Mom's Crusade to Ban Synthetic Marijuana Can End

Dec. 2, 2010 -- Stacy Huberty of Hastings, Minn., had been on a crusade to get synthetic marijuana off store shelves in her state. She had worked with a group of concerned parents and lawmakers, including State Sen. Kate Sieben, in this effort. Huberty learned of synthetic marijuana in a most disturbing way. She received a call from her daughter that her son, Sam, 14, had passed out on the bathroom floor after trying it once. Huberty rushed to the hospital.

"It was extremely scary," Huberty recalled. "I reached over to touch his arm, and he was just cold and clammy. I didn't know if he was going to die."

After spending five hours with Sam in the emergency room, the distraught mother spoke to a police officer who stood in the hospital's hallway. Hoping to find someone to hold accountable for giving her teenager this harmful substance to smoke, Huberty asked the officer what he knew about synthetic marijuana. His response "floored" her.

"There is nothing that can be done," she said he told her. "It's not an illegal substance" and "no charges could be filed."

Her painfully shy son recalled the moment that nearly cost him his life, and his cousin's simple question that sparked his decision.

"He asked me if I wanted to get high, and I said yeah," Sam Huberty said. "He was like, 'It's kind of like pot. It's legal.'"

In Sam's Minneapolis suburb, emergency incidents resulting from the use of synthetic marijuana have increased exponentially in the past 18 months.

Last week, the Drug Enforcement Administration said it would ban five chemicals used to produce synthetic marijuana, making the product illegal to sell or possess in the United States.

The move comes as a wave of young people across the country has embraced synthetic marijuana, which was sold legally in many places, as a way to get high.

The temporary ban on chemicals in fake pot will take effect in the next 30 days, the DEA said today in a news release. The ban will be in place for at least a year while the federal government considers whether to place permanent controls on the substances.