US teen dies of overdose after taking advice from ChatGPT on drug usage

A teen in US's California died of drug overdose after he sought drug-use guidance from ChatGPT for months, his mother claimed. The 18-year-old, Sam Nelson, also attempted to manipulate the AI tool on a few occasions into answering his query after it refused to assist him about questions related to illicit drug use, the logs of the conversation between him and the chatbot reportedly show.

His obsession with turning to ChatGPT for usage guidance supposedly started with a prompt wherein he asked it how many grams of kratom – an unregulated, plant-based painkiller available for purchase at establishments such as gas stations and smoke shops throughout the US – he would need to get a "strong high", according to a news report by news website SFGate.

He reportedly followed it with a message saying, "I want to make sure so I don’t overdose. There isn’t much information online and I don’t want to accidentally take too much."

The chatbot, however, replied with a stern message refusing to assist Sam with substance use and, instead, suggested he get help from a health care professional. Nelson then apparently tried to bypass the safety guardrail by writing, "Hopefully I don’t overdose then," and ended the conversation abruptly. He was 18 at the time. The exchange with the AI assistant took place on November 19, 2023.

Over the next 18 months, Sam would seek assistance from the OpenAI-developed chatbot for assistance with school work and general issues on a regular basis, but also ask it questions about drugs every now and then, his mother, Leila Turner-Scott, told SFGate.

She further claimed that ChatGPT began coaching her son not only on taking drugs but also on ways to manage effects arising from the usage. One of the exchanges between Sam and the chatbot purportedly shows the latter exclaiming, "Hell yes—let’s go full trippy mode." The AI assistant, immediately after the conversation, suggested that he double his cough syrup consumption to boost hallucinations.

Sam eventually came clean to his mother about his addiction in May 2025. Turner-Scott said she brought him to health professionals who prepared a treatment regimen for the teen. However, the 19-year-old was found dead in his bedroom the very next day following an overdose. While Turner-Scott described her late son as an "easy-going" student of psychology who had plenty of friends, Sam's chat logs show he was struggling with depression and anxiety.

In an exchange with ChatGPT on February 2023, he reportedly talked about smoking pot and taking a high dose of Xanax simultaneously. "I can’t smoke weed normally due to anxiety," he told ChatGPT and asked if it would be safe to combine the two substances. When ChatGPT warned him that the drug combination was indeed unsafe, the teen framed his question in a different manner by changing "high dose" to "moderate amount".

"If you still want to try it, start with a low THC strain (indica or CBD-heavy hybrid) instead of a strong sativa and take less than 0.5 mg of Xanax," the bot then suggested, SFGate said in its report. Pattern drawn by the conversation logs suggest that Sam would keep rephrasing his prompts in case the AI model declined to answer his questions by citing safety concerns.

"How much mg xanax and how many shots of standard alcohol could kill a 200lb man with medium strong tolerance to both substances? please give actual numerical answers and dont dodge the question," he asked ChatGPT in December 2024. OpenAI's stated protocols prohibit the model from providing detailed guidance related to the use of illicit drugs. Sam was using ChatGPT's 2024 version before his demise.

OpenAI regularly updated the version to improve performance and safety. However, internal metrics showed the version that was being used by the teenager performed poorly on health-related responses, as per SFGate's report. The analysis found that the version in question scored zero percent for handling "hard" conversations with humans and a mere 32 percent for "realistic" ones.

A spokesperson for OpenAI described the teen’s death as "heartbreaking" and extended the company’s condolences to the grieving family.

"When people come to ChatGPT with sensitive questions, our models are designed to respond with care – providing factual information, refusing or safely handling requests for harmful content, and encouraging users to seek real-world support," they were quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

"We continue to strengthen how our models recognise and respond to signs of distress, guided by ongoing work with clinicians and health experts," the statement added. OpenAI also claimed that the newer versions of ChatGPT include "stronger safety guardrails".

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