PRODUCT LIABILITY RELATED INJURY

Parents file wrongful death suit against producers and suppliers of Salvia Divinorum

Product Liability > Litigation

September 18, 2007

Wilmington, DE - According to court documents, the parents of a Salesianum School senior who killed himself last year have sued the companies that sold him salvia divinorum, a hallucinogenic herb that he said in his suicide note and other writings had convinced him that life was pointless.

Gary Nitsche, attorney for Dennis Chidester, of Newark, and Kathy Chidester, of Wilmington, filed the wrongful death lawsuit, on their behalf, in Delaware Superior Court on Thursday, August 2.

The lawsuit has been filed against F. Pratt, a resident of British Columbia, Canada, Herbalife International and Ethnosupply, of British Columbia and Herbalife Stores and Herbalife & Essence, businesses in Culver City, California.

In the suit Dennis Chidester and Kathy Chidester claim that the distributors knew salvia could be dangerous and failed to warn the Chidesters' son, Brett Chidester, 17-year-old, when he purchased a package of salvia over the Internet in August 2005. Many Internet sites market salvia divinorum as a legal high and do not restrict sales to minors.

Brett Chidester smoked the herb several times over the next several months. He killed himself in January 2006 by lighting a charcoal grill inside a tent pitched in his father's garage.

The Delaware Medical Examiner's Office ruled he died of carbon monoxide poisoning, then added "Salvia Divinorum use" as a contributing factor.

Dennis Chidester and Kathy Chidester who are divorced seek unspecified damages for pain and suffering, medical and funeral expenses, and lost future earnings, as well as punitive damages.

The General Assembly of Delaware passed "Brett's Law," in April, 2006 and thus, banned Salvia Divinorum, putting it in the same category as heroin and LSD. Two other states in the nation already outlawed it.

 
 
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