Kim Prosser holds a photo of her late son, Ashtyn Prosser. Ashtyn took his own life at the age of 19 after consuming a dose of sodium nitrite he purchased online.Dax Melmer/The Globe and Mail
In the wake of a wave of deaths linked to the ingestion of sodium nitrite, the U.K. and some states in the U.S. have restricted its sale, but Canadian regulators have so far not followed suit.
The chemical, a salt often used as a food preservative, is at the heart of 14 first-degree murder charges against Kenneth Law, a Canadian who allegedly sold the substance online to people at risk of harming themselves – some of whom later died by suicide.
Authorities have said they believe Mr. Law, 59, shipped more than 1,200 packages to more than 40 countries. Mr. Law’s lawyer has said the man intends to plead not guilty. In June, the families of the 14 individuals related to the case were notified by Crown lawyers that the trial could begin in September, 2025, though they were told this date is not certain.
Documents obtained by The Globe and Mail under freedom of information laws show Health Canada does not regard sodium nitrite as a threat “when used as intended.” The chemical is used in lower concentrations by the food industry to fight bacteria and speed up the curing of bacon and other meats, but it is also promoted in online forums targeted at those seeking information on how to kill themselves. Higher concentrations of the substance, even in relatively small quantities, are deadly.
In 2023, police arrested Kenneth Law alleging that he had aided suicides by globally shipping over 1,200 potentially lethal sodium nitrate packages.Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press
The Globe conducted a survey of Canadian coroners’ databases and found that at least 60 suicide deaths in the past five years can be attributed to consumption of two toxic curing salts.
In a Dec. 22, 2023, memo to department officials, Health Canada’s senior communications adviser Sarah Hoelscher acknowledged that “coroners, medical advocates and families” have called on the federal government to “ban or restrict the sale of sodium nitrite in Canada.”
While that has not been done in this country, politicians in three U.S. states have introduced or passed laws restricting the sale of the chemical, and a bill currently before U.S. legislature would impose nationwide restrictions.
Known as the Youth Poisoning Protection Act, the federal U.S. legislation seeks to ban retail sales of the chemical at concentrations of 10-per-cent purity or higher. The bill passed a House of Representatives vote in May and now awaits consideration by the U.S. Senate. “There’s simply no reason it should be available to the public, particularly with its promotion on online suicide forums,” said sponsoring congresswoman Lori Trahan in a statement.
Judy Amabile, a state representative in Colorado, introduced a state version of that law that passed earlier this year. It allows for fines of up to US$1-million against vendors who sell the salt to people who have no legitimate use for it.
The Colorado law requires clear labels on packages and in online ads warning that the chemical causes “extreme pain or imminent death.” The statute notes other U.S. legislatures are contemplating similar laws in shared hopes that “restricting access to sodium nitrite will save lives, particularly among vulnerable and developing young adults.”
Colorado legislators were moved to pass the law after hearing testimony last January from David Ramirez, who explained how his 22-year-old daughter Noelle killed herself with a packet of the chemical that he alleges she bought online from Canada.
Similar bills were passed last year in California, where online sales of the substance to anyone under the age of 18 are banned and sales of high concentrations of the salt are prohibited. And last year, elected representatives in New York State introduced laws restricting it that have not passed yet.
In Britain, new rules announced by the British Home Office last October require vendors to relay information about suspicious transactions involving sodium nitrite to the government within 24 hours and turn over names, e-mail addresses and payment information. Britain also announced last fall it was launching a suicide surveillance tool as an early warning system about changes in suicide rates and methods.
Last month, British Mental Health Minister Maria Caulfield said her government is taking additional steps to stop the spread of the sodium nitrite. In a June 7 letter responding to a coroner’s inquiry involving a suicide death from chemical, she described the formation of U.K. working group involving police, academics, health and government officials who are collectively trying to restrict its trade.
