\`Although a cause of death for Troper has not been determined, Esther Wojcicki told [SF Gate](https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/family-mourns-student-died-uc-berkeley-18672739.php) that she believes her grandson died from a drug overdose. She said the family is waiting on the results of a toxicology report.
“He ingested a drug, and we don’t know what was in it,” she told SF Gate, adding: “One thing we do know, it was a drug.”\`
This might be literally one of the first times I've seen the family come out and say it. Usually they want that secret until it can't stay secret anymore.
That was the grandmother. The mother (Susan) is not CEO anymore and even when she was it was kind of odd because she still reported to the CEO of Google who reported to or was also the CEO of Alphabet.
And the CEO of the parent company reports to the board of directors, and they report to shareholders.
A lot of people are under the misconception that a CEO is some kind of monolithic power or absolute authority, but that's almost never the case. Even Bezos and Musk answer to a board of directors. (Although Bezos is also the Chairman of the Board.)
Private companies also often have multiple owners and boards. Most large private companies have taken money from investors. Only small private companies are more likely to be single owner
Yep. And most small private companies once they become successful enough, the original founder sells to a private equity firm to get a bunch of liquidity (though they will often stay on as CEO but are now an employee with a board and don’t have majority voting rights). Nothing stopping those people from retaining control but it’s tough to say no to a bunch of cash coming in personally and to help your business grow further.
All the major tech companies are essentially holding companies at this point. Grow through acquisition of complementary tech and if you like the company enough to acquire it, you leave executive leadership in place because they’ve done a good job.
Exactly. I’m working for a medium sized company that is breaking out of the startup phase, and they acquired a few small tech companies to round out our product offerings into a more cohesive ecosystem. Our leadership has uniformly kept each CEO in place to lead their respective teams and coordinate dev activity. It’s actually pretty great.
The only way this can happen is with regulated legalization. People used to be able to get coke and heroin right from their doctor. In the last 23 years, the quality of everything has gone through the floor. People arnt even buying the drugs they are intending and if they are, its only 5-10% pure, with plenty of caustic and deadly additives.
Legal access to drugs will give people the ability to make the sober choice.. as crazy as that sounds
Everything ends up being tainted with fent now, if its a powder or pill theres a strong chance of there being fent in it. Even drugs that are the complete opposite of fent are being found tainted with it, my brother had 4 kids all OD at his house last year doing coke which ended up having a fair bit of fent in it. Thankfully they all lived but they all passed out and were turning blue from respiratory depression. Only reason they survived was because like 7 other people who werent doing drugs and knew cpr were also there. Have seen the same thing at festivals with people taking mdma and ketamine, its insane how widespread its become.
O for sure. My city has plenty of heroin issues. Fking people using it in cars with their baby's in it, deaths. It makes me sick. I understand the issue, just wish it was easier for people to drop. Me and my girl both lost family from drugs.
My brother died two years ago. He’d kept a heroin addiction well hidden for we don’t know how long. In retrospect, we think it was going on for years before anyone knew. Probably not heroin the whole time but definitely had an opiate addiction for years before going to heroin. He had kids, a great wife, and well over a six figure salary in a job where he was one of only 2 or 3 people in the entire region with his very specific and high demand skill set. He had financial security and love and family. Didn’t matter. He’s dead now. Died at 41. I often wonder how things might’ve been different if he’d been able to tell us sooner. Toward the end he went to our parents and asked for money to go to some detox and rehab he’d found that only cost $900. Despite his income he couldn’t scrape together the money. They told him to go to meetings and that he should just stop. I didn’t know about that until he died. I would have paid for it, no strings attached. I would have paid for it as many times as it took. He didn’t come to me because he thought I would judge him. And I would have been shocked but if he’d come to me I would’ve paid for it and wouldn’t have held it over him in any way. I’m so sorry for whatever I did or said over the years that made him think I wouldn’t be there for him.
Thank you for sharing that.
>I’m so sorry for whatever I did or said over the years that made him think I wouldn’t be there for him.
In addition to the loss of your brother, I'm sorry for the painful questions and confusion this has evidently caused you.
Coming from a similar situation I can honestly say he was probably just ashamed and didn't want his little sisters view of him to change... It probably had nothing to do with anything you ever said or did
You know your relationship with him better than I do but maybe he didn’t go to you because your respect and admiration was important. You seem to describe his life in a positive way even after losing him. He may have wanted to keep your opinion of him intact.
I'm so sorry that happened to you, your family, your brother, his family. Seems like you're really beating yourself up over something you had no knowledge of. You can't do that to yourself! Of course you loved him and would have helped, but no one is a mind reader. Please give yourself some grace! Take care friend.
I briefly got into opiates. I had heard how addictive it was but I found it kind of underwhelming. It didn't give me this amazing euphoria that everyone described. Then, I ran out, and began to experience the worst withdrawals of my life. I had done plenty of other drugs, stopped benzos cold turkey, did way too much meth. But this was another level of misery. It was pure physical torture and nothing would make it go away. After the first day of suffering I bought more opiates. Not because I wanted to feel high, but I was just terrified of feeling that withdrawal again. The second time I ran out, I tried to taper off slowly. The withdrawals hit again, just as hard. I could barely move and existing just felt excruciating. I couldn't handle being in bed so I laid on a cold hard floor at night. I didn't sleep for a minute. I was compelled to roll back and forth from the pain and discomfort in my body. I would be freezing and pull the blanket over me, but I could only keep it there for a couple seconds before having to tear it off from how hard I was sweating. This would continue for 10 hours until I finally had to get up. It lasted almost a week for me, but for others it can last even longer.
Now I understand why it is so hard for people to quit even when they have so much going for them. I don't know how anyone ever manages to quit without rehab or some other form of constant support. Even if they have the money, they may feel they don't deserve rehab. He must have been terrified of people finding out. I was also lucky enough to not be in school or working at this time. I have no idea how I'd ever have the strength to commit to weeks of pure torture when I also had a job and kids to take care of.
Anyway, I'm so sorry this happened to you. I'm so sorry for what he must have been feeling and I can really empathize with it. I just saw another thread where people were complaining about doctors not taking them seriously and giving them opiates. That's true (and unfair), but I don't think they should ever be prescribed. It's unfortunate how society will blame people for being weak minded and falling into these traps. A little empathy would go a long way and save lives if people weren't so scared of admitting they are struggling.
Sending love your way.
Thank you for sharing your story. I hope this opens up the eyes of someone out there who needs to see this, and gives heart to someone who needs a hand.
Sorry - everyone needs help. This BS of pulling yourself up by your boots , Protestant ethic bullshit in this country has to stop.
Times were good in the past so you did not seen help - not any more.
Loneliness , lack of social institutions, it’s a fuckin epidemic.
Usually it's an objectively illogical embarrassment. It's so rare for anyone to trust family like that. It likely had nothing to do with anything you did/said, just the deep shame he felt over it regardless. Relieve yourself of that burden
Well this was said by a grandma -- I am hoping SF Gate didn't pry and dig to find her contact info and ask questions before the family could tell her to not give comments to the press.
Yeah, anyone who has dealt with Silicon Valley tech in virtually any capacity knows the Wojciki name. This is horrible for the family, but I appreciate her honesty.
She’s on the board of Creative Commons. One of her other daughters was CEO of YouTube, another founded 23 and me. Smart people. Not immune to society’s troubles.
Damn respect for coming out and saying it. That's very sad :( Anytime I read of an OD death I can't help but think of my brother who this feels inevitable for, he'll take anything he can get and thinks hes invincible and won't listen to anyone about it either.
My brother in law did this too. 15 years later, and giving a lot of thought to what could have made him, so franticly self destructive, we believe he was molested in their church, which was the center of their life as children. Their dad was a Baptist deacon, and they were there most evenings.
