Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Mother of teen killed after smoking synthetic marijuana says Sen. Rand Paul has 'blood on his hands'

The grieving mother of a teenager who was killed after smoking synthetic marijuana is filled with fury at the lone U.S. senator blocking a ban on the dangerous drug.

Karen Dobner told the Daily News she’s called Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) 15 times to tell him about her son Max’s death last year — and to beg him to let the ban come up for a vote. She never got a call back.

“He’s got blood on his hands,” Dobner said.

Even as she mourns the loss of a boy she says was the perfect son before he naively tried iAroma or synthetic pot, Dobner is angry that Paul is putting his libertarian principles before the lives of young people.

And she says she won’t let him get away with killing a bill that the House of Representatives has already green-lighted and the majority of senators are ready to pass.

Paul put a hold on the bill — a perogative any individual senator can exercise — three months ago. “I told his aides he cannot survive politically if he keeps stalling this. We will not let it go,” said Dobner, a mother of three from Aurora, Ill. “Anything else he does will be publicized by us. Every time somebody dies we will hold him accountable.”
Dobner started a foundation called To The Maximus to bring public attention to the emerging danger of synthetic drugs masquerading as “herbal” and “natural” highs.

She has also started a blog and newsletter to alert parents and teens to the unpredictable and harrowing effects of smoking or inhaling the chemically sprayed leaves.

On Wednesday, Paul told The News he might be willing to release his hold and allow a vote to proceed if there were some changes in the proposed legislation. “We are concerned about people being put in jail for 20 years for marijuana,” Paul said.

Max Dobner died June 14 after he bought a $12 packet of iAroma at the local mall. Within 15 minutes of smoking it, he phoned his older brother to say he was having a panic attack and was freaking out, his mother said.

Dobner, a college student, got into his 1999 Chrysler and drove 100 mph on neighborhood roads until he crashed into and destroyed a suburban home, the car lodged inside a baby’s empty bedroom.

He was pulled from the crash, dead from blunt head trauma. The autopsy found the signature chemicals used to make synthetic marijuana, his mother said.

“He was my everything,” Dobner sobbed. “He was always the responsible child, the conscientious one. The one who wanted to make the world a better place. I never would have imagined this.”

Crash
Photo from the car accident that killed Max Dobner.

Emergency calls to poison centers about synthetic pot have skyrocketed around the country in the past three years, from 13 in 2009 to more than 2,900 in 2010 and more than 6,900 in 2011.

Some states have attempted to ban the chemicals used, but manufacturers — who operate in the shadows — get around the prohibition by tweaking the compounds so they are no longer covered by the ban. “How did this happen right under our noses?” asked Dobner. “Kids are having seizures. There are so many horrible stories out there.”

After Max’s death, Dobner, 50, set out to learn everything she could about synthetic drugs to get the word out. She moved into his room and has become a one-woman town crier.

“I would be rolled up in a ball crying every day if I wasn’t doing this,” she said.

“It didn’t take me long to find out about this poison that these nasty, greedy people are trying to sell to our kids and skimming the laws. They don’t care that kids are dying.”

Law enforcement is still learning about the shadowy nether world of synthetic marijuana. A spokesman for the DEA said that the chemicals are imported here from China in powder form. They are then mixed with acetone — common nail polish remover — and sprayed on plant leaves and packaged for stores to sell.

There is no way to know how much of the mind-altering chemical is sprayed on the leaves, and so dosage varies from package to package. There is no way to know how much or what you are inhaling, experts said. One teenager told an interviewer, “I felt like my head was coming off and floating away.”
In just the last two weeks alone, two more deaths were blamed on synthetic pot.

A 17-year-old boy whose family said he was high on it fatally stabbed a sleeping schoolmate, Jasmyn Tully, 17, in Washington State because he felt “an urge to hurt someone,” authorities said.

And on Sunday, police outside Atlanta were investigating the death of a teenager whose body was found in a hot tub. Chase Burnett, 16, an honor student and junior varsity soccer player, was found by his father, who said his son had smoked synthetic marijuana known as “Spice.”

Original Article
Source: ny daily news
Author: Heidi Evans 

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