Canada’s Mental Health Minister Ya’ara Saks declined an interview request, but her spokesperson Alexander Fernandes said the government is working with law enforcement to respond to the issue. Ms. Saks told The Globe last fall that the substance is not being considered for additional regulation.
Released records show that Health Canada prepared a Question Period briefing note for Liberal cabinet ministers in June, 2023, in case MPs raised questions about the substance in Parliament. The note said that such curing-salt chemicals had factored into “limited cases of self-harm/suicide” but that the government assessed that “when used as intended, they do not pose a risk to human health.”
If “pressed” on the issues related to the chemical as a suicide substance, the minister was advised to respond that “there is no health without mental health.” The briefing materials suggest he could then highlight billions of dollars in Liberal health investments, or the federal government’s then-imminent creation of a suicide hotline.
Ashtyn Prosser is one of the 14 people Kenneth Law is accused of killing.Dax Melmer/The Globe and Mail
The briefing note and the lack of action has angered the mother of one of the 14 people Mr. Law is accused of killing, who says it’s unrealistic for anyone to say that sodium nitrite is safe.
“That’s an absurd, absurd statement,” said Kim Prosser, of Windsor, Ont., whose 19-year-old son, Ashtyn, died after consuming the chemical. “How many more people is it going to take before something changes?”
No representative from the Liberal government contacted by The Globe, nor the Conservatives or New Democrats, agreed to an interview about whether the chemical needs to be more strictly regulated in this country.
Kenneth Law appears in court in Brampton, Ont., in an artist's sketch.Alexandra Newbould/The Canadian Press
Mr. Law, 58, was arrested on May, 2023, at his basement apartment in Mississauga. The former engineer and chef is charged with the first-degree murder of a group of Ontarians aged between 16 and 40, and he is also charged with counselling those same people to kill themselves. In an interview with The Globe a week before his arrest, Mr. Law maintained he had no control over what his clients did with the chemical.
The U.K.’s National Crime Agency is investigating allegations that Mr. Law sent from Canada packages to 272 people in that country, with 90 of those clients dying. No criminal charges have been laid in Britain.
Amrita Ahluwalia, a British scientist who is the dean of research at Queen Mary University of London, said although her main focus is to study the potential medical benefits of chemical compounds, her expertise is now routinely sought by coroners asking her to look at the availability of the salts.
“Those people that determine policy – we’re talking about governments – they need to wake up,” Dr. Ahluwalia said in an interview. “They need to get it under control. At the moment, clearly there’s a lot of deaths that are taking place on both sides of the Atlantic.”
A look into the lives of those who ingested sodium nitrite
Sodium nitrite, a chemical salt that is deadly in high concentrations, is currently unregulated in Canada. Here are the stories of individuals from our country, and abroad, who have ingested it – only one of whom survived.
Benjamin (Benji) Cohn.Courtesy of family
Benjamin (Benji) Cohn, 34, Des Plaines, Ill.
Died February, 2023
When he was happy, Benji Cohn had a chuckle that was contagious. “That’s the sound I hear in my head. He has a very unique giggle,” his brother Gerry Cohn remembers. “And unfortunately, I’m never going to get to hear it out loud again.”
The siblings were raised in the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines by a single mother who worked long days as a therapist to provide for them.
“She truly enjoys helping others,” says Gerry, who was three years older than his younger brother. When they were teenagers, his mom treated the family with the purchase of a red Pontiac Sunfire. Gerry drove it when he got his driver’s licence and he remembers 13-year-old Benji beaming in the passenger seat. For the brothers, then, the road ahead seemed full of adventure.
In high school, Benji got into wrestling and later Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but he wasn’t a tough guy. “He had the biggest heart,” says Mr. Cohn. He said his brother had a natural empathy – even for people he’d just met – but also struggled with criticism, which he often felt far too deeply.
Benji studied psychology at Northeastern Illinois university. In his 20s and 30s he also worked as an account manager for tech companies. He lived in Denver for a time, but he was uncomfortable in unfamiliar places. He eventually returned to Illinois where he wrestled with depression.
