David Burnett talks about his son, Chase, whose soccer picture is displayed, during a workshop on synthetic marijuana on Monday at Dalton State College. (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)
Their son, Chase, thought it was OK. He thought it was OK enough that he tried it several times — and on March 4 at just 16 years old, he drowned in a hot tub after smoking the substance.
The Burnetts, residents of Fayetteville, Ga., spoke at Dalton State College Monday night at a workshop attended by about 60 community members on the effects of synthetic marijuana and its rising use. The new Georgia law that makes it a crime to use or sell drugs that are similar in structure to already-outlawed drugs including synthetic marijuana, is named Chase’s law after their son. The Burnetts said the Dalton State visit was the first of what they expect to be several speaking appearances.
Yvette Burnett described Chase as someone who was exceptionally full of life. He loved everything he tried, she said — football, soccer, skiing, snowboarding, cooking. He was friendly at school, was the only student there who wore Heelys and was a smart kid.
“Our son bought into the lie that because it was legal, because it was on the market (it was OK); and because he was tempted by Satan it cost him his life,” David Burnett said. “I never in a million years would have thought it would happen to our son, but it did.”
Justin Goforth, president of the college’s Lambda Alpha Epsilon criminal justice organization, said the group organized the workshop, which included a question-and-answer session with local law enforcement and others, in an effort to educate the community.
The substance Chase used was called “Spice,” one of many forms of synthetic marijuana. Dr. Ujwal Reddy, the medical director at Highland Rivers Center, a mental health and rehabilitation facility in Dalton, said he’s seeing more patients being brought to the center because of the drug’s effects. They include paranoia and psychosis as well as increased blood pressure and heart rate. The latter two can rise to potentially deadly levels depending on the strength of the drug and the individual’s reaction to it, he said.
“In the last six months, every week we have seen at least one or two young kids come (in having used) synthetic marijuana,” Reddy said.
Dalton Police Department Det. Chris Tucker said officials are working with local convenience stores to remove the product from their shelves. The substance is still legal in Tennessee and is easy for users to buy there.
Click here to read full story.
Maybe they should re-focus their efforts on banning hot tubs. Sounds like that was the real culprit.
Google Hot tub death to find numerous articles about the subject. One article:
http://www.seattlepi.com/national/article/Someone-drowns-in-a-tub-nearly-every-day-in-1201018.php
Mixing cocaine and pharmaceuticals is extremely dumb but it didn't fill Houston's lungs with water.
Since it seems we can undercut personal responsibility and ban what people can smoke, maybe we should also require life vests or arm floats in bathtubs, hot tubs, spas and pools.
The article you posted also links alcohol to drowning deaths. I suppose we should make booze illegal since it can cause drownings, too.
I guess the salient point here is that we shouldn't be blaming drugs and/or alcohol for these drownings. We should blame the individual and their irresponsible actions. Do your drugs outside of pools of water and you will not have this problem.
Education, not prohibition.
And furthermore, for those who say it's a "gateway" drug...it is as long as it is illegal. If one could purchase legally then they wouldn't have to visit the drug dealer, where they will be exposed to other illegal drugs. Plus, that would greatly reduce the capital funding of the cartels who use marijuana profits to fund their coke and meth ventures and their murderous mayhem. It also gives us (taxpayers) a break from spending billions to wage this ridiculous, can't -win war on pot and our overburdened court and prison system that is full of folks who got caught with a small bag of it. Use the tax money from legalized sales to fight the cocaine, meth, etc. Seems reasonable to me.
I agree with you in regards to your points about government invasion of our rights in regards to our own bodies. I agree with your assessment on alcohol. I still think that the monetary benefit from legalization would be significant enough for it to be a credible argument. I know in the grand scheme of things $10-20 billion per year would never be considered a windfall for a country mired in $15 trillion of debt, but it's not chump-change either. I'm sure you've already seen the latest study done on the dollars and cents, but I'll post a link for everyone to look at.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/04/20/how-legalizing-marijuana-could-save-137-billion_n_1441194.html