OWN tv host, relationship therapist, and best-selling author, Dr. Laura Berman, is living a parent’s worst nightmare. She is opening up about the tragic news of her 16-year-old son.
Tragically, Dr. Berman, the sex therapist who came to fame on Oprah’s afternoon talk show confirmed that her son Samuel has died of a drug overdose from laced pills he got via Snapchat. The loss of a child is one of the worst pains imaginable, and our hearts go out to Dr. Berman and her family.
Here’s what Dr. Berman said, recalling her son’s final moments before he passed away on a Sunday:
“He asked his dad for a cheeseburger, an hour later, I went into his room because we’d been talking about an internship for the summer that he wanted to do, and he was on the floor, gone.”
Samuel is a straight-A student who was “getting ready for college,” and had overdosed — and how he got the drugs that killed him is what Berman desperately wants others to know. After explaining that a drug dealer connected with Samuel on Snapchat, Dr. Berman said that her son had “drugs delivered to the house.” What he thought was just a Xanax pill, however, was something so much worse.
With this, Dr. Berman is issuing a warning to parents of adolescents about the alarming and growing rate of opioid-related deaths in America, just days after she discovered her teenage son died of an apparent overdose.
In an Instagram post, she wrote:
“My beautiful boy is gone. 16 years old. Sheltering at home. A drug dealer connected with him on Snapchat and gave him fentanyl laced Xanax and he overdosed in his room. They do this because it hooks people even more and is good for business but It causes overdose and the kids don’t know what they are taking. My heart is completely shattered and I am not sure how to keep breathing. I post this now only so that not one more kid dies. We watched him so closely. Straight A student. Getting ready for college. Experimentation gone bad. He got the drugs delivered to the house. Please watch your kids and WATCH SNAPCHAT especially. That’s how they get them.”
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Fentanyl is a “powerful synthetic opioid analgesic that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times stronger.” Fentanyl is typically prescribed to patients post-surgery, who suffer from chronic pain, or those whose bodies don’t respond to a lesser form of prescription pain meds.
As per Medlineplus.gov, “Fentanyl may cause serious harm or death if used accidentally by a child or by an adult who has not been prescribed the medication. Even partially used fentanyl may contain enough medication to cause serious harm or death to children or other adults.”
A Snapchat spokesperson said in a statement, according to Page Six, the social media platform would work with law enforcement to look into Samuel’s case and denounce illegal activities on its platform.
“Our deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of Samuel Berman Chapman and we are heartbroken by his passing,” the Snap spokesperson told the outlet in a statement. “We are committed to working together with law enforcement in this case and in all instances where Snapchat is used for illegal purposes. We have zero tolerance for using Snapchat to buy or sell illegal drugs,” the statement continued.
“We are constantly improving our technological capabilities to detect drug-related activity so that we can intervene proactively,” Snap continued, noting that using the app for “illegal purposes” goes against the company’s community guidelines. “We have no higher priority than keeping Snapchat a safe environment and we will continue to invest in protecting our community.”
Samuel’s story is just one example that parents can’t rely on these big tech giants to keep their kids safe. We should monitor their online activities as much as possible to have this kind of accident prevented.
Watch it here: CBS Morning/Youtube
Sources: Taphaps, Page Six, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Medlineplus.gov
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