16 year old is brain damaged from smoking "synthetic marijuana"

[at0m]

CNN Report:

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/04/health/synthetic-marijuana-irpt/index.html

Sister's report:

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-895582

Emily Bauer was a normal 16 year old girl full of light and laughter, until she decided to try and smoke "Kush", a synthetic marijuana sold under the name potpourri by corner stores and headshops in the area. Emily figured because her friends were doing it, and all seemed fine, that she would be okay. She was terribly mistaken, as is thousands of others who have suffered complications from smoking "fake weed". Kush is unregulated, and you never know what's in it, since the makers are constantly changing a chemical in the compound to find a loophole every time it is outlawed.

Within 15 minutes of smoking, Emily told her boyfriend that she had a migraine and was going to lay down. She then suffered strokes which put her in a psychotic like state, where she proceeded to urinate herself, run into walls, speak gibberish, hallucinate and act violent. The police were called to help restrain her into an ambulance, where she was taken to Northwest Cypress Hospital. The doctors put Emily into an induced coma, where she spent the next 4 days in ICU as they did multiple tests on her brain.

The doctors quickly found out she had strokes, and it had caused severe vasculitis and that parts of her brain were permanently shut down and damaged from the blood vessels contracting and cutting off the oxygen to her brain-- but they also gave us hopes, one as such that she could hear us talking, because her heart rate would rise while we were in the room holding her hand, and stroking the hair off of her swollen face.

After they did all they could do, they life-flighted her in a helicopter to Memorial Herman Hospital Children's ICU on Fannin, where the family learned the hope that her blood vessels were starting to open back up and allow blood to reach her brain. We all grew overjoyed, little did we know this would become our next nightmare.

The open vessels allowed too much blood to reach her brain, and the pressure around her brain was a 28 (a normal human brain is between 1 and 10) and she would need a life or death operation on the brain immediately or she would die. And the other head of the coin stated that if, by chance, she made it through this operation, that the state we saw her in now.. would be how she would be forever -- a vegetable. My mother decided quickly to give Emily the operation, she signed the papers and gave Emily her last goodbyes as they wheeled her off to the Adult Neurology ICU of Memorial Herman and proceeded to drill a whole into her skull where they could insert a tube to drain fluid from her skull.

The family waited and cried, we had no idea if we would ever see Emily again, but we knew that even if we did, we will never have our old Emily back.

Emily made it through the surgery, and she now lays in the ICU, looking peaceful and heavily sedated, as the doctor monitors her and the family waits. It could be days, weeks, months; She will probably never be the same.

I am trying to get the story out about this so called "legal weed", which corner stores sell and do not card for because it is considered aroma. Kids and Adults are smoking this and it's been having serious consequences. Get this story out for Emily, please. So that maybe our tragedy could help others.

EDIT AND UPDATE TO THE STORY (1-04-13):

Just to give an update on my beautiful little sister-- A long time has passed. She is blind, mostly paralyzed, but fighting every day to make progress.

The day we decided to pull her off life support, just a few days short of her 17th birthday, Emily fought hard to keep herself going in her vegetable state even without the feeding tube or ventilator she had been previously attached to. The next morning, even though she was supposed to pass within 30 minutes of being removed from life support, my mom walked by her hospital bed saying "Good Morning, I love you." to surprisingly hear my sister whisper back, in a hoarse voice, "I love you too."

Since then, she has miraculously started breathing on her own. On her 17th birthday, even though she couldn't move, is blind, and could hardly be aware of what was going on around her, she laughed with us as we made jokes and listened to her soft whisper replies. It is my little sister shining through, in every way she can manage, with every ounce of strength.

She fights every day to move a finger. She fights every day to whisper out a reply to let us know she is aware, and ready to get out of that bed. She is in so much pain and confusion, but the family is thankful every single day to still have her alive.

Soon we should be moving her to TIRR Rehab where she will learn how to see, walk and talk again hopefully within a few years.

