Teen left brain damaged after smoking synthetic marijuana

[OZ Stoners]

A 17-year-old girl has been left brain damaged, blind and paralysed after smoking synthetic marijuana and suffering a series of strokes.

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    A 17-year-old girl has been left brain damaged, blind and paralysed
after smoking synthetic marijuana and suffering a series of strokes.

    Emily Bauer, from Cypress in Texas, was left severely disabled after
smoking a product that she purchased from a local petrol station.

    Ms Bauer purchased the substance last December with friends, but around
15 minutes after smoking it, told her boyfriend she had a migraine and
needed to lie down.

    She subsequently suffered a series of strokes that left her urinating
on herself, running into walls and suffering violent hallucinations.

    Her sister Blake told CNN that the police had to be called to help
restrain her and get her to Northwest Cypress Hospital, where she
attempted to bite medical staff.

    "We thought once she comes down off the drug, we'd take her home and
show her the dangers of this drug," her older sister, Blake, said.

    "We didn't think it was as big of a deal until 24 hours later she was
still violent and hurting herself. We realized you're not supposed to
stay high this long."

    Ms Bauer was put into a medically induced coma, as tests revealed the
strokes had caused severe vasculitis - a contraction of blood vessels
that restricts blood and oxygen reaching the brain.

    Ms Bauer's stepfather Tommy Bryant told CNN: "In four days' time, we
went from thinking everything is going to be OK and we'll put her in
drug rehabilitation, to now you don't know if she's going to make it".

    The teenager showed initial signs of improvement, but pressure on her
brain grew to dangerous levels and she required a hole drilled in her
skull to relieve the burden.

    Around 70 per cent of Ms Bauer's brain was considered 'dead', and when
doctors told her parents she would not be able to recognise her family
and would never be able to use her arms or legs again, they opted to
take out her breathing tubes and stop all nourishment.

    Ms Bauer continued to fight however, and her condition has steadily
improved. She even managed to tell her mother she loved her at one point
during the early stages of her recovery.

    Although she knows where she is and recognises the voices of family members, Ms Bauer is still considered highly confused.

    Although she still suffers paralysis, she has recently started moving
her arms and legs and even started eating solid food in the last
fortnight.

    Synthetic marijuana is usually an herbal mixture doused in chemicals
and marketed as Spice or K2, although there is no indication that Ms
Bauer consumed either of these particular brands.

    To get around legal complications, synthetic marijuana is often
labelled as potpourri or incense. When a particularly variety is banned,
manufacturers simply change the chemical compound, allowing it to
return to the shelves.

    Ms Bauer's family have set up a non-profit organisation to make
teenagers and their relatives aware of the dangers of synthetic drugs

[burner]

It baffles me as to why they call it synthetic marijuana, cannabis is cannabis, chemicals are chemicals, you can only replicate the experience, and as is displayed here, sometimes with severe consequence! Stick to mother nature.

[Ferrethead]

Now wait for all the naysayers to link this to real cannabis giving reason not to legalise.

[Cerberus]

There's a few points in this article that irk me:

 

1. Apparently the doctors said she'd lost 70% of her brain activity and she could possibly not be able to recognise her family or move her limbs...

 

...and the family's decision was to deny her oxygen and nourishment?!?

 

Now, making a decision about your child like that would be hard... but does she not deserve to live anymore because she's disabled?!?

 

How fucking callous are her parents?

 

2. She's starting to recover. How bad do the parents feel now? They were about to kill her (and a fucking pillow over the face would've been quicker), and now she's improving and can recognise where she is and who her family are?!?

 

In my opinion, those parents should be euthanised 'cos they damn can't think outside their own little personalities.

 

3. They never mentioned which brand of synthetics she used. These stories never do, they just mention a few brands near the end to scare everyone.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying synthetics are acceptable, but for fuck's sake, at least let people know which synthetic is the culprit instead of just namedropping 2 of the most popular brands (which may or may not have had detrimental effects on it's users)

 

I mean, how would you guys feel if someone out there started lacing pot with lethal shit and they started blaming all weed on killing people?

 

fucking disgraceful parenting and reporting (although the reporter gets off the hook, cos the parents seem like bigger parasites)