Just about an hour ago, I saw people on Twitter tweeting at Scott Adams with their condolences over the loss of his son. It felt like such an under-the-radar way to find out about the tragic loss of a public figure's child, so I decided to Google it-- and found nothing.
Then, I saw this Periscope video that Adams posted to Twitter, in which he shares the news:
Since I write these nightly blog posts anyway, I figured I'd make tonight's post about the Periscope video.
Yesterday morning, after Adams' daily Periscope, Adams got a text message that there was a 9-11 call on one of the other lines on his phone plan. Right after that, he got a call from his ex-wife, Shelly Miles, who told him that his 18-year-old stepson, Justin, had died in his bed from a drug overdose. The coroner found a fentanyl patch on his arm, but he doesn't know whether the patch was Justin's immediate cause of death. Justin had also been trying to get his hands on Xanax.
And since Xanax nowadays is made of a mix of drug ingredients, including fentanyl, Adams says, Justin would have received a double dose of fentanyl yesterday.
The family was not surprised, since Justin had become addicted to drugs when he was prescribed painkillers after a head injury when he was 14 years old.
"He never wanted to get better," the mourning dad says. "From the time he started doing drugs, he wanted to do more drugs, and that's all he wanted."
So, Adams, his ex-wife, and Justin's biological dad, watched their 18-year-old dead son being taken away on a stretcher.
In the video, Adams talks a bit about fentanyl itself, pharmaceutical companies, China's mass importation of the drug into the U.S., and the rates of mass death in the U.S. caused by the drug. Adams calls for war against Chinese drug importers and executives promoting the harmful drug trade.
"I'd like to offer to China, to President Xi, who I do respect -- to give him first chance to take care of the problem himself," he says. "If you don't, I think we can hold China responsible for perhaps 30,000 deaths per year in this country. So in a very real way we are at war with China, in sort of an indirect way, not with the government, per se. But I would be in favor of our CIA or our dark intelligence people going after those executives directly. Even at the price of substantial international problems. So I'm calling for death of those executives of those Chinese companies, who we believe are not doing enough."
Adams also talks about California laws, which heavily regulate parental restrain on their children. There was no way to stop his heavily addicted son from walking out of the door and getting his fix of fentanyl or whatever drug he had been hooked on since he was a kid.
The father then talks about his son's relationship with opioids, which had completely overshadowed his own personality.
He adds, "Do I want to kill somebody who might be responsible for 30,000 American deaths per year? Yes I do. Legally or illegally, I want them dead. So, I want the government to know, you have my support."
Since this is a part of his daily Periscope, Adams continues with a bunch of other topics such as new California company laws, Canada, sexual assault, millennial employment rates, Steve Bannon, Michael Avenatti, Jeff Flake, and Brett Kavanaugh.
I skipped through a big part of the second half of the video, because I was in a rush. But I watched the end, in which he finishes talking about smartphones and the value of overcoming obstacles. Having obstacles when you're young, he says, is a motivator for happiness and wealth when you're older. Smartphones offer a level of satisfaction that you don't get from being out in the world and accomplishing things. So many millennials gain more satisfaction at home with their smartphones than being out in the world.
The last sentence in the video is Adams saying he has to log off and make funeral plans for his stepson. RIP Justin.