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Mother worried about toll synthetic pot has taken on her son

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Reaction continues to pour in about Monday's Action News investigation of synthetic pot for sale in Jacksonville.

Jamie Smith exposed how this deadly drug is being sold out in the open; now we're hearing from a mother who is thankful for our story, saying she fears the drug is killing her son.

It mirrors the effects of marijuana, but this synthetic pot we found being sold illegally here is much more potent and deadly than smoking the plant.

"It scares me to death," the mother said.

This woman didn't want us to show her face, but she did want to share her story of what synthetic pot has done to her family.

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"He completely falls backwards and he doesn't even know it. He's like a zombie," she said. "I think he's dying.  He's almost comatose."

She told us her son buys synthetic pot at a local adult video store, just like our associate producer did in our investigation that aired Monday.

"I though oh my God. Somebody is going to look into this further," she said.

We did, and despite store employees' denials, we had their product, sold as incense, tested and it came back positive for synthetic cannabinoids, a chemical mixture banned in Florida.

"These people need to be shut down," the mother said.

A law enforcement agency contacted Action News about our investigation, but would not confirm if the store we went to was in their sights.

This local mom tells me she wishes her adult son had stuck with regular marijuana instead of switching to this more dangerous synthetic form of the drug.

"The probation officers don't test for it. They only test for alcohol and marijuana," she said.

But she and other parents worry more about this.

"Every time I find him like that, I think I lost him forever. It takes a toll on me," she said.

Selling synthetic pot containing banned substances is a third-degree felony in Florida.

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