Hunting the Suicide Salesman

Journalists and police search for a retailer who’s been selling a powerful poison to those on an online forum looking to end their lives.

Relatives of those who died by suicide discovered their loved ones had been active in online forums for those looking for ways to end their lives. They were directed to a retailer selling fatal quantities of sodium nitrite to people in crisis in more than 40 countries. Police and journalists hunted down Kenneth Law, who admitted to selling to hundreds of people worldwide. But authorities wanted to know whether Law was just providing a lethal product — or whether he was actively pushing people in crisis to take it.

The CBC podcast “Hunting the Suicide Salesman” recounts the effort to stop Law and shutdown the business of selling sodium nitrite. Host Daemon Fairless goes beyond the criminal investigation and takes an unusually frank and intimate examination of the issue of suicide — including causes, prevention efforts, and the hidden online world for those considering ending their lives.  

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "HUNTING THE SUICIDE SALESMAN" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.