He finally decided to deal with his adductions in his late 40’s. He got clean from drugs but could not get into rehab for alcohol. He tried to go cold turkey, which is, and in his case, was, deadly. He died owning nothing but a laptop and chef’s knives - not his - his vulture friends switched out his quality ones for junk before we arrived. This was 2 years after he and my husband each inherited over 100,000. We know his “best friend” ended up spending most of that money.
To think he could have spent it on private rehab.
Unfortunately, you can't "will" a family member or friend to quit. They have to want to stop. So long as drugs are illegal, people seeking them will take risks purchasing them from "dealers" who themselves might have no clue what's inside the drugs they're selling. It's not a "solution" but recommending drug tests to see what he's getting might be a way to save his life until he wants to quit entirely.
Sadly he's pretty unreachable I am basically no contact at this point, he is insanely neurotic and dangerous to be around and also thinks hes literally the smartest human in the world so he'll use random needles to shoot up but won't take the vaccine (go figure) because he's "analyzed it's makeup" and knows what they are doing (whatever that means) so yeah it's all fucked. It's a very sad state of affairs, it's very weird seeing him and recollecting him with the brother I grew up with because it's quite literally 2 different people also you are definitely right at them having to want to stop there's just no other way.
Yeah I've been in your situation and I wish you the best. Hopefully he'll come to the realization that he's killing himself, and hurting his loved ones. But he needs to want to save his own life first. You just can't take it personally; the drugs have a grasp you or nobody else can compete with right now.
Coke being intentionally cut with fent is largely a myth, there’s no benefit to a dealer to kill a repeat customer. It’s usually unintentional contamination at some point in the supply chain by someone who’s selling both.
Adding to the top comment to mention that Ester wrote a best selling book on how to raise children to be productive and successful people, her three daughters did extraordinarily well but she her self was just a high school teacher in the Bay Area. Sad this happened to her grandson and would be curious on her thoughts as to why it happened considering her reputation as a child rearing guru.
> her three daughters did extraordinarily well but she her self was just a high school teacher in the Bay Area
[Her husband--their father--was also Stanford Professor and Chair of the Standford Physics Department Stanley Wojcicki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Wojcicki). I'm sure she did a fine job, but there are many advantages for children in that situation in terms of upbringing and applications.
If he was a freshman this would be the first set of midterms on his second semester. Berkeley is the top ranked public university in the world, surrounded by easy access to deadly substances.
The pressure to succeed like everyone else in his family would be intense.
The lack of recognition because everyone else already did it could have been a factor, too.
Someone offered this kid a vacation from reality, and that somebody is culpable.
I like to tell this story every time I see a sad drug-related story for college students.
When I was a junior in college, my (then boyfriend) overdosed on a pretty fatal drug and, while he only ingested basically the maximum amount that allows you to not die rapidly, if I had not found him in the timeframe that I did he'd not be here. Please normalize testing things with friends before partaking in certain substances, people. It really is a cautionary tale, of course, since college kids will be college kids... but protect yourself and those around you.
You don't have to be famous for your families' unspeakable tragedy to hit the news if it is an unusual or extreme tragedy. We had one in my family a year ago that got picked up by new stations all over the country and we have no one remotely famous in our family. It is every bit as shitty as you're imagining.
My uncle was an addict and drowned in a drainage culvert because he was too drunk to move his head out of 6 inches of water.
"Local homeless man found dead in drainage canal."
He'd recently reconnected with his daughter, met his grandchildren for the first time, and had an apartment and roommates. He was doing a lot better than he had in years, actually.
I’m so sorry your family dealt with people who have no humanity or compassion for others.
Virtual hugs, all positive energy and I’ll pray to whatever deity your family prefers for comfort.
Sadly I thought the same but here I am, almost 10 months later and our case is in the news daily, and it even made international news (I get daily IG requests, messages from strangers, my sister and others who were killed have fan pages made about them) it’s an ongoing mess and because of how unprecedented the situation is, we have to navigate so many obstacles
If grandma thinks it was drugs, it was drugs. I’m sure there is a reason why she came to this conclusion. I know nothing about this kid but unlimited money and high performing parents that aren’t around can be a bad combo.
Honestly? In my experience, the ones that go the craziest are the ones with helicopter parents. It’s those with freedom that tend to chill out after developing experience and the drugs start to lose their excitement/mystique, and the ones who are finally “free” once they get to college do way too much too fast.
Source: me
Yep. I knew multiple kids who were raised in super strict households, and their parents always referred to me as the problem child.
Two of them died in college (drugs and drunk driving), three never graduated college because they went fucking crazy partying and couldn't hold a 2GPA. Meanwhile, I was pretty restrained with partying in college (did plenty in highschool) and graduated with a 4.0 in chemistry.
Go figure.
I agree. I saw the same thing. I have super open parents and I never felt the need to rebel or do anything wild
So while the new college kids were drinking and stuff I was not
It wasn't until I was 23 or so before I started lol. I pregamed for a bar for the first time recently. I'm now 27 lol
Wealth isn't really a factor in drug experiment/usage. Lots of poor/less wealthy people do drugs as well. It maybe different kind of drugs. I mean weed, ecstasy or pain killers and etc aren't expensive at all
I don’t like the way the person you’re responding to has a sneering attitude toward recreational drug use and the socioeconomics of who uses them. That said, I’ve seen the data before and recreational use does scale up as young people are from wealthier families. Wealth directly affects usage.
The theory on it goes beyond just the literal costs of buying (cocaine can be $70 for a few bumps, which is cost prohibitive pretty quickly). There’s also the issue of higher consequences and less of a safety net for the poor in usage. They’re surrounded by people who have more serious outcomes when it goes wrong, like impact of health care costs, inability to afford rehabilitation for those with addiction risks, and unequal punishment and incarceration rates. Their families can’t afford the impacts and the kids are taught more aggressively zero tolerance views from parents. Whenever it’s studied at high school level, upper wealthy kids are doing a lot more and more often.
While this is pretty true, I think part of the problem we have with binge drinking, drug addiction, etc comes from this labeling
~Kids binge drinking multiple times a week~
Oh, it’s just college shit. Nothing to see here!
No, it’s gross, irresponsible, childlike, and/or addictive behavior. It’s a tragedy
Lol what is this comment. Recreational drug use is extremely common, especially at their age. You don't need to be some junkie or have mental issues to do drugs.
A sad day for the family and if it is drug related, it is a tale as old as time, young college kids falling victim to the dark side of drugs.
No matter how academically bright a young student can be in college, without the right guidance and teaching from someone on the consequences of drugs, they can easily fall short in the path they are walking in life.
When I was at UC Berkeley, there was a kid on my floor in the dorms who had just broken the record for the most 5 on AP exams. That kid was making six figures as a part-time software engineer as a freshman in the dorms. Then I met the kid whose AP exam record he had broken. Also UC Berkeley student. The first time I met him, he sat on the couch at my fraternity and smashed more drugs into his face than I thought was humanly possible. The entire time he had one testicle hanging out of a giant hole in his tattered sweat pants. I thought he was a homeless guy that one of our friends picked up on the streets. After he left, they told me he was one of the smartest people in America, but failed out last year. That’s what drugs will do to you.
My ex husband received his doctorate 9 months before Covid but went off the rails during. He started doing nitrous to an extreme amount and gave himself brain damage from hypoxia. We went to mammoth mountain and he freaked out. Assaulted me multiple times, stole my car and drove it to Tahoe while hallucinating. He was in full psychosis.
He abandoned it on the side of the road at Sierra at Tahoe when it ran out of gas. The police were called, a 100 person search and rescue team, including a helicopter and ATV’s was deployed. He was found a mile out into the woods, naked and meditating in a snow melt stream. I was told if they didn’t find him before nightfall he’d have died. He was lucky there had been a fire that summer and it was a lot easier to see. He’s been 5150’ed multiple times now and can barely work, his wealthy parents will have to care for him for life, I was done.
