Synthetic Marijuana Death: Double Lung Transplant Recipient, 13, Dies After Smoking Fake Pot

PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania eighth-grader who became ill after smoking synthetic marijuana and had a double lung transplant has died.

Tonya Rice tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ( ) that her 13-year-old son, Brandon, died Thursday morning at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh at UPMC. http://bit.ly/tk0Vod

The boy smoked the fake marijuana out of a plastic PEZ candy dispenser. The chemicals in the drugs caused extensive damage to his lungs. Brandon was put on a respirator in June and had a double lung transplant in September.

The boy's mother says anti-rejection drugs he'd taken since the transplants weakened his immune system and made him unable to fight a recent infection.

Gov. Tom Corbett signed a law outlawing such substances in Pennsylvania a few days after the boy smoked the substances. The ban took effect in August.

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Information from: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, http://pghtrib.com

Comments

[spoutcast]

06:51 AM on 11/09/2011

it seems pretty clear the synthetic marijuana was not to blame for his death. he smoked PLASTIC, with transplanted lungs, and ALREADY had an infection he could not fight? i dont believe in k2/spice, but lets get some truth out there huffington post

[Porbin]

08:55 PM on 10/31/2011

but how many deaths are related to cops each year?

[Ravi Abunijad]

01:18 PM on 10/31/2011

Yeah, but just think of how many deaths REAL marijuana would have caused, if this is only the fake stuff. :)

[Ploinky]

05:19 PM on 10/31/2011

Real marijuana does not cause any deaths. Check alcohol for that. I won't post stats here, but check for yourself. Alcohol caused deaths are staggering. Marijuana...0.

[Ravi Abunijad]

06:11 PM on 10/31/2011

Check YOUR facts. Real marijuana kills millions every year. Alcohol saves lives and has dozens of legitimate medical uses for treating neurological disorders. If you self-medicate with a bunch of alcohol each day, you can actually undo a lot of the negative effects of MS and cancers.

(Ha, obviously my original comment wasn't serious.)

[CommonCents23]

01:11 PM on 10/31/2011

When you make an in-demand substance that's realitivly harmless illegal, this is what happens. People try to make a "legal" verson thats way more harmfull and people end up dying.

I'm certainly not saying an 8th grader should be smokin weed, but it wouldn't have killed him.

This drug war kills people in many different ways.

[Ravi Abunijad]

01:21 PM on 10/31/2011

I totally agree. And, I don't even know if "relatively" harmless is a fair assessment. If you use a vaporizer to smoke it... or if you eat it, the substance is entirely harmless. Certainly there is some small amount of damage from smoking it, just like smoking anything.

But, decades later, we're still treating cannabis like a killer drug. And that's killing people.

[Yossarian22]

10:25 AM on 10/31/2011

Something tells me that the burning plastic from the Pez dispenser had more to do with it than the synthetic pot. And who the Hell sells K2 to an eighth grader anyway?

[Niels Nellon]

08:25 PM on 10/30/2011

It's just best to go organic. I'm sorry for that kid. I did something similar when I was young. I rolled up regular grass from a field into newspaper and lit it with a magnifying glass and smoked it. I am still alive, but the grass was organic and the newspaper was from natural products. I just feel so terrible for these kids. Most everyone can admit to doing something stupid in their youth, where they can think back and say "i am lucky to be alive". Everything is getting more synthetic and more dangerous. I think it's a sign of the times.

[tinkertoy]

06:40 PM on 10/31/2011

LOL - I remember trying to smoke oregano and then instant coffee to see if I could get high.

[Porbin]

08:56 PM on 10/31/2011

except these syntheic pot drugs have real drugs in them.

[RevRayGreen]

07:33 PM on 10/30/2011

after review I've never made a pipe out of a PEZ container...more toxicity with that also.

[RevRayGreen]

07:31 PM on 10/30/2011

the natural not smoked would have helped stengthen his lungs......to late......synthetic is BS.......

[PTerrys]

12:28 AM on 10/31/2011

Are you really suggesting that smoke can strengthen lungs or anything other than flavor?