He died in 2023 in a rented a hotel room near his home after ingesting sodium nitrite that, based on invoice found on his phone, had been shipped to him from Canada.
Jeshennia Bedoya-Lopez.Courtesy of Bedoya-Lopez family/Courtesy of family
Jeshenia Bedoya-Lopez, 18, Aurora, Ont.
Died September, 2022
As the summer of 2022 approached, Jeshenia Bedoya- Lopez, then 17 years old, appeared to be on the cusp of a fulfilling adulthood.
The family had moved cities several times – including to Calgary and Toronto – since arriving in Canada as refugees from Colombia seven years prior. While Ms. Bedoya-Lopez’s parents worked nights doing cleaning and flooring jobs, she studied hard and graduated with good grades from high school in the Greater Toronto Area town of Aurora.
A fan of Japanese manga comics and emo pop star Billie Eilish, Ms. Bedoya-Lopez turned 18 that July and had joined a gym to improve her fitness as she began pursuing her dream of becoming a police officer.
Her father, Leonardo Bedoya, said she was inspired by his niece and nephews, who serve in the United States military.
“She was fine, she had no problems at all and a good vision of the future,” Mr. Bedoya said during an interview in Spanish with The Globe and Mail.
Ms. Bedoya-Lopez’s mother, Maria Lopez, said their only child was a jokester – and also her friend and confidante. Her daughter, she says, found the first waves of the pandemic isolating and arduous but the couple were shocked when she took her own life on Sept. 10, 2022, after consuming the toxic salt.
“I don’t know what happened because she actually looked fine,” Ms. Lopez said of the time leading up to her final day.
Another shock came when police knocked on their door months later and notified them that they believed Ms. Bedoya-Lopez bought a packet of the lethal chemical from a man in Mississauga named Kenneth Law. She is now one of the 14 Ontario residents he stands accused of murdering.
Emma Morrison, 23, only survived ingesting the toxic salt because her former partner discovered her losing consciousness and called the ambulance.Supplied
Emma Morrison, 24, Surrey, U.K.
Ingested in December, 2022, but survived
Emma Morrison was 17 when she first started researching online for ways to kill herself.
Now 24, she said back then she quickly found herself on a forum where anonymous users discussed various suicide methods, posted farewells and used private direct messages to refer others to sources for poisons.
It was at once depressing and reassuring, Ms. Morrison told The Globe.
“Knowing people were at that stage, a similar stage to me, was a nice thought – and having a place to openly talk about it is quite comforting when you’re at that low point,” she said in a phone interview from her home in Surrey, U.K.
Ms. Morrison lurked in the forum for a year before engaging in any of the discussions. She then got cold feet and deleted her profile on the site, determined to improve her mental health. She rejoined several months later and posted asking for a source for toxic salt, which she had read others inquiring about. She said she received a direct message referring her to an online business in Canada that marketed itself as a seller of commercial food products. But, the green logo of the business had the initials of the chemical substance highlighted in red, and the site peddled the salt in a concentration exponentially higher than is necessary for the meat industry.
She ordered a packet of the chemical in 2019, but her parents found it on their doorstep and threw it out. Ms. Morrison was then treated by her local mental-health crisis intervention team, which she said helped her develop methods to improve her mental health.
But by the end of 2022, when her mental health once again deteriorated, she rejoined the forum and was soon privately messaging with the same user who had referred her to the Canadian source in the past.
While living with her former partner in Dundee, Scotland, she said she ordered the salt again and ingested it. Within 15 minutes, she had a seizure and fell to the floor feeling dizzy, cold and weak. Her partner found her moments later and called an ambulance. Paramedics discovered the packet of poison and rushed her to a nearby hospital, where she was given methylene blue, an antidote that saved her life.
Ms. Morrison said she has since undergone more mental-health treatment, and with the help of family and friends, she recovered.