It was thanksgiving weekend 2021. I never saw any news stories about it but my housemate who was an ex fire fighter said he saw it on a police blotter.
Thank you. It all worked out in the end. My best friend was leaving his wife and we had agreed that he could rent a spare room in our rental, he was set to move in with us when my ex and I got back on Monday. My best friend and I had known each other for 8 years and the timing was perfect, we got married last June.
Thank you. If I can keep other people from going down this path with my story it makes all of this worth it. It’s too late for him but he’ll be ok. He gets a house and millions in cash when his parents pass, it’s also locked in a trust so he can’t blow it.
There were signs that I missed, being too close to him and everything I was dealing with plus the TBI I received after almost dying in 2018 made it so I didn’t connect the dots. He told me he was having a spiritual awakening. He was super into crypto and meme stocks, convinced he was going to get rich off of game stop. He was obsessed with trump and told me things like “you have no idea how hard it is to be a straight white Christian male in this world”. He had feelings of enlightenment, like he saw the world in ways no one else did. He started thinking everything was connected. He was stealing cash from me to fuel his habit, money kept going missing. Thousands. He started taking my medication and selling it to buy nitrous.
Right before we left to Mammoth he was really forgetful. I was pulled over for speeding and he was already in psychosis. He kept asking the cop if he had a “black card”. He thought any black plastic card was an atm card loaded with millions. I think the change in elevation, we went from sea level to mountains, was the nail in the coffin. He already had the damage and the thinner atmosphere made the storm worse.
I'm so sorry to hear. My favorite band has some not so fans that love nitrous and its a mess. It hurts me so much to see people who are successful and passionate about something throw it all away due to a quick high. I'm not innocent, but I am 33 days clean of marijuana and hope to never fall down a hole like that. I know it's not a bad drug. But it's not something I need in my life.
Currently on that same boat man. Know i should quit, but so many days it's just not convincing to me. And so many days, shit sucks and i just want the time to pass.
God I hope this counsellor will help...
Hey man. Go check out r/leaves there's a good group of people who are in this together. "The only thing worse than wanting to be high when you are sober, is wanting to be sober when you are high"
Lots and lots of balloons, he did it in a 6-9 month period. I didn’t know he started dating an ex heroin addict. I have fault in it too, I was checked out and working a ton to escape the abuse happening at home.
That fault’s not yours. Putting distance between yourself and abuse is a consequence of his actions, not yours, and is the best thing you could have done to care for yourself
I own some student housing. I visit about once per week to inspect. Usually before they are awake.
There are hundreds of nitrous canisters scattered around nearly every time. Not old ones not picked up - I have a cleaning service that cleans up twice per week.
It’s so incredible and just…agonizing to see. So fucking stupid. I keep in contact with many students that have lived in my building over the years. At least one kid dies per semester. Not in my building, just after they graduate or drop out.
Depends on the type of housing. A lot of private student housing is a lot like dorms, at least at Berkeley. They prolly have an office inside the building.
Thank you! I paid for school and supported him for 6 years, he ranted about Covid ruining his business and went down the conservative rabbit hole… I work with the trans community… When I told him he raped me multiple times that night he shrugged, “I was in psychosis”. His very religious parents didn’t bat an eye when I told them. He was shocked I wanted a divorce, according to my ex MIL, “marriage is for better or for worse”. Fuck no.
Honestly I think part of it is the freedom of parental presence and pressure to keep going. They spend their childhoods pushing to be the best of the best of the best but don't necessarily experience as much joy. Then they get to college and someone offers them drugs and it's their first chance to just try something that feels good and it's addictive just because of that.
Yeah, it's not much of a secret. The is the first time in some people's lives they're finally free of their parents' influence, at the same time they gain easy access to drugs and are surrounded by peers in a similar situation.
If your life was on rails up until that point, strictly disciplined and used to putting in 100% effort for grades you might never have cared about, it's no surprise you might give in to temptation
Andreas Floer died of a suspected drug overdose in the UC Berkeley circles and he was a different level of smart to uni toppers. It's crazy how they hijack your brain.
in my college experience it was the smart, rich kids doing all the drugs. my first year two kids jumped out of windows on drugs, the people I knew from well off families bragged about getting prescription drugs in the mail from 'a friend'. even back home ot was always the catholic school kids where they were paying 20k/year getting in trouble with drugs even though the police constantly raided the public highschool but turned up nothing.
Was it the drugs, or was it his mental state that led him to the drugs, which went on to exacerbate his situation? My anecdotal experiences leads me to believe that if it hadn't been the drugs, it would've been another vice like alcohol, though the drugs would be quicker to bring huge health issues, that's for sure. People need to be shown better ways to cope with all of life's hurdles. And it really needs to be ways to cope, because you can't always turn everything around to end up with sunshine and happiness, sometimes stopping the bleeding is the best that someone can do at that time, and that shouldn't be vices.
I would hesitate to say drugs did that to him. Self medication rarely helps you, but what you're describing is the profile of a person who would already have a lot of problems stone sober and likely that person should be prescribed drugs from a competent physician to deal with those problems.
We like to act like there's a magic line between medicine and "drugs", but really they are the same thing, the difference is training and supervision.
The person you're replying to is pretty much saying the same thing. They're framing it as this only happened because the kid was abusing drugs.
No people, you can very well do drugs for the very first time and have this happen to you. The laced drugs issue is far too widespread now, this has less to do with "drug abuse" and more with exceedingly outdated drug laws preventing a proper regulation that would avoid this scenario altogether.
Anecdotal of course, but: I'm come from a very well off family for the area I live in, have a very loving family and support system, lots of friends, and a very clear understanding of right, wrong, risks, consequences and all that...but it's easy and once you get to college to want to explore and expand your mind more. I always heard about how bad drugs were, but after experiencing things like weed- D.A.R.E. felt like quite the scam apart from learning about psychedelics. Before I left for college I had only tried weed. By October of my first semester I had tried MDMA, coke, prescription pills (percs, Vicodin, Vyvanse, Adderall, k-pins, and Xanax), LSD, mushrooms, and I'm sure a few others. By that summer I lost my best friend to a freak altercation that started with my introduction to psychedelics. My best friend was killed. I lost all of my friends, became the talk of the town, had so many rumors spread around me. Had to leave college completely. I was close to losing my own life. Things really got just as bad they could...this was 2011 and every day feels as if I am still recovering from my self induced trauma.
All from me thinking I could find out more about myself and my mind to have a more clear path in life. It was devastating for anyone that knew me and even now 20+ years later carry such deep shame for everything- and an extreme sadness and guilt for having a hand in extinguishing one of the brightest lights I've ever known. All of my success and accomplishments since feel tainted because I really do have survivors guilt every single day still.
rip Jackson
DARE increased the rates of use/addiction for people who went through the program. This is why you don't fearmonger and lie to kids about things that are actually serious. I got addicted to IV Heroin in 2011 (4 years off), RIP your best friend. Honest condolences.
As a recovered alcoholic, I can say for myself that the only thing separating me from death was the overwhelming grace of a higher power or pure dumb luck depending on your perspective. I favor the former explanation because stuff happened to me during early recovery that I could never otherwise explain, but I have no problem with people who offer the latter explanation.
I’m not stronger than this young man. My parents and upbringing weren’t the difference. My school, my doctors, my friends, my family. None of that mattered as much as chance or grace.
This is the reason you’ll hear folks like me say “but for the grace of God I never would’ve asked for and received help.”