The process of burning things releases all kinds of gases. I could understand if you had said vaporization.

[CommonCents23]

01:08 PM on 10/31/2011

Actually studies have shown canabanoids can open up restricted airways in asthma patients, so he's actually not too far from the truth.

Regardless, an 8th grader shouldn't be smoking anything.

[robear6987]

04:44 PM on 10/30/2011

bullderdash ! the fact that he got a double lung transplant and was smoking THAT caused his death not fake pot. smoking kills they tell us that all the time . and now that this kid died and he smoked fake pot tells me the media and other anti drug people are so quick to attribute his death to smoking fake pot. excuse me but if you recieved a double lung transplant and you smoke anything , youre gonna die , thats like a heart transplant person who goes out and eats as much burgers as he can then dies , the media will say cheeseburgers killed him and that cheese burgers should be regulated or banned . when the truth is that person ate a bunch of fatty stuff and it killed him , not the buger killing him , but the fat in the burger and we all know fat is found in many other things than just a cheese burger. so for the media to say fake pot killed this kid is just irresponsible reporting, when the fact is SMOKING anything would have killed this kid after a double lung transplant DUH !

[dandymoonlion]

06:02 PM on 10/30/2011

Sir, the article states the lung damage that caused him to get the transplant occured before the transplant, not after, he died of the infection related to anti'rejection meds.

[robear6987]

12:47 AM on 10/31/2011

so why does the media try to blame fake pot for his death? if he was a double lung transplant anything he smoked could kill him .even banna peels.

[Ploinky]

04:21 PM on 10/30/2011

The boy died from inhaling plastic fumes, period. While there are dangers to smoking synthetic weed, immediate, permanent and ultimately deadly lung damage is not one of them. Whoever, from AP or HuffPost, condensed this article from the original by [e-mail] should be fired. This is blatant misinformation. The original writer is also at fault for such an inflammatory headline and for centering on the synthetic weed being the cause until the very end of the article when a doctor clearly states ""It's (the drug) fairly potent, but nothing in the literature has been shown to cause any lung toxicity," he said. But Bricker said plastic -- such as that found in the candy dispenser -- heated at high temperatures will release highly toxic cyanide gas and carbon monoxide."
A boy has died here. How disrespectful to him and the family to very clearly report a complete lie.
Here's the whole article:
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_764280.html#ixzz1cIYHZmRY

[ddanimal]

02:27 PM on 10/30/2011

This was not pot.

Ban K2. legalize marijuana.

[Ploinky]

09:52 PM on 10/30/2011

No need to ban. Just legalize weed and no one will want to use synthetic untested and unknown chemicals.

[edyie47]

10:38 AM on 10/30/2011

I think the Pez Dispenser should be check for the chemicals that damage the lungs of the boy.
I don't think it was the marijuana at all. Who puts chemicals in marijuana, its grown from the ground.
We all know plastic has many chemicals. Maybe the Company don't want to see experts testing the products they make

[casualtysr]

03:24 PM on 10/30/2011

it was synthetic pot, not real pot... but yea it was most likely the burnt plastic that wrecked his lungs.

[TFeral]

10:30 AM on 10/31/2011

the PEZ dispenser wasn't meant to be used as a pipe - it is for dispensing candy - not burning candy, just candy. If you put burning material in a plastic water bottle, it would also be dangerous.

[YellowJuana Cake]

09:06 AM on 10/30/2011

Yellow journalism continues to color the war on drugs. Terrible headline, poor reporting.

[forest sylvan]

01:06 AM on 10/30/2011

Oh yeah, First off stick to the time tested cannabis and stay away from pez dispensers, use an organic apple,potato, carrot, punch a hole in with screw driver or something plunk a small pebble in the bowl, all set!

Humans have desired alternate realities forever, so sad people have to resort to fake things and fake delivery systems because of a failed drug law!!

we should be helping with true initiations as adults and elders, so kids don't sneek off to initiate themselves.

[forest sylvan]

12:52 AM on 10/30/2011

well, cannabis has been used for thousands of years. For many reasons like spiritual,medicine, rope, the paper of the constitution, which confirms our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!