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Frying Your Brain on Fake Pot

The danger from so-called 'synthetic marijuana' is real

This weekend I found myself at a party at which I met a psychiatric nurse. She’s been at her career for most of her life, and is nearing retirement age. I asked her about her work and its challenges. At one point, she mentioned how striking it is to see the serious damage people who smoke so-called synthetic marijuana (herbs sprayed with chemicals intended to mimic a cannabis high) do to their minds. “How is this stuff still legal in places?” she said.

And then she described the psychosis that sets in with some who smoke it. They really do severe and seemingly permanent damage to their minds, she said. I told her that we know a brilliant young man who lost his mind because of this stuff. It’s terrifying, and tragic beyond all telling. The nurse said that she believes that those who fall victim to the stuff are people who likely had a latent underlying psychosis, one that smoking synthetic marijuana unleashed. Once that demon is out of its box, there may be no putting it back.

What this nurse said to me resonated deeply because I’ve watched this wonderful, smart, well-educated young friend go from being a creative and beloved teacher who was headed to the top of the world to being a delusional, sometimes-homeless vagabond who has all but destroyed his life. It began with his synthetic pot habit, which caused psychotic breaks, one in which he nearly killed himself, and another in which he was arrested under humiliating circumstances, and committed to a psych ward. He then ended up homeless, despite his mother and father’s best efforts to help him, but came back to himself briefly when he stopped smoking the synthetic pot. His sanity seems to have fallen apart again, though I don’t know if he’s back on the drug. Point is, this over-the-counter herbal mixture fried his brain. It’s not a joke or an exaggeration, as a number of people (including some readers of this blog who know the man in question) can attest. If you use this stuff, or know someone who does, or who is tempted to, please stay away from it. You have no idea what it might do to you. But I do, and so does this psychiatric nurse I talked to.

UPDATE: A friend e-mails to say that a couple of years back, a kid in her church started smoking Spice, one of the versions of synthetic pot on the market. One night, he went into the sanctuary, doused the altar with gasoline, and set it on fire. By happenstance, a parishioner was walking by the church as the arsonist left, and was able to get inside and put the fire out before too much damage had been done.

Today, my friend reports, the young man who started the fire has been diagnosed as schizophrenic, and jailed. “He will never recover from it,” says my friend. A normal, nice church kid before he took up Spice.

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