Target: Andy Jassy, President and CEO of Amazon
Goal: Ban the sale of a food preservative reportedly used to commit suicide.
A food preservative available from Amazon third-party sellers has reportedly been linked to several suicides in recent years. Grieving family members claim their parents, children, siblings, and extended family bought the substance for the express purpose of taking their own lives. Apparently, the company’s algorithms were beginning to suggest similar products that vulnerable people could use for lethal means. Worse yet, the product is available for overnight delivery, putting it into the hands of people in crisis at their lowest points.
When family members began contacting the company and imploring them to take action (dating back years), they were seemingly met with indifference. In some cases, no response occurred, and in other cases messages were promised to be forwarded. In one instance, a family member was allegedly told in an email that the deceased was “in the hands of God now.” While the company can offer thoughts and prayers, the one thing it will not do is take action.
Amazon has consistently refused pleas to cease sale of this product and doubled down on the defense of its continued presence in their marketplace. Reviews issuing warnings were even reportedly removed from the site listings. And despite demands for answers from lawmakers and the banning of this substance by other online retailers, the sales—and the apparent suicides—continue to rise.
Sign the petition below to demand this global influencer prioritize the lives of its consumers over its bottom line.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Mr. Jassy,
Do you want body counts to replace dollar signs when you measure Amazon’s “success”? As you well know, several deaths—most of them young people—have reportedly been associated with a product sold in your marketplace. This apparent deadly trend became so alarming that desperate family members contacted your organization and wrote warning reviews about the product. All of these efforts were seemingly either denied or erased.
In a letter to Congress, you dismissed these tragedies as “misuse” of the product and tried to wash your hands of the matter. But as long as you continue to enable the sale of this product and the potential deaths that will result, your hands will never be clean. Other online marketplaces have done the responsible and the ethical thing by banning any sales of the substance.
Follow their lead. Don’t put a loaded weapon into the hands of individuals in crisis and despair. Don’t kill consumers. Protect the people who helped make Amazon a worldwide success.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Sagar Soneji
Thirty one years as a medical responder and fireman and I don’t know what the devil they are talking about! Where’s the information and how come our nations First Responders haven’t heard about this???
WHAT is the name of this substance, and how can Amazon continue to legally sell it?
Amazon needs reviewers to vet ALL merchandise offerings.
Do the 978 people who already signed even know wtf they are signing for or about? What is this substance called? Who manufactures the substance? What is the substance supposed to be used for and why? How is it used to kill one’s self? I mean is it ingested, smoked, snorted, shot up or some other means to use it? Don’t you think that if someone wants to off themselves, and IF they are serious about it, they are going to find a way to make it happen with or without this substance? It’s easy to blame it all on the substance, but those who are close to this, know better, they know you can’t blame it on the substance.