Since then, she’s heard about how other people around the world had died from the same poison she ordered, and she wants others with suicidal thoughts to know their mental health can improve if they seek support.
Ms. Morrison is now working as a veterinary care assistant with plans to become a veterinarian.
“It does get better,” she said.
Adam Birch.Supplied
Adam Birch, 28, Leek, U.K.
Died March, 2023
Adam Birch was only 14, but knew his mother was fibbing when she asked him if he could recommend an online dating site for a friend. The tech-savvy teen guessed she was actually the one interested in finding love after her relationship with his father ended, so he set her up on a site and began helping her vet potential partners.
He and his mom eventually found Sarah Dornford-May, who later became Mr. Birch’s stepmother. Ms. Dornford-May said Mr. Birch’s suicide in March of last year, at age 28, has shattered his mother.
The introverted online gamer, who twice tried university and dropped out, had been living with the pair in Cheshire, U.K., before moving out three years ago.
Living in a nearby town down the street from his father, he worked for a company making retro video games and spent considerable amounts of his free time reviewing games online, said Ms. Dornford-May.
Around the time he began living on his own in a home his mother and stepmother eventually planned to retire in, Mr. Birch began experiencing severe and unexplained tinnitus, a disorienting ringing in the ears that took a toll on his mental health. Doctors told the family his condition could get worse if he took the COVID-19 vaccine, so they began limiting their in-person visits to prevent him from getting COVID. The introverted young man became more isolated.
About a year before his death, he phoned his parents and told them he wanted to end his life, Ms. Dornford-May said. They rushed over and took him to the hospital, where he was provided support and treatment for his mental health and eventually discharged.
After that, his dad would swing by every day with his son’s prescription to ensure he took his daily dose, Ms. Dornford-May said. That seemed to be working, and his family was surprised by his death in March, 2023.
“They talked about anything and everything and that’s what Dawn finds hard: that he couldn’t talk to her about this,” Ms. Dornford-May says of her partner’s trouble processing her son’s death.
To help her partner, Ms. Dornford-May says wants to access support group for parents of those killed by the chemical, in hopes they can help each other heal.
Dan Tucker.Photo courtesy of family/Courtesy of family
Dan Tucker, 24, London, U.K.
Died April, 2022
Dan Tucker was an intelligent and gentle soul who revelled in his own company. As a child, he would don a Spider-Man costume and run around the park near his house. In his teens, he played guitar and drums, and posted videos of himself to YouTube.
“He had a strong moral compass,” says Clare Evans, a lawyer for the family in London, England. “He chose to become vegetarian as a teen due to his love of animals. And when he got his driving licence, he would never exceed the speed limit, always maintaining a steady 70 on the motorway.”
At the time of his death Mr. Tucker had been studying biology at the U.K.’s Open University, having overcome, with treatment, mental-health problems that were diagnosed in his late teens. His first institutional crisis care plans were developed by medical officials in 2018, or four years before he died.
In April, 2022, Mr. Tucker was placed in psychiatric care in a London hospital as he was diagnosed with emotionally unstable personality disorder. Medical reports noted that he had been struggling through multiple instances of self-harm including a suicide attempt.
He was detained for two weeks but a coroner’s report says hospital staff suddenly allowed him to leave – he was “physically (though not formally) discharged” – over the advice of a clinical psychologist who raised concerns he was not ready for release.
Mr. Tucker left the hospital around 6 p.m. that evening. By 9 p.m. a friend was calling an ambulance after discovering Mr. Tucker had consumed sodium nitrite he had stashed that March.
The ambulance did not arrive in time and Mr. Tucker died of a cardiac arrest. A coroner’s inquiry later castigated the medical officials who were entrusted with his care.
“The whole system failed him,” said Ms. Evans, the family lawyer. In an interview, she said the family found e-mailed receipts for the poison powder showing that it had been shipped to Britain from Canada.