Peel Police in Ontario, Canada are investigating a website run by a man named Kenneth Law, who sold a lethal substance known as sodium nitrite. David Parfett, the father of a British man who died by suicide after taking the substance, discovered the website during his search for information about his son’s death. Tom Parfett was a 22-year-old philosophy student who had struggled with mental health. The salt compound, which is commonly used to cure meats, can be lethal when ingested in high concentrations. Several deaths in the UK have been linked to Law’s website, which reportedly sold the substance directly to young, at-risk individuals.
In October 2022, a British coroner’s report following the suicide of Neha Raju in Surrey, England named the website as the source of the substance used by the deceased. Despite contacting the seller of the substance, British police found no evidence that the items on the website were being advertised or knowingly sold for the purposes of suicide.
Health Canada does not regulate the sale of sodium nitrite, and some online retailers, including Amazon, have taken steps to make it harder for individuals to buy highly concentrated sodium nitrite. The federal agency has become aware of increased use of toxic salts for self-harm and has issued antidote guidance to hospitals. Federal law lists counselling or aiding suicide as a crime that carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
David Parfett is calling for changes to legislation in both Britain and Canada to prevent poison from falling into the hands of vulnerable people. He believes that the online sale of the substance makes it too easy for people to take their own lives without any medical governance. Meanwhile, toxicology experts warn that sodium nitrite is a lethal substance, and the medical director of the Ontario Poison Centre notes that it causes blood pressure to plummet, but an antidote can be administered if the patient is brought to a hospital quickly enough.