Our mother, has started a charity for Emily called S.A.F.E. (Synthetic Awareness For Emily). It will go towards spreading the word about this awful drug and hopefully open up ears and eyes to the dangers.

Here is the link to the Facebook page for Emily Bauer, please "like" and spread the word!

https://www.facebook.com/safe4emily

Edited February 5, 2013 by at0m

[goneski]

And yet the real thing will remain prohibited. Nothing will change, people will keep dying or becoming severely injured, life goes on.. Fucking bullshit.

Edited February 5, 2013 by SYNeR

[Torsten]

hmmm, strokes can be caused by many things. while the synth cannabinoids seem to have triggered her strokes, she could have also had them from consuming anything else. or maybe 5 years later from a cup of strong coffee. Strokes are caused by thrombosis or hemorrhage which are not things normally caused by cannabinoid agonists. It is more likely from stimulants or from unhealthy lifestyle. ie, a healthy individual doesn't smoke cannabinoids and end up stroking without there being some other factor involved.

SYNer, if the stroke was indeed from cannabinoid receptor binding effects then real cannabis could have caused them too. Indeed, cannabis has been shown to double stroke risk in young adults. I still feel that there must be other underlying or contributing factors, regardless of whether natural or synthetic cannabis.

[goneski]

Right, so that makes her the Anna Wood of synthetics then.. Complete with campaigning parents.

Even worse.

DISCLAIMER: I don't use or condone the use of synthetics. Frankly, I think they're shit. It's just insane seeing history repeat itself over and over and watching people

fail to learn anything.

Edited February 5, 2013 by SYNeR

[ballzac]

hmmm, strokes can be caused by many things. while the synth cannabinoids seem to have triggered her strokes, she could have also had them from consuming anything else.

Or, she just happened to have a stroke. It happens to individuals with even the healthiest of lifestyles. Correlation does not prove causation. If I buy milk and then get hit by a car, that does not mean that milk causes car accidents. That said, there has not been a lot of research into these chemicals, and it's plausible that there could be a connection. There would need to be real research into this rather than anecdotes and one or two case studies to actually work out what the dangers are. Unfortunately, that would be difficult considering that most people probably don't even know which cannabinoids they are taking, and if some of them are in fact dangerous, more people will have to die before a causal link can be established.

Considering that there is a fairly well researched and relatively benign alternative, it's unfortunate that people are forced to potentially risk their safety with under-researched drugs.

[indigo264nm]

SYNer, if the stroke was indeed from cannabinoid receptor binding effects then real cannabis could have caused them too. Indeed, cannabis has been shown to double stroke risk in young adults. I still feel that there must be other underlying or contributing factors, regardless of whether natural or synthetic cannabis.

One thing I have found with some synth blends is a short lived terror reaction in many people, although I forget the particular compound that seems to be responsible for that. This causes a fucking heavy rise in heart rate and blood pressure accompanied with fearing for life lol.

With somebody already presenting with hypertension and tachycardia, a heavy spike in blood pressure and heart rate could be enough to push somebody over the edge into stroke.

I have a feeling that certain synths will be found to have some antagonistic GABA action... no hard evidence to back this up, just a hunch.

I know somebody doing research that has told me that he has recently found THC to show binding affinity for particular GABA receptors and whilst it's too early to imply a physiological consequence it's not too far of a step to think that some of the synthetic compounds might share activity with the GABA system.

Edited February 5, 2013 by -=IndigoSunrise=-

[Heretic]

I doubt that these MANUFACTURED [ as opposed to bio-synthesis in the natural plant product ] pseudo cannabinoids [ and RCs ] have been clinically tested like all other medicinal - type compounds destined for human consumption . The actual molecular structure of this stuff bears no resemblance whatsoever to cannabinoids . The creeps peddling this garbage are able to do because of " not for consumption " disclaimers , and calling it " incense " , " fertilizer " , ' bath salts " , etc . . Perhaps tragedies such as this like this might be avoided if the drug laws were not so ludicrous and ineffective . After all , genuine cannabis has been used for thousands of years , and I am not aware of any serious or permanent problems caused by its use in moderation ....