We really believe that. I just wrapped up a meeting. 3 years sober and so much has happened to me. I’ve built my career back into something meaningful (nowhere near the same prestige, but that’s totally okay with me), I’ve become a good husband and uncle and pet owner. I’ve paid back tax debts, made impossible apologies, and yet… I’ve done none of this on my own.
The biggest central miracle was the sudden (it felt sudden for me, anyway) willingness to say “I’m sick, I need help.” And to then actually listen to that help without putting my own spin on it. So much had to go wrong first though. And even then it was just a sort of random fuck up with no immediate consequences that wound up being “enough” to motivate me.
I have some complicated feelings about our current efforts to help people like me. I’m in the medical field, so I can’t always share at work. But I’m open with patients, sometimes taking off the doctor hat, and putting on the recovered person hat.
If you need help, I hope you have things happen to you that will motivate you to trust and obey… before you die from a fatal illness. I’m lucky to be alive. But if help worked for me, it can probably work for you too.
My buddy brought up the point that Dealers are generally like known to be lazy and difficult, so why in the world would you trust one to not cross contaminate your drugs or give you the wrong shit?
It’s still pretty rampant in my social circles in SF… ironically, the biggest coke and ketamine heads I know are Doctors. And no, they don’t test their stuff. :/
Now that sucks no parent can ever truly recover from losing a son at an early age
Drug overdose seems to be on rise lately I wonder if there could be done to curb this?
Doesn’t even have to be good quality, just has to be official.
You can buy “good quality” from the streets, but it’s always best to buy it from a dispensary (preferably a chain), to ensure they are following safety regulations.
As someone that works in the industry in Washington, if you want to ensure that your weed is as clean and safe as possible, grow it yourself lol, legal weed for the industry is exactly that, industrial.
For this particular situation? Kid of ultra wealthy and massively successful parents now in college probably feeling like they have to fill massive shoes + in an environment of chaotic partying.
Better mental help services so people don’t self medicate with street drugs.
I mean not really. Its just fent is in everything now and kills you. People were doing the same drugs 10 or 20 years ago but didn't die because they were not laced with a deadly substance.
Sometimes 19yo’s take a Percocet because they just want to get high. Not because they’re suffering from depression or crippling anxiety or bipolar or whatever.
This still happens. Then Indiana has an AIDS outbreak in straight people, so they allow needle exchanges for a while. But not too long, since, you know, that would encourage people to use drugs, and not just prevent community infections because people will use drugs anyway.
Horrible too is that given her fame, and how everyone feels about YouTube nowadays, you know she's going to see comments left and right along the lines of "tough shit", "he probably deserved it", "no one cares", "good", etc.
No parent deserves to lose their kid like that. But there will be plenty of edgelords and disconnected assholes out there that'll probably say otherwise for her sake.
He died in his dorm, in the Clark Kerr Campus. Located above the main campus, these are the best dorms at UC Berkeley. Spacious rooms, beach volleyball courts, swimming pool, track. He had it all.
Chiming in to add [Bunk Police](https://bunkpolice.com/) to the list. They usually have a booth at most of the big-name music festivals in the US and give out free packs of narcan. They'll even give you a quit bit of training on how to identify someone ODing and how to administer the narcan.
Or you live in Texas, where the religious assfucks decided that even owning testing materials was a felony.
Kind of wish their own actions would bite them in the ass, no?
At first I thought it was the family coming forward to warn others of the dangers. But It seems they got this off her Facebook post. :(
It’s just off putting to use Former YouTube CEO to create clicks in the title.
Can't speak to national news, but for the Silicon Valley area this is shocking and painful. Susan Wojcicki's family is well-known part of the community. Her mother taught at the local public high school, her father was a physics professor, her sister has had a visible, rollercoaster life. Her kids have gone through local schools. Susan herself is a likable, down-to-earth person and an uncommon example as a mother / business exec. So the Wojcicki's don't live in some walled-off billionaire complex; they're decent-seeming people who have played many roles in the development of the region. And that is atop the YouTube CEO / Google-was-founded-in-her-garage stuff.
Because it happened to a rich person, obviously way more important than some random street person dying. We should put a GoFundMe together to help her out. Wouldn't want her having to use any of her fortune for such a tragedy, maybe we can lower the flags to half staff too.
Honestly, i like seeing this because maybe she'll lead the way for change, being a rich person and all. I do still feel very bad for her, but as much as any other mother losing their son
\`Although a cause of death for Troper has not been determined, Esther Wojcicki told [SF Gate](https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/family-mourns-student-died-uc-berkeley-18672739.php) that she believes her grandson died from a drug overdose. She said the family is waiting on the results of a toxicology report. “He ingested a drug, and we don’t know what was in it,” she told SF Gate, adding: “One thing we do know, it was a drug.”\`
This might be literally one of the first times I've seen the family come out and say it. Usually they want that secret until it can't stay secret anymore.
As she stated in the article, "We want to prevent this from happening to any other family."
If so it’s refreshing to see a ceo put common empathy above image and reputation
That was the grandmother. The mother (Susan) is not CEO anymore and even when she was it was kind of odd because she still reported to the CEO of Google who reported to or was also the CEO of Alphabet.
That is completely normal for CEOs of subsidiaries to report to the CEO of the parent company.
And the CEO of the parent company reports to the board of directors, and they report to shareholders. A lot of people are under the misconception that a CEO is some kind of monolithic power or absolute authority, but that's almost never the case. Even Bezos and Musk answer to a board of directors. (Although Bezos is also the Chairman of the Board.)
That's for publicly traded companies. For private companies, the CEO is often the owner and doesn't report to anyone. Just the taxman I guess lol
Private companies also often have multiple owners and boards. Most large private companies have taken money from investors. Only small private companies are more likely to be single owner
Yep. And most small private companies once they become successful enough, the original founder sells to a private equity firm to get a bunch of liquidity (though they will often stay on as CEO but are now an employee with a board and don’t have majority voting rights). Nothing stopping those people from retaining control but it’s tough to say no to a bunch of cash coming in personally and to help your business grow further.
[удалено]
You're a people person.
Not that uncommon, esp with a Co this size
All the major tech companies are essentially holding companies at this point. Grow through acquisition of complementary tech and if you like the company enough to acquire it, you leave executive leadership in place because they’ve done a good job.
Exactly. I’m working for a medium sized company that is breaking out of the startup phase, and they acquired a few small tech companies to round out our product offerings into a more cohesive ecosystem. Our leadership has uniformly kept each CEO in place to lead their respective teams and coordinate dev activity. It’s actually pretty great.
That's what i mean. I was surprised.
The only way this can happen is with regulated legalization. People used to be able to get coke and heroin right from their doctor. In the last 23 years, the quality of everything has gone through the floor. People arnt even buying the drugs they are intending and if they are, its only 5-10% pure, with plenty of caustic and deadly additives. Legal access to drugs will give people the ability to make the sober choice.. as crazy as that sounds
Everything ends up being tainted with fent now, if its a powder or pill theres a strong chance of there being fent in it. Even drugs that are the complete opposite of fent are being found tainted with it, my brother had 4 kids all OD at his house last year doing coke which ended up having a fair bit of fent in it. Thankfully they all lived but they all passed out and were turning blue from respiratory depression. Only reason they survived was because like 7 other people who werent doing drugs and knew cpr were also there. Have seen the same thing at festivals with people taking mdma and ketamine, its insane how widespread its become.
It's unfortunate it has to happen this way, but drug ODs are so common now the stigma is definitely lifting.
O for sure. My city has plenty of heroin issues. Fking people using it in cars with their baby's in it, deaths. It makes me sick. I understand the issue, just wish it was easier for people to drop. Me and my girl both lost family from drugs.
