Death of Brandon Vedas
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Brandon Carl Vedas (April 21, 1981 – January 12, 2003), also known by his nickname ripper on IRC, was an American computer enthusiast, recreational drug user and member of the Shroomery.org community who died of a multiple drug overdose while discussing what he was doing via chat and webcam. His death led to debate about the responsibilities and roles of online communities in life-threatening situations.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="nyd">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Overview
[edit]The video chat session began when Vedas logged into the IRC channel and announced "i got a grip of drugs", inviting other users to access his webcam feed and watch him take them.<ref name="nyd"/> While some of the substances were illicit, most of them had apparently been obtained through legitimate prescriptions for treatment of various illnesses from which Vedas was said to have suffered.<ref name="nyd"/>
Vedas then began consuming psilocybe mushrooms, which had been stored in a prescription medication bottle. As the chat session progressed, one of the users in the channel, grphish, noted "that's a lot of klonopin"<ref name="nyd"/> and this is thought to be when Vedas consumed 8 mg of clonazepam.Template:Citation needed Vedas continued by showing the webcam viewers what would be one of four bottles of methadone that he would consume over the course of the session, and, after noting this on the channel, proceeded to consume an entire bottle (reportedly 80 mg of methadone<ref name="nyd"/>). After a brief respite, Vedas then consumed 110 mg of propranolol (Inderal), two Vicodin tablets, and 120 mg temazepam, which seem to have been taken in between descriptions given on the IRC channel.Template:Citation needed
During this process, Vedas maintained that this was "usual weekend behavior" for him and that he had consumed similar quantities of the same substances on previous occasions.<ref name="nyd"/> "I told u I was hardcore" was one of the last things Vedas typed,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and he was found dead by his mother the next day.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>