Suicide kit blamed on 100 deaths
Canada’s police are holding a man suspected of selling the substance to suicidal people.
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Daily TribuneCanada’s police are holding a man suspected of selling the substance to suicidal people.
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At least 100 people have allegedly died from using a substance for assisting people with suicide that was sold by a Canadian man online, according to police in Canada.
The seller — Kenneth Law — has been accused of sending as many as 1,200 packages across dozens of countries since 2020.
Authorities suspect the 58-year-old Law, formerly a cook at a Toronto hotel, marketed the substance — which can also be used as a food additive — to vulnerable people online.
Fourteen victims aged between 16 and 36 in Canada used kits they purchased from Law to end their lives, according to police.
Arrested in May, Law is facing multiple charges of "counseling or aiding suicide" as a sprawling international investigation of the cases unfolds.
Law, who has been in custody since his arrest, intends to plead not guilty, his lawyer Matthew Gourlay said.
"This is certainly the first of its kind prosecution," he told Agence France-Presse, adding that his client was being prosecuted for selling a product that "until recently was available on amazon.com. So we find that to be troubling."
"I'm selling a legal product, okay," Law told the Globe and Mail newspaper shortly before his arrest.
"And what the person does with it? I have no control."