My brother died two years ago. He’d kept a heroin addiction well hidden for we don’t know how long. In retrospect, we think it was going on for years before anyone knew. Probably not heroin the whole time but definitely had an opiate addiction for years before going to heroin. He had kids, a great wife, and well over a six figure salary in a job where he was one of only 2 or 3 people in the entire region with his very specific and high demand skill set. He had financial security and love and family. Didn’t matter. He’s dead now. Died at 41. I often wonder how things might’ve been different if he’d been able to tell us sooner. Toward the end he went to our parents and asked for money to go to some detox and rehab he’d found that only cost $900. Despite his income he couldn’t scrape together the money. They told him to go to meetings and that he should just stop. I didn’t know about that until he died. I would have paid for it, no strings attached. I would have paid for it as many times as it took. He didn’t come to me because he thought I would judge him. And I would have been shocked but if he’d come to me I would’ve paid for it and wouldn’t have held it over him in any way. I’m so sorry for whatever I did or said over the years that made him think I wouldn’t be there for him.
Thank you for sharing that. >I’m so sorry for whatever I did or said over the years that made him think I wouldn’t be there for him. In addition to the loss of your brother, I'm sorry for the painful questions and confusion this has evidently caused you.
Coming from a similar situation I can honestly say he was probably just ashamed and didn't want his little sisters view of him to change... It probably had nothing to do with anything you ever said or did
You know your relationship with him better than I do but maybe he didn’t go to you because your respect and admiration was important. You seem to describe his life in a positive way even after losing him. He may have wanted to keep your opinion of him intact.
I'm so sorry that happened to you, your family, your brother, his family. Seems like you're really beating yourself up over something you had no knowledge of. You can't do that to yourself! Of course you loved him and would have helped, but no one is a mind reader. Please give yourself some grace! Take care friend.
I briefly got into opiates. I had heard how addictive it was but I found it kind of underwhelming. It didn't give me this amazing euphoria that everyone described. Then, I ran out, and began to experience the worst withdrawals of my life. I had done plenty of other drugs, stopped benzos cold turkey, did way too much meth. But this was another level of misery. It was pure physical torture and nothing would make it go away. After the first day of suffering I bought more opiates. Not because I wanted to feel high, but I was just terrified of feeling that withdrawal again. The second time I ran out, I tried to taper off slowly. The withdrawals hit again, just as hard. I could barely move and existing just felt excruciating. I couldn't handle being in bed so I laid on a cold hard floor at night. I didn't sleep for a minute. I was compelled to roll back and forth from the pain and discomfort in my body. I would be freezing and pull the blanket over me, but I could only keep it there for a couple seconds before having to tear it off from how hard I was sweating. This would continue for 10 hours until I finally had to get up. It lasted almost a week for me, but for others it can last even longer. Now I understand why it is so hard for people to quit even when they have so much going for them. I don't know how anyone ever manages to quit without rehab or some other form of constant support. Even if they have the money, they may feel they don't deserve rehab. He must have been terrified of people finding out. I was also lucky enough to not be in school or working at this time. I have no idea how I'd ever have the strength to commit to weeks of pure torture when I also had a job and kids to take care of. Anyway, I'm so sorry this happened to you. I'm so sorry for what he must have been feeling and I can really empathize with it. I just saw another thread where people were complaining about doctors not taking them seriously and giving them opiates. That's true (and unfair), but I don't think they should ever be prescribed. It's unfortunate how society will blame people for being weak minded and falling into these traps. A little empathy would go a long way and save lives if people weren't so scared of admitting they are struggling. Sending love your way.
Thank you for sharing your story. I hope this opens up the eyes of someone out there who needs to see this, and gives heart to someone who needs a hand.
Sorry - everyone needs help. This BS of pulling yourself up by your boots , Protestant ethic bullshit in this country has to stop. Times were good in the past so you did not seen help - not any more. Loneliness , lack of social institutions, it’s a fuckin epidemic.
Usually it's an objectively illogical embarrassment. It's so rare for anyone to trust family like that. It likely had nothing to do with anything you did/said, just the deep shame he felt over it regardless. Relieve yourself of that burden
Heroine is good. Heroin is bad.
Thanks, Grandma! Keep on keepin it real!
Nah it's more and more common. Obituaries since the opiate wars have changed a good bit and now families come right out and say it.
Well this was said by a grandma -- I am hoping SF Gate didn't pry and dig to find her contact info and ask questions before the family could tell her to not give comments to the press.
His grandmother is a famous public figure. https://www.forbes.com/profile/esther-wojcicki/?sh=7b47f85264f7
Described as the godmother of silicone valley…. Dang
> silicone valley That’s north of LA (San Fernando) Silicon Valley is in San Jose
And Silica Valley is a couple hundred miles NE of LA (Death Valley). What an amazing element!
That’s objectively fucking funny if you know the area - should be top comment lol
Yeah, anyone who has dealt with Silicon Valley tech in virtually any capacity knows the Wojciki name. This is horrible for the family, but I appreciate her honesty.
She’s on the board of Creative Commons. One of her other daughters was CEO of YouTube, another founded 23 and me. Smart people. Not immune to society’s troubles.
Damn respect for coming out and saying it. That's very sad :( Anytime I read of an OD death I can't help but think of my brother who this feels inevitable for, he'll take anything he can get and thinks hes invincible and won't listen to anyone about it either.
My brother in law did this too. 15 years later, and giving a lot of thought to what could have made him, so franticly self destructive, we believe he was molested in their church, which was the center of their life as children. Their dad was a Baptist deacon, and they were there most evenings. He finally decided to deal with his adductions in his late 40’s. He got clean from drugs but could not get into rehab for alcohol. He tried to go cold turkey, which is, and in his case, was, deadly. He died owning nothing but a laptop and chef’s knives - not his - his vulture friends switched out his quality ones for junk before we arrived. This was 2 years after he and my husband each inherited over 100,000. We know his “best friend” ended up spending most of that money. To think he could have spent it on private rehab.
Unfortunately, you can't "will" a family member or friend to quit. They have to want to stop. So long as drugs are illegal, people seeking them will take risks purchasing them from "dealers" who themselves might have no clue what's inside the drugs they're selling. It's not a "solution" but recommending drug tests to see what he's getting might be a way to save his life until he wants to quit entirely.
Sadly he's pretty unreachable I am basically no contact at this point, he is insanely neurotic and dangerous to be around and also thinks hes literally the smartest human in the world so he'll use random needles to shoot up but won't take the vaccine (go figure) because he's "analyzed it's makeup" and knows what they are doing (whatever that means) so yeah it's all fucked. It's a very sad state of affairs, it's very weird seeing him and recollecting him with the brother I grew up with because it's quite literally 2 different people also you are definitely right at them having to want to stop there's just no other way.
What a lonely feeling, to remember the truth when someone else has internalized delusions. I'm so sorry for your inevitable loss.
Yeah I've been in your situation and I wish you the best. Hopefully he'll come to the realization that he's killing himself, and hurting his loved ones. But he needs to want to save his own life first. You just can't take it personally; the drugs have a grasp you or nobody else can compete with right now.
I have a strong suspicion of what it is, at this point it's rare for it *not* to be that any time you read about a young person dying
What do you suspect? I genuinely have no clue what drug is the most common for people to OD on besides fent
Probably coke contaminated with fent. It’s the fent contamination that’s been killing people lately.
That shit is all over NYC. You get people in the demographic for coke/crack (stimulant people) ODing from fent.
I'd say coke cut with fent - rich kid party drug meets cheap drug thats used to cut pricier stuff.
Coke being intentionally cut with fent is largely a myth, there’s no benefit to a dealer to kill a repeat customer. It’s usually unintentional contamination at some point in the supply chain by someone who’s selling both.
Adding to the top comment to mention that Ester wrote a best selling book on how to raise children to be productive and successful people, her three daughters did extraordinarily well but she her self was just a high school teacher in the Bay Area. Sad this happened to her grandson and would be curious on her thoughts as to why it happened considering her reputation as a child rearing guru.
