservative — or as a rocket propellant — according to the National Library of Medicine.

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

Shortly after ingesting the powder, Bennett reached out to a relative for help, but as USA Today reports, 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 nitrate.

Now, Brown is broadening his advocacy on a national scale with the Youth 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.

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"You lose a child, there's nothing worse," Brown told USA Today. "The grief is immense. It's never-ending. There's not an hour that goes by where my mind doesn't go to Bennett. He was a great kid. He was funny. He was athletic when healthy. He was well-liked. The irony is he never would've hurt another person or animal, but yet he took his own life."

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.

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