Another supplier of suicide drug X to be prosecuted
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The Public Prosecution Service (OM) is going after another supplier of suicide powder, Drug X. The suspect is 76-year-old Tom de M. from Castricum, who allegedly sold Drug X through a website for years. He will be prosecuted for seven counts of assisted suicide and money laundering, the Volkskrant reports.
According to the OM, over 500 people ordered Drug X from De M., and he made “a considerable amount of money” through selling the suicide powder. The seven deaths occurred in 2021 and 2022. The authorities discovered the case after a 54-year-old man used the drug to take his own life in Breda in 2021. The police tracked De M. through a postal package.
According to the Volksrkant, De M. sold Drug X on his website, deliveryxpres.com. The suicide powder was listed under “hobby chemicals,” buyers could get it in 2-gram portions. He sold the drug, supplied with a safe with a code lock, for 150 euros plus shipping.
In emails, De M. wrote that he would only provide one portion of the drug per customer. Buyers waited 60 days for delivery to avoid hasty decisions. “It is completely legal to buy and possess,” the website said about Drug X, adding that it is “exclusively intended for small-scale laboratory experiments.” It stated that the drug could be used as a preservative or disinfectant and warned that it had caused deaths and could damage the nervous system.
The case against De M. is the second in a large-scale investigation into the distribution of Drug X. Recently, the court sentenced 30-year-old Alex S. to 3.5 years in prison, 18 months of which conditionally suspended, for assisted suicide. Both S. and the OM appealed.
The authorities are investigating at least 13 other suspects. Almost all of them are members of Coöperatie Laatste Wil (CLW), an organization that fights for the right to decide how and when you will die without involving doctors. CLW “launched” Drug X in 2017. The drug is legal, but providing it can be considered assisted suicide, a criminal offense punishable by three years in prison.
De M. was also a member of CLW. His lawyer declined to comment to the Volkskrant.