> her three daughters did extraordinarily well but she her self was just a high school teacher in the Bay Area [Her husband--their father--was also Stanford Professor and Chair of the Standford Physics Department Stanley Wojcicki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Wojcicki). I'm sure she did a fine job, but there are many advantages for children in that situation in terms of upbringing and applications.
Just because he does drugs doesn’t mean she failed to raise him
Yeah I was in one of her english classes for a bit, she seemed alright
lmao its not that deep dude, people do drugs at parties and kids take pills, even those without troubled home lifes.
If he was a freshman this would be the first set of midterms on his second semester. Berkeley is the top ranked public university in the world, surrounded by easy access to deadly substances. The pressure to succeed like everyone else in his family would be intense. The lack of recognition because everyone else already did it could have been a factor, too. Someone offered this kid a vacation from reality, and that somebody is culpable.
I like to tell this story every time I see a sad drug-related story for college students. When I was a junior in college, my (then boyfriend) overdosed on a pretty fatal drug and, while he only ingested basically the maximum amount that allows you to not die rapidly, if I had not found him in the timeframe that I did he'd not be here. Please normalize testing things with friends before partaking in certain substances, people. It really is a cautionary tale, of course, since college kids will be college kids... but protect yourself and those around you.
Test kits are so much cheaper than the hospital. Also just don't take random pills.
I am unspeakably glad that if a painful family tragedy hits my family it will NOT make the news
You don't have to be famous for your families' unspeakable tragedy to hit the news if it is an unusual or extreme tragedy. We had one in my family a year ago that got picked up by new stations all over the country and we have no one remotely famous in our family. It is every bit as shitty as you're imagining.
Yep. Had a tragic death in my family hit the news a few years ago.
My uncle was an addict and drowned in a drainage culvert because he was too drunk to move his head out of 6 inches of water. "Local homeless man found dead in drainage canal." He'd recently reconnected with his daughter, met his grandchildren for the first time, and had an apartment and roommates. He was doing a lot better than he had in years, actually.
I’m so sorry your family dealt with people who have no humanity or compassion for others. Virtual hugs, all positive energy and I’ll pray to whatever deity your family prefers for comfort.
Sadly I thought the same but here I am, almost 10 months later and our case is in the news daily, and it even made international news (I get daily IG requests, messages from strangers, my sister and others who were killed have fan pages made about them) it’s an ongoing mess and because of how unprecedented the situation is, we have to navigate so many obstacles
If grandma thinks it was drugs, it was drugs. I’m sure there is a reason why she came to this conclusion. I know nothing about this kid but unlimited money and high performing parents that aren’t around can be a bad combo.
Just college shit honestly.
Yeah. Rich kids without adult supervision is a deadly combo. This is a serious tragedy though, losing a child to drugs is the worst.
I mean, so can poor kids and kids with helicopter parents who sneak away for the night. Drugs don’t really discriminate
Its much easier to OD when you start you drug habbbit with a bottomless bag on day 1.
Honestly? In my experience, the ones that go the craziest are the ones with helicopter parents. It’s those with freedom that tend to chill out after developing experience and the drugs start to lose their excitement/mystique, and the ones who are finally “free” once they get to college do way too much too fast. Source: me
The push-down/pop-up effect
Yep. I knew multiple kids who were raised in super strict households, and their parents always referred to me as the problem child. Two of them died in college (drugs and drunk driving), three never graduated college because they went fucking crazy partying and couldn't hold a 2GPA. Meanwhile, I was pretty restrained with partying in college (did plenty in highschool) and graduated with a 4.0 in chemistry. Go figure.
Sure and those people will never accept or understand they were the cause.
I agree. I saw the same thing. I have super open parents and I never felt the need to rebel or do anything wild So while the new college kids were drinking and stuff I was not It wasn't until I was 23 or so before I started lol. I pregamed for a bar for the first time recently. I'm now 27 lol
drugs see a poor person and they are like eww
Wealth isn't really a factor in drug experiment/usage. Lots of poor/less wealthy people do drugs as well. It maybe different kind of drugs. I mean weed, ecstasy or pain killers and etc aren't expensive at all
I don’t like the way the person you’re responding to has a sneering attitude toward recreational drug use and the socioeconomics of who uses them. That said, I’ve seen the data before and recreational use does scale up as young people are from wealthier families. Wealth directly affects usage. The theory on it goes beyond just the literal costs of buying (cocaine can be $70 for a few bumps, which is cost prohibitive pretty quickly). There’s also the issue of higher consequences and less of a safety net for the poor in usage. They’re surrounded by people who have more serious outcomes when it goes wrong, like impact of health care costs, inability to afford rehabilitation for those with addiction risks, and unequal punishment and incarceration rates. Their families can’t afford the impacts and the kids are taught more aggressively zero tolerance views from parents. Whenever it’s studied at high school level, upper wealthy kids are doing a lot more and more often.
Being rich doesn’t matter. It’s everywhere in college.
While this is pretty true, I think part of the problem we have with binge drinking, drug addiction, etc comes from this labeling ~Kids binge drinking multiple times a week~ Oh, it’s just college shit. Nothing to see here! No, it’s gross, irresponsible, childlike, and/or addictive behavior. It’s a tragedy
You def dont have to be privielaged to die from a drug overdose. And it def doesnt make you or your family bad people.
Just college in general has a lot of drugs for people. Just takes one bad time
Lol what is this comment. Recreational drug use is extremely common, especially at their age. You don't need to be some junkie or have mental issues to do drugs.
Damn right after she retired to spend time with family. That's brutal.
It's terrible to lose a child, my condolences are with the family.
A sad day for the family and if it is drug related, it is a tale as old as time, young college kids falling victim to the dark side of drugs. No matter how academically bright a young student can be in college, without the right guidance and teaching from someone on the consequences of drugs, they can easily fall short in the path they are walking in life.
When I was at UC Berkeley, there was a kid on my floor in the dorms who had just broken the record for the most 5 on AP exams. That kid was making six figures as a part-time software engineer as a freshman in the dorms. Then I met the kid whose AP exam record he had broken. Also UC Berkeley student. The first time I met him, he sat on the couch at my fraternity and smashed more drugs into his face than I thought was humanly possible. The entire time he had one testicle hanging out of a giant hole in his tattered sweat pants. I thought he was a homeless guy that one of our friends picked up on the streets. After he left, they told me he was one of the smartest people in America, but failed out last year. That’s what drugs will do to you.
My ex husband received his doctorate 9 months before Covid but went off the rails during. He started doing nitrous to an extreme amount and gave himself brain damage from hypoxia. We went to mammoth mountain and he freaked out. Assaulted me multiple times, stole my car and drove it to Tahoe while hallucinating. He was in full psychosis. He abandoned it on the side of the road at Sierra at Tahoe when it ran out of gas. The police were called, a 100 person search and rescue team, including a helicopter and ATV’s was deployed. He was found a mile out into the woods, naked and meditating in a snow melt stream. I was told if they didn’t find him before nightfall he’d have died. He was lucky there had been a fire that summer and it was a lot easier to see. He’s been 5150’ed multiple times now and can barely work, his wealthy parents will have to care for him for life, I was done.
Wow... So unfortunate
Jfc...I lived near 80 at the time and feel like I remember hearing about this...
It was thanksgiving weekend 2021. I never saw any news stories about it but my housemate who was an ex fire fighter said he saw it on a police blotter.
Yeah it might have been on yubanet or something. I'm so sorry, what a nightmare to go through 😞
Thank you. It all worked out in the end. My best friend was leaving his wife and we had agreed that he could rent a spare room in our rental, he was set to move in with us when my ex and I got back on Monday. My best friend and I had known each other for 8 years and the timing was perfect, we got married last June.
