A Cypress, Texas teenager had a brush with death just before Christmas; the cause of her near demise – synthetic marijuana.
According to a Feb. 5, CNN report, “Hospital staff removed Emily Bauer's breathing tube and stopped all medication and nourishment at 1:15 p.m. December 16. Only morphine flowed into her body, as the family waited by her side in her final moments.”
Expected to die just days before her 17th birthday, the teenager managed to hang onto her life.
Two weeks earlier Bauer had been in ICU from smoking “fake weed” – a mixture of herbs that’s sprayed with chemicals and is designed to create a high similar to smoking pot.
Synthetic weed is advertised as a legal alternative to marijuana which is illegal in most states.
Using brightly colored packaging with catchy names, marketing is aimed at teens. The trendy drug substitute is sold in convenience stores under the guise of potpourri.
Bauer had purchased synthetic marijuana at a gas station.
According to a report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 11,406 visits to ER’s were attributed to synthetic marijuana; the majority of patients were 12 to 17 year-old children.
Bauer suffered a series of strokes. Her vascular system had constricted causing a rise in blood pressure, a most common effect of synthetic weed.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman Barbara Carreno says synthetic cannabinoids “can be 100 times more potent than marijuana,”
Bauer’s family is starting a nonprofit organization called Synthetic Awareness For Emily.
According to the CNN report, their goal with SAFE is “to educate families, as well as teachers and doctors, about the dangers and warning signs of synthetic marijuana use.”
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