Teenager Sick From Smoking Synthetic Pot, Dies

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by AP

Story Created: Nov 2, 2011 at 4:53 PM EDT

Story Updated: Nov 2, 2011 at 4:53 PM EDT

PITTSBURGH, P.A.--A Pennsylvania eighth-grader who became ill after smoking synthetic marijuana and had a double lung transplant has died.

Tonya Rice tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that her 13-year-old son, Brandon, died Thursday morning at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh at UPMC.

The boy smoked the fake marijuana out of a plastic PEZ candy dispenser. The chemicals in the drugs caused extensive damage to his lungs. Brandon was put on a respirator in June and had a double lung transplant in September.

The boy's mother says anti-rejection drugs he'd taken since the transplants weakened his immune system and made him unable to fight a recent infection.

Gov. Tom Corbett signed a law outlawing such substances in Pennsylvania a few days after the boy smoked the substances. The ban took effect in August.

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