Edited February 5, 2013 by Heretic

[Bread Filter]

One thing I have found with some synth blends is a short lived terror reaction in many people, although I forget the particular compound that seems to be responsible for that. This causes a fucking heavy rise in heart rate and blood pressure accompanied with fearing for life lol.

JWH-018 Was notorious for that. Most of the others are the same as well from what I have read.

[Bigred]

what gets to me is how they sell it, you never get a analysis of the product so you never know

what your getting. Even if it did come with a analysis , would you trust it . I see a lot of vendors

saying how great it is and how it is safe with out a clue what active ingredients it contains.

[SunChaser]

JWH-018 Was notorious for that. Most of the others are the same as well from what I have read.

That’s complete BS from my experience. JWH-018 did sometimes get the heart pumping and could cause anxiety, but no worse than some extremely good weed. These new synthetics on the other hand can cause full on dread, which can melt ya to the core. I’ve personally never experienced anything like it from any other drug, it made smoking DMT seem like a relaxing walk in the park.

But that’s just my experience from smoking one cone of the more potent post ban blends (code black), without any tolerance. Never had the same problem with the other blends I’ve tried, but then again I’ve never been stupid enough to load up a full cone of a new blend with no tolerance since then.

what gets to me is how they sell it, you never get a analysis of the product so you never know

what your getting. Even if it did come with a analysis , would you trust it . I see a lot of vendors

saying how great it is and how it is safe with out a clue what active ingredients it contains.

Yeah, they should clearly state the chemicals they add. It would make a nice little ‘to ban’ list for the government.

At the end of the day this stuff is obviously shit when compared to cannabis. But as a recreational drug in general, I really don’t think it’s all that bad. It’s just another way for the causal tokers to relax after a hard day and it’s just another way for the bong rats to smoke all their ambitions away, just like they’d still be doing with the real deal if synthetics weren’t around. Its no big deal, the world keeps spinning.

If the powers that be have an issue with people smoking unknown potent chemicals, then they should either legalise cannabis or just deal with it

[Bigred]

I have only smoked it once and it made me dip out, since then I have always been a sceptic.

If the government wanted to know what was in it , it would not take them much to find out

what it is, all they need to do is a simple lab test.

Edited February 5, 2013 by bigred82

[SunChaser]

I have only smoked it once and it made me dip out, since then I have always been a sceptic.

If the government wanted to know what was in it , it would not take them much to find out

what it is, all they need to do is a simple lab test.

I always thought it would be that simple, but apparently it costs them many thousands of dollars to test a product and just because one packet has a particular niod, it doesn’t mean another pack of the same brand will contain the same noids. So it’s a very complex & time-consuming process to get a conviction from it, which at the end of the day is the only reason the authorities would bother obtaining an analysis of these products.

In other words, its just much easier to house invade medical cannabis users & harass teenagers at festivals than to go after incense.

Anyway, I highly doubt this girl died from synthetics, a more likely scenario is it may have acted as a trigger to a condition that was going to happen anyway, rather than an actual cause. Kind of like the psychedelics and schizophrenia connection.

It is kind of ironic how the parents are campaigning to have these synthetics banned though, best case scenario they’ll help get UR-144 banned and then the incense manufacturers will just start adding a potentially more dangerous chemical to these blends, which will probably end up actually finishing the job on someone else’s kid. But that’s the war on drugs for ya, its more harmful to society than the drug they’re trying to protect us from in the first place.

btw, when it comes to actually consuming these products, people should always be aware that it’s not cannabis and should not be used like cannabis. Start with 1/3rd of a pipe and wait 15 minutes before doing more, a product like cotton candy by zeus would be a good one to start with. Most importantly though, if you have a problem controlling your cannabis intake, then incense is probably not for you.

Edited February 6, 2013 by jabez