Dr Laura Berman Gives Details on 16-Year-Old Son Samuel's Death & Warns of Dangers of Snapchat

Relationship therapist Dr. Laura Berman got candid about the loss of her son Sammy. Berman’s 16-year-old son lost his life on Sunday after an accidental drug overdose.

Dr. Laura Berman and her husband Samuel Chapman are mourning their teenage son's loss, who reportedly died from an opioid overdose. Berman recalled events leading up to the unforeseen horror in their home.

In an interview with NBC, Berman shared that Sammy asked his father for food an hour earlier. The television host revealed that she then went into his room an hour later to check on him.

“I went into his room because we had been talking about an internship for the summer that he wanted to do, and he was on the floor, gone, she told Kate Snow. Berman learned that Sammy had bought what he thought was Xanax from a drug dealer on Snapchat.

The straight-A student had no idea that the pill was laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid similar to morphine, but has a greater effect. According to his parents, Sammy felt isolated amid the pandemic and wanted to experiment with prescription pills.

He discovered the sale on the popular multimedia messaging app. Chapman revealed that “each different drug had a different color the way a kid would love to see it.”

Acting Administrator for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Chris Evans, said people are being misled thinking that they are ordering pills by common names, but they are made from fentanyl. Often, the pills are manufactured in Mexico.

Sammy died at home in Santa Monica, California. Berman confirmed the news to USA Today on Monday and released a statement together with Chapman:

“Our son Sammy was a beautiful soul who left us way too soon. Our hearts are broken for ourselves and for all the other children that are suffering during this pandemic.”

The OWN host first shared the news on Instagram and disclosed that Sammy had the drugs delivered to their home in an “experimentation gone bad." She posted a photo of herself embracing her son in a heart-wrenching social media post.

Berman shared that she did not intend on appearing on the news with her husband. The 52-year-old expressed that she felt helpless, adding that all she thought of is that there should never be a repeat of the same incident.

Once again admitting how helpless and furious, she felt. Berman said that she hopes that their story can help other parents lookout for potential social media dangers.

Berman and her spouse are not the only parents that have experienced such trauma when coming to drug-related incidents. Singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge recently opened up about her late son, who battled with substance abuse.

The 59-year-old told People that it is a nightmare that many other families go through. "It just eats away at good people," she said. Etheridge lost her beloved son Beckett nearly nine months ago from an opioid overdose, and he was just 17 years old when he got addicted.