Washington restricts lethal chemical previously sold on Amazon
OLYMPIA – When a package from Amazon arrived at her Clark County home in November 2020, Michelle Vasquez-Stickley assumed it was art supplies for her 15-year-old son. She left it on his bed for him.
The package instead contained sodium nitrite, a powder that can serve as a poison antidote and, used at low levels of purity, as a meat preservative. But at high concentrations, it can be lethal.
Vasquez-Stickley’s son, Tyler Schmidt, used 99.6% pure sodium nitrite to die by suicide weeks after the delivery.
“As parents, we do everything we can to protect our children, but how could I protect Tyler from something I didn’t even know was a danger?” Vasquez-Stickley asked lawmakers in January. “The reality is, my child couldn’t walk into a pharmacy and purchase allergy medication without restrictions, yet he could buy a lethal substance online with no age verifications or warnings about dangers.”
Schmidt is one of dozens who died by this method across the country. After many warnings, Amazon stopped selling the high-purity products in late 2022, while denying wrongdoing.
In hopes of making that restriction permanent, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson on Monday signed Tyler’s Law, a prohibition on the sale of sodium nitrite at concentrations greater than 10%. The law has exceptions for businesses that use the product.
Washington is now the fourth state to place limits on the substance, joining California, Colorado and New York.
“Tyler’s law ensures no other Washingtonian can order the deadly poison online and have it shipped to their home,” Ferguson said.
Sellers now have to label their sodium nitrite products, “WARNING DANGER: Deadly if ingested. If ingested, seek immediate medical attention for intravenous administration of methylene blue. Ingestion of sodium nitrite, even in small quantities, causes severe methemoglobinemia, extreme pain, and imminent death. Keep out of reach of children.”
Violators of the new requirements face a $10,000 fine for their first transgression, rising to $1 million for subsequent violations. The attorney general or private citizens can bring litigation to enforce the law.
House Bill 1209 passed both chambers with bipartisan support. The law takes effect immediately.
Vasquez-Stickley and Schmidt’s family were on hand as Ferguson signed the bill Monday.
“This is the kind of thing that makes a difference,” Ferguson told them. “And so I just so appreciate you having the courage to come together, to work with legislators, to work with their advocates, to bring this to public attention.”
A similar measure has seen progress at the federal level, with legislation to ban the chemical’s sale at high concentrations passing the U.S. House of Representatives before stalling in the Senate last year.
Meanwhile, the state Supreme Court recently agreed to hear one of the several cases against Amazon from families of loved ones who died after ingesting sodium nitrite.
An appeals court last year had dismissed that consolidated case, over four deaths from sodium nitrite purchased from the Seattle e-commerce giant. The judges ruled the company couldn’t be held liable for intentional misuse of its products.
Many other lawsuits against Amazon over this issue are also ongoing.
After Tyler’s Law passed the House, Vasquez-Stickley told KING 5 she hoped the bill would save lives “and prevent other families from experiencing the profound loss we have endured.”