The Beacon News reported that a mother has filed a wrongful death lawsuit due to her son's use of a synthetic form of marijuana that he purchased legally from a smoke shop, which caused panic attack symptoms and his fatality in a car crash.
The lawsuit was filed on November 1 in DuPage County Court.
On June 14 M.D., 19, along with a female friend, purchased a labeled bag of potpourri called "iAroma" - a form of synthetically created marijuana - at a smoke shop in Aurora's Westfield Fox Valley mall.
The shop that sold the allegedly legal merchandise is now closed.
The suit claims that the bag included no instructions on how to sue it, ingredients included marshmallow leaf and fruit scent - no synthetic drugs were listed - and the labeling depicted a picture of black smoke.
M.D. and his friend smoked a sampling of the product before M.D. was dropped off at his house. Once home, M.D. elicited signs of a panic attack and called his brother on the phone to tell him what his reaction to the drug was.
After the phone call, M.D. allegedly exited his home in such a hurry that he left the doors open - allowing a family pet to escape - and got into a car.
M.D. was then seen driving very unpredictably: He was on the wrong side of the road with speeds up to 100 mph, ran into road signs and finally hit a curb that sent his car through the air.
His vehicle landed in a house. After coming to stop in the home's kitchen, and almost driving into a child, M.D. died at the scene.
The suit claims that an autopsy revealed that M.D. had JWH-210 in his system - which is a synthetic form of marijuana.
The suit states, "JWH compounds are exponentially more powerful than natural marijuana and cause pronounced psychological and physical reactions in the human body, including: delusions, paranoia, cardiac issues and panic attacks. JWH compounds are widely regarded as dangerous by the medical and scientific community, and have no other purpose other than to produce exaggerated marijuana like effects on the body."
M.D.'s mother, K.B., claims that her son's friends told her that he presumed that the item was safe to smoke as he had purchased it legally in a retail store.
The claim alleges that the store was responsible for selling an item that was not for scenting a household, but, instead, sold for the purpose of smoking.
K.D. said, "I feel that as a society, we failed (M.D.). As a mother, I failed him. I didn't tell him about the danger. He was a kid who listened to his mother. He was a rare bird. If I had told him about this - that it was dangerous - he would have listened. It was not the glass of wine that he thought it was."
K.D. has since started a foundation with the goal of educating others about iAroma, or any of the forms of synthetic marijuana that is being sold. She is also spearheading a campaign to have synthetic marijuana being sold as potpourri taken out of retail stores.
We can't always protect our children from harm. In this wrongful death scenario the mother is now fighting for change. Oftentimes a lawsuit helps bring about that change. Contact a personal injury lawyer if you have lost a loved one in a wrongful death scenario.