If you have children or know someone who is unstable I suggest you read on:

He takes fatal OD
as Internet pals watch

Chatroom vultures egged him to pop more Rx pills

By HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU


Brandon Vedas

"I told u I was hardcore."

Those were the last coherent words Brandon Vedas, 21, typed into the computer in his Phoenix bedroom as he showed off for Internet pals watching on a Web cam by swallowing more and more prescription drugs.

Vedas died online as a crowd of virtual onlookers egged him to "eat more!" A chilling record of the Jan. 12 chat reads like an Internet version of the notorious 1964 Kew Gardens, Queens, stabbing of Kitty Genovese as her neighbors watched from their windows.

In Vedas' case, some did try to help — begging him to stop, to call 911, to get his mother from the next room. After he passed out, some tried frantically to figure out his location while others argued against getting involved.

But the technology that brought as many as a dozen chatters into the intimacy of Vedas' bedroom was unable to tell them where he was. Internet Relay Chat is anonymous, and no one in the drug users' chat group knew the last name of the young man who called himself Ripper.

Vedas was a casualty of a new epidemic: a surge in the recreational use of pharmaceuticals, even as the rate of illegal drug use holds steady or declines. The most recent survey by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration says 11.1 million people used prescription drugs for fun in 2000, nearly half of whom were under 25.

Continued:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/story/56497p-52905c.html

That's sad....

Well...I thought the first story was horrible...this one is even worse...what in the hell are people thinking...This one is about a support web site for planning your own suicide...

"Suicide 101: Lessons Before Dying
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,57444,00.html

Yes...I believe in freedom of the press...and freedom of speech...but for God's Sake...where do we draw the line...

I split some of this off and put it in the opinions section. No need to get debates going in here.... Find the debate listed as Suicide Solution in Opinions and Debates.

That's fine by me Shannon

So many desperate people -- where is the solution?.....