One hour after this child pumps himself full of drugs they start thinking about calling for help. And then they tell him not to call cause the child can get arrested? I can´t believe it!

Even if he did contemplate suicide I find this horrible, stupid and senseless. But according to the log he did call a "friend" and said "he will report this".

Well, <font color=deeppink>Willow,</font> he was of age. But, you are correct, he was acting childishly. Interestingly, they seemed to think it would be worse to serve a short jail term than to possibly die. It's no great stretch to imagine they were, er, impaired a bit themselves.

Yes he was of age, but pulling this stunt on a webcam in front of who knows how old people isn´t mature in my book. I hope the parents don´t see that chat log. :(

<font color=skyblue>A friend of mine sent me the following e-mail.

Definite darwin award contender. We're better off without him. I honestly think a moron who takes enough drugs to numb a Hiyena, and then, deciding that wasn't enough, decided to go even further, and kill himself, deserved what he got. I have more sympathy for people who actually had a bad life.

Did you read any of this thread at all?
This guy had an addiction problem, plain and simple, and needed help. Unfortunately either his family and friends didn't know he had a problem, or just didn't care. After the first dose, he probably lost all common sense and rational thinking when the drugs took control and had no idea what he was doing. To say he deserved what he got, is a childish point of view, showing no understanding about the problems of addiction.
I was addicted to perscription medication quite some time back now, not to this extent mind you, but I know what it's like to be addicted. I was lucky enough to have some people who loved me, pull me out of it.
Perhaps the one good thing in all of this is those that sat and watched may re-evaluate their lives and choose to say "NO."
Oblivion437, this is why he died. Not because he took a lethal overdose, but because he didn't have enough people that cared about him to recognize the addiction and get him the help he required. I've said it once, and I'll say it again:

Addiction, of any kind, is an illness and needs to be treated as such. To say that he "deserved what he got" because he had an illness ensures that this type of thing will continue to happen.

Absolutely horrible.

Actually it's deeper than addiction. He died because he no longer wanted to live. He may not have wanted to die, but he no longer wanted to live. He was escaping. He spent his life trying to escape it. He finaly did.

It is unfortunate that his life ended before he found new will for it, but I don't mourn his death. He got what he wanted. I do feel sorry for his parents, for they have to deal with the issues that he left behind. People who want to live assume that everyone must feel that way and that "life" is sacred. Some don't want to live, and others take that further by wanting to die. There is only one guarantee to life and that is death. It's just the living don't deal to well with that.

I wanted to say more, but I'm not sure what .... maybe I'll think of it later ....

Reading that transcript was horrible. Ack in some ways I wish I hadn't read that. I read the story about what happened, but it is different when you read the actual transcript. :(

I think I read the thing and saw it in a different perspective than others, and my perspective could be wrong, any of ours can, as we never knew Ripper-Brandon. I saw a guy who didn't care about himself or his life, a guy who was depressed and suffering and lonely. I think his "showing off" when he first took those pills was in his own way a cry for attention and help. I think he knew if he posted "I am going to kill myself" he would get a bunch of "■■■■■! Poosy!" etc. etc. type responses. So instead he played it "cool" and calm but still showed what he was doing, even used a webcam so everyone could see him sucking down those pills. He had to know at his age (21) that he was taking a deadly dose. I think if someone had really cared and tried to call him and talk to him, it might have made a difference, but of course that is a big "might." Unfortunately the only guy he got to talk to on the phone was Smoke2K, who knows what that idiot said to him. It DID seem that in the end he actually stopped joking around and was really concerned, I don't blame him, I think he had no idea how serious things were, who knows how old Smoke2K is as well. I really hope that Smoke2K was affected in a big way by what happened to Ripper, and he will think twice next time *he* tries to get high on pills, at least then something good came out of the whole thing.

One thing I also want to say, is people who do drugs are not necessarily bad people, and certainly do not "deserve to die." Most people who get into drugs are trying to just feel happy in a world that they are unhappy in, they just don't realize the consequences and dangers that drugs in the end will give them. Just because some of you haven't done any drugs before doesn't make you a better person than those that have (and I'm not saying anyone said that btw). I've known some incredible people who had weaknesses, whether it be gamblng, drugs, or booze, heck even the Internet has its own addictive qualities. None of us are perfect. We shouldn't condemn and hate people addicted to drugs, we should care, and try to help them get out of it.

Don't darwin awards have to be creative?