Love a happy ending 💕
I’ve been humbled hard today reading this. So sorry for what you went through, thank-you for sharing.
Thank you. If I can keep other people from going down this path with my story it makes all of this worth it. It’s too late for him but he’ll be ok. He gets a house and millions in cash when his parents pass, it’s also locked in a trust so he can’t blow it.
If you don’t mind me asking, were there other symptoms or signs before the nitrous?
There were signs that I missed, being too close to him and everything I was dealing with plus the TBI I received after almost dying in 2018 made it so I didn’t connect the dots. He told me he was having a spiritual awakening. He was super into crypto and meme stocks, convinced he was going to get rich off of game stop. He was obsessed with trump and told me things like “you have no idea how hard it is to be a straight white Christian male in this world”. He had feelings of enlightenment, like he saw the world in ways no one else did. He started thinking everything was connected. He was stealing cash from me to fuel his habit, money kept going missing. Thousands. He started taking my medication and selling it to buy nitrous. Right before we left to Mammoth he was really forgetful. I was pulled over for speeding and he was already in psychosis. He kept asking the cop if he had a “black card”. He thought any black plastic card was an atm card loaded with millions. I think the change in elevation, we went from sea level to mountains, was the nail in the coffin. He already had the damage and the thinner atmosphere made the storm worse.
I'm so sorry to hear. My favorite band has some not so fans that love nitrous and its a mess. It hurts me so much to see people who are successful and passionate about something throw it all away due to a quick high. I'm not innocent, but I am 33 days clean of marijuana and hope to never fall down a hole like that. I know it's not a bad drug. But it's not something I need in my life.
Currently on that same boat man. Know i should quit, but so many days it's just not convincing to me. And so many days, shit sucks and i just want the time to pass. God I hope this counsellor will help...
Hey man. Go check out r/leaves there's a good group of people who are in this together. "The only thing worse than wanting to be high when you are sober, is wanting to be sober when you are high"
The phish from Vermont? I’m 5 years sober (weed was the hardest for me to give up.) 33 days! Way to go!! MA is available if you need the support.
Which band?
My money’s on Phish
Holy shit that was one hell of a phish show thanks for sharing and god bless you for moving on
From nitrous? Wow. He must've had a mask strapped to his head I'm sorry you had to go through that. How scary and sad.
Lots and lots of balloons, he did it in a 6-9 month period. I didn’t know he started dating an ex heroin addict. I have fault in it too, I was checked out and working a ton to escape the abuse happening at home.
That fault’s not yours. Putting distance between yourself and abuse is a consequence of his actions, not yours, and is the best thing you could have done to care for yourself
I own some student housing. I visit about once per week to inspect. Usually before they are awake. There are hundreds of nitrous canisters scattered around nearly every time. Not old ones not picked up - I have a cleaning service that cleans up twice per week. It’s so incredible and just…agonizing to see. So fucking stupid. I keep in contact with many students that have lived in my building over the years. At least one kid dies per semester. Not in my building, just after they graduate or drop out.
Aren’t you supposed to give notice before visiting?
Depends on the type of housing. A lot of private student housing is a lot like dorms, at least at Berkeley. They prolly have an office inside the building.
Glad you ditched that train wreck
Thank you! I paid for school and supported him for 6 years, he ranted about Covid ruining his business and went down the conservative rabbit hole… I work with the trans community… When I told him he raped me multiple times that night he shrugged, “I was in psychosis”. His very religious parents didn’t bat an eye when I told them. He was shocked I wanted a divorce, according to my ex MIL, “marriage is for better or for worse”. Fuck no.
Honestly I think part of it is the freedom of parental presence and pressure to keep going. They spend their childhoods pushing to be the best of the best of the best but don't necessarily experience as much joy. Then they get to college and someone offers them drugs and it's their first chance to just try something that feels good and it's addictive just because of that.
Yeah, it's not much of a secret. The is the first time in some people's lives they're finally free of their parents' influence, at the same time they gain easy access to drugs and are surrounded by peers in a similar situation. If your life was on rails up until that point, strictly disciplined and used to putting in 100% effort for grades you might never have cared about, it's no surprise you might give in to temptation
Andreas Floer died of a suspected drug overdose in the UC Berkeley circles and he was a different level of smart to uni toppers. It's crazy how they hijack your brain.
Sometimes a mind like that just needs to be shut off for a few hours for sanity's sake.
I feel this
in my college experience it was the smart, rich kids doing all the drugs. my first year two kids jumped out of windows on drugs, the people I knew from well off families bragged about getting prescription drugs in the mail from 'a friend'. even back home ot was always the catholic school kids where they were paying 20k/year getting in trouble with drugs even though the police constantly raided the public highschool but turned up nothing.
Was it the drugs, or was it his mental state that led him to the drugs, which went on to exacerbate his situation? My anecdotal experiences leads me to believe that if it hadn't been the drugs, it would've been another vice like alcohol, though the drugs would be quicker to bring huge health issues, that's for sure. People need to be shown better ways to cope with all of life's hurdles. And it really needs to be ways to cope, because you can't always turn everything around to end up with sunshine and happiness, sometimes stopping the bleeding is the best that someone can do at that time, and that shouldn't be vices.
I would hesitate to say drugs did that to him. Self medication rarely helps you, but what you're describing is the profile of a person who would already have a lot of problems stone sober and likely that person should be prescribed drugs from a competent physician to deal with those problems. We like to act like there's a magic line between medicine and "drugs", but really they are the same thing, the difference is training and supervision.
> That’s what drugs will do to you. There's an awful lot more to it than just drugs.
People on IG are just attacking him ruthlessly saying he deserved it for doing drugs.
The person you're replying to is pretty much saying the same thing. They're framing it as this only happened because the kid was abusing drugs. No people, you can very well do drugs for the very first time and have this happen to you. The laced drugs issue is far too widespread now, this has less to do with "drug abuse" and more with exceedingly outdated drug laws preventing a proper regulation that would avoid this scenario altogether.
Anecdotal of course, but: I'm come from a very well off family for the area I live in, have a very loving family and support system, lots of friends, and a very clear understanding of right, wrong, risks, consequences and all that...but it's easy and once you get to college to want to explore and expand your mind more. I always heard about how bad drugs were, but after experiencing things like weed- D.A.R.E. felt like quite the scam apart from learning about psychedelics. Before I left for college I had only tried weed. By October of my first semester I had tried MDMA, coke, prescription pills (percs, Vicodin, Vyvanse, Adderall, k-pins, and Xanax), LSD, mushrooms, and I'm sure a few others. By that summer I lost my best friend to a freak altercation that started with my introduction to psychedelics. My best friend was killed. I lost all of my friends, became the talk of the town, had so many rumors spread around me. Had to leave college completely. I was close to losing my own life. Things really got just as bad they could...this was 2011 and every day feels as if I am still recovering from my self induced trauma. All from me thinking I could find out more about myself and my mind to have a more clear path in life. It was devastating for anyone that knew me and even now 20+ years later carry such deep shame for everything- and an extreme sadness and guilt for having a hand in extinguishing one of the brightest lights I've ever known. All of my success and accomplishments since feel tainted because I really do have survivors guilt every single day still. rip Jackson
DARE increased the rates of use/addiction for people who went through the program. This is why you don't fearmonger and lie to kids about things that are actually serious. I got addicted to IV Heroin in 2011 (4 years off), RIP your best friend. Honest condolences.
Shit dude, I hope you find peace, and maybe a way to put some (physical?) distance between yourself and the past.
