Following the tragic death of her son, a distraught mother has spoken out. The youngster was asking for a cheeseburger one moment, and then he was dead the next. The boy’s mother is using his story to warn others after discovering that her son’s tragic death was caused by a purchase he made on Snapchat.
Successful, loving families aren’t always protected from the drug overdose issue, as relationship specialist Dr. Laura Berman’s case demonstrates. Dr. Berman is a best-selling author who also hosts a show on the OWN Network and frequently appears on daytime talk shows like “TODAY” and “Good Morning America.” She’s also the host of “In the Bedroom with Dr. Laura Berman” on the Oprah Winfrey Network and the “Language of Love” podcast. Since then, she’s been in the news for another reason.
Now, after discovering her son Samuel dead on the floor of his room, she was left “shattered.” And after learning what took the boy’s life, the American relationship therapist is sharing the tragic story of their 16-year-old son’s death in an effort to help other parents avoid the same fate.
Remembering her son’s final moments before he went away, Dr. Berman remarked, “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.”
The family’s experience also shows how simple it is to fall for phony prescription medicines that are laced with fentanyl, an opioid that has recently caused an increase in overdose rates.
In February, Berman made an Instagram announcement about the accidental overdose death of her son Samuel, a 16-year-old, straight-A student who was getting ready for college, which she attributed to a drug dealer who had been in contact with him on Snapchat. The messaging app is well-liked by teenagers, but drug dealers hunting for young victims have also started to frequent it.
Berman turned to Snapchat to discuss the story. “My beautiful boy is gone. 16 years old. Sheltering at home,” She claimed that a drug dealer found him on Snapchat and gave him fentanyl-laced Xanax or Percocet.
“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,” she said. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, was added to Xanax, a prescription benzodiazepine used to alleviate anxiety.
Anyone with a smartphone, even minors, can readily access and buy fake prescription drugs because they are frequently sold on social media and e-commerce platforms.
Saying that Samuel’s death was the consequence of “experimentation gone badly” and that he couldn’t have realized the tablet was tainted. The grieving mother urged parents to remove their teenagers from Snapchat after learning that Samuel had discovered that he could purchase drugs on the social media platform.
“I post this now only so that not one more kid dies,” she wrote. “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.”
“Sammy was gone in what seemed like an instant,” she wrote.
“My heart is completely shattered and I am not sure how to keep breathing. We watched him so closely. Please watch your kids and WATCH SNAPCHAT especially. That’s how they get them.” The grieving mother added.
“When they see our son and can relate to him and see what happened to him, maybe it will sink in,” Berman said. “If it helps one kid, it’s worth it.”
In a statement, a Snapchat spokesperson said, “Our deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of Samuel Berman Chapman and we are heartbroken by his passing.”
“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.
Noting that it is against the company’s community standards to use the program for “illegal reasons,” Snap added, “We are constantly improving our technological capabilities to detect drug-related activity so that we can intervene proactively. We have no higher priority than keeping Snapchat a safe environment and we will continue to invest in protecting our community.”
Watch the video report below for more details:
Sources: Taphaps, cheatsheet, honey