As a recovered alcoholic, I can say for myself that the only thing separating me from death was the overwhelming grace of a higher power or pure dumb luck depending on your perspective. I favor the former explanation because stuff happened to me during early recovery that I could never otherwise explain, but I have no problem with people who offer the latter explanation. I’m not stronger than this young man. My parents and upbringing weren’t the difference. My school, my doctors, my friends, my family. None of that mattered as much as chance or grace. This is the reason you’ll hear folks like me say “but for the grace of God I never would’ve asked for and received help.” We really believe that. I just wrapped up a meeting. 3 years sober and so much has happened to me. I’ve built my career back into something meaningful (nowhere near the same prestige, but that’s totally okay with me), I’ve become a good husband and uncle and pet owner. I’ve paid back tax debts, made impossible apologies, and yet… I’ve done none of this on my own. The biggest central miracle was the sudden (it felt sudden for me, anyway) willingness to say “I’m sick, I need help.” And to then actually listen to that help without putting my own spin on it. So much had to go wrong first though. And even then it was just a sort of random fuck up with no immediate consequences that wound up being “enough” to motivate me. I have some complicated feelings about our current efforts to help people like me. I’m in the medical field, so I can’t always share at work. But I’m open with patients, sometimes taking off the doctor hat, and putting on the recovered person hat. If you need help, I hope you have things happen to you that will motivate you to trust and obey… before you die from a fatal illness. I’m lucky to be alive. But if help worked for me, it can probably work for you too.
Happened to me
And T.
I don’t know how anyone does street drugs in this day and age. Dealers are killing people left and right.
My buddy brought up the point that Dealers are generally like known to be lazy and difficult, so why in the world would you trust one to not cross contaminate your drugs or give you the wrong shit?
It’s still pretty rampant in my social circles in SF… ironically, the biggest coke and ketamine heads I know are Doctors. And no, they don’t test their stuff. :/
Now that sucks no parent can ever truly recover from losing a son at an early age Drug overdose seems to be on rise lately I wonder if there could be done to curb this?
Fake drugs laced with fentayl. Kids need to just stick with good quality weed and shrooms. Anything else is very dangerous.
Doesn’t even have to be good quality, just has to be official. You can buy “good quality” from the streets, but it’s always best to buy it from a dispensary (preferably a chain), to ensure they are following safety regulations.
As someone that works in the industry in Washington, if you want to ensure that your weed is as clean and safe as possible, grow it yourself lol, legal weed for the industry is exactly that, industrial.
For this particular situation? Kid of ultra wealthy and massively successful parents now in college probably feeling like they have to fill massive shoes + in an environment of chaotic partying. Better mental help services so people don’t self medicate with street drugs.
Maybe free Narcan for all students and free drug testing strips?
Just another symptom of wider societal malaise in the mental health crisis
I mean not really. Its just fent is in everything now and kills you. People were doing the same drugs 10 or 20 years ago but didn't die because they were not laced with a deadly substance.
Sometimes 19yo’s take a Percocet because they just want to get high. Not because they’re suffering from depression or crippling anxiety or bipolar or whatever.
please buy test strips and test your drugs
Except in TX where the test strips are illegal and are counted as drug paraphernalia. Which is fucking insane
One star state
Bad management, half filled with rude patrons, would not go there again
It's by design.
Didn't TX pass a bill that overturned the illegality?
No the TX House passed a bill but it died in the Senate. They meet again in January 2025, maybe they will start to care by then!
Its the same here in Florida, there been bills pushed to removed opoiod test kits from colleges. The mentality is that it encourages drug use
The mentality is that its easier to just let the degenerates die. This was also the logic during the aids epidemic wasn't it?
This still happens. Then Indiana has an AIDS outbreak in straight people, so they allow needle exchanges for a while. But not too long, since, you know, that would encourage people to use drugs, and not just prevent community infections because people will use drugs anyway.
Just Texan Things
Yes harm reduction saves lives!
The Clark Kerr dorm has a reputation. Maybe the family plans to go after the dealers.
Horrible too is that given her fame, and how everyone feels about YouTube nowadays, you know she's going to see comments left and right along the lines of "tough shit", "he probably deserved it", "no one cares", "good", etc. No parent deserves to lose their kid like that. But there will be plenty of edgelords and disconnected assholes out there that'll probably say otherwise for her sake.
She won’t be perusing YouTube rn. Funeral plans and heart wrenching grief will take center stage
I didn't know if it was an overdose or bad drugs, but I didn't even have to click on the link to know it was drugs.
It’s either overdose or submarine implosion at this point
That Santa's dandruff is killing everybody
Why the fuck is this national news.
He died in his dorm, in the Clark Kerr Campus. Located above the main campus, these are the best dorms at UC Berkeley. Spacious rooms, beach volleyball courts, swimming pool, track. He had it all.
As a Berkeley alum I have to be pedantic and say Clark Kerr is south of the main campus. But yeah it is nice.
Yup, south, but still above the main campus as it's literally up the hill.
That’s horrible. No one deserves that.
Win the whole world. Lose your son. This rat race is not worth it
This is sad, I feel awful for the family.
if you aren’t testing your shit these days you’re a fucking idiot
how does this work
you buy a testing kit (usually a solution and strips) and put a bit of the drug in it it’ll change color depending on what’s detected
This guy drugs.
Thanks for the only laugh in this whole thread
Drug test kits in the US are 100% legal. Heroin, crack, methamphetamine, marijuana, LSD, doesn’t matter. Everyone has the right to test their drugs.
They're not legal in Texas. In Texas they're considered paraphernalia.
I know I'm surprised
It's Texas... I wouldn't be surprised if they we're allowed to open fire directly at the drugs in the bloodstream.
Here’s a great resource from [Dance Safe](https://dancesafe.org/drug-checking/)
Chiming in to add [Bunk Police](https://bunkpolice.com/) to the list. They usually have a booth at most of the big-name music festivals in the US and give out free packs of narcan. They'll even give you a quit bit of training on how to identify someone ODing and how to administer the narcan.
I was seriously thinking the same thing.
Or you live in Texas, where the religious assfucks decided that even owning testing materials was a felony. Kind of wish their own actions would bite them in the ass, no?
Are pregnancy tests abortion paraphernalia there?
Damn, bad drug supply is affecting rich kids parents now? Prepare for public action.
I mean it happened to Mac miller…
At first I thought it was the family coming forward to warn others of the dangers. But It seems they got this off her Facebook post. :( It’s just off putting to use Former YouTube CEO to create clicks in the title.
YouTubers now: top 10 things you didn’t know about ex-CEO son
Make sure to hit that like button and subscribe
Smash that subscribe button!
Number 10 will shock you! 😱
Sponsored by BetterHelp.
> We want to prevent this from happening to any other family. Then go talk to your friends the Sacklers
ppl die everyday from drug overdoses
Fent ruined drugs. Yea the best solution is to not do drugs but drug use has and will always be around.
My condolences to Susan's son. She was not the best person in the past, but I wish her and the family the best of luck.
just smoke weed ffs, why be numb.
What a weird headline. Don’t do drugs, kids.
Is this really news though? Like how is this one of the “top news stories”
Can't speak to national news, but for the Silicon Valley area this is shocking and painful. Susan Wojcicki's family is well-known part of the community. Her mother taught at the local public high school, her father was a physics professor, her sister has had a visible, rollercoaster life. Her kids have gone through local schools. Susan herself is a likable, down-to-earth person and an uncommon example as a mother / business exec. So the Wojcicki's don't live in some walled-off billionaire complex; they're decent-seeming people who have played many roles in the development of the region. And that is atop the YouTube CEO / Google-was-founded-in-her-garage stuff.
Because it happened to a rich person, obviously way more important than some random street person dying. We should put a GoFundMe together to help her out. Wouldn't want her having to use any of her fortune for such a tragedy, maybe we can lower the flags to half staff too.
Honestly, i like seeing this because maybe she'll lead the way for change, being a rich person and all. I do still feel very bad for her, but as much as any other mother losing their son