Synthetic Drug Testimonials

These are testimonials from those who have done synthetic drugs and survived, or who are close to those who have survived.  They are taken from e-mails and facebook messages To The Maximus Foundation has received.

If you have a testimonial, you may add it to this page in comments, and we will post it anonymously.

I am a former user and former addict of synthetic marijauna. I became hooked on synthetic marijuana while on probation. I used it to get high and still beat drug tests. I thought I was so smart,but I was sadly mistaken. I went from a gram or less a day to over 3 or 4 a day. As my addiction progressed my ability to control basic behaviors and motor skills deteriorated. I began to become more aggressive when I became upset,which became more and more frequent the more and longer I used. One morning I eventually had a psychotic episode on which I blacked out and almost killed my wife. By the grace of God I didn’t and she was able to get to help. I was arrested and my probation was revoked. I got a much lighter and shorter amount of time in prison than what I should have gotten. I chose to turn my life around,and educate myself on addiction and recovery. A lot of good people helped me to get headed in the right direction. God being my main guide and refuge. Educational material on synthetic marijuana was limited while I was in prison. Since being released I have done a lot of research on the effects and dangers of synthetic marijuana. I also share my experience with others to help encourage them to either not try or to quit using synthetic marijuana. I thank God every day that my wife is alive and that I am too. I pray that this junk will one day disappear completely from this world.

Smoked this stuff for probably about a year all together, all day everyday. I never had any serious issues, a few times a got too high and freaked out a little or saw things or got paranoid but I never considered calling 911 or anything like that. I guess I sort of liked the really intense highs too. A few times I got a throat infection and I developed a nasty cough but nothing really serious. I couldn’t stop though even when my throat was basically bleeding I would still smoke. I would smoke to go to sleep and to eat. When my best friend and I finally decided to stop it wasn’t too difficult for me and I didn’t really withdraw just craved it for a while.

It’s been a little more than a year now and since I’ve stopped I’ve just felt different. After reading all of these posts I am more convinced that the following is thanks to the spice I’ve always had a little anxiety but I started having this constant feeling of dread, sometimes my breathing would be weird and I would have a horrible feeling in my stomach. I started taking lexapro and that helped the dread and anxiety but when I stop taking it the feelings come back.
A couple times now I’ve had periods where I feel like I am like losing my mind or something. I feel like I’m losing touch with reality and if I don’t put effort in a concentrate I will go crazy. It freaks me out, it’s almost like how I felt when I was on the drug except minus being high so it’s scary.
I plan on starting therapy soon to see if they can shed any light on my situation. I’m scared because I feel like I may have screwed myself up permanently, there are no studies on spice I don’t know what damage I could have done and I’m scared ill eventually lose my mind or something. I wish I never touched this stuff.

Glad I found this site. I’m 32y.o & yesterday I saw a man purchase spice from my local tobacco shop. It piqued my interest & I bought some today – 3g for $65. I placed a small amount in a cigarette and inhaled. I expected a mellow high. After just two puffs, I experienced complete association from reality, body shakes, intense fear of death or insanity. I was seconds away from calling emergency. I thought I was going to die!! I also had hallucinations. I vowed to throw it all out if I survived. I had to sit, trapped in a bad trip hell for nearly 2 hours. It was the worst thing I have ever experienced. I threw the bag in the bin. That is some truly nasty, poisonous stuff!!! So grateful to have survived. People need to know about this stuff.

 

 

 

To those of you who have lost friends or family to this, I really, truly am sorry. I came across this site, because of the experience I just had tonight from the synthetic marijuana “rose”. A few hours ago my sister in law, and I smoked. It was literally by far the highest either of us have ever been!!! The experience we had was like no other we’ve ever felt. We’ve smoked many times together in the past, and experienced what we thought was a “good high”. Tonight, we made a pact that we will never smoke it again. I only took one hit. At first, everything seemed funny. We couldn’t stop laughing. My heart was racing fast enough, it felt I could have had a heart attack. She couldn’t stay still. I started seeing her as a scary old lady coming at me. (She reminded me of the old lady, Mary Shaw from the movie Dead Silence). That was the start of my “high gone bad”. I kept repeating over and over for her to stop moving around, and that she was freaking me out. She also looked like a marionette, the way she was bouncing around. She said she couldn’t stop. Then suddenly she fell straight to the floor. I got on the floor after her, begging her to get up. She just kept her face hidden, and was screaming. She said she was scared. She couldn’t tell what was real life and what wasn’t. I just kept telling her that everything was going to be okay , and that she needed to be strong enough to control it. I told her we were just high, and that it would go down soon. I begged her to get up so we could eat something to help bring the high down. I told her we needed to be around other people so that we could sober up quicker. In reality. I was just as scared as she was. I was terrified that I would be stuck like this forever, but I didn’t dare tell her that. It would have only freaked her out more. I finally talked her into getting up. When she sat up, the whole side of her face was covered in blood. There was a small puddle of blood where she laid on the floor. I started gagging…I can’t stand the sight of blood. I made her clean up her face. I splashed water on her and on myself. We tried to figure out where the blood was coming from…it was her ear. (She split the top of it in half. She definitely should get stitches, but she refuses to go the ER.) I suddenly felt myself slowly coming back. My heart rate was slowing down back to normal. I remembered being so high, that I thought to myself, “I’d rather be dead than feel like this!” I had an image in my head of my fiance shooting me, so I wouldn’t have to live my life like this. I’m assuming that’s probably the reason many others have taken their own lives after smoking this. Suddenly my sister in law looked at me, and said she just realized God is giving her another chance, a chance to stop smoking and be a better person. She cried for about an hour because she was so happy to be feeling normal again. After being high for what seemed like hours, we have decided that we’re done. I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to experience what we felt tonight. Luckily I’m not addicted like the many others I have read about on this website. Unfortunately, her dad, (my father in law), is very much addicted to this poison. He smokes about five bags a day when he can get the money for it. Not only that, but he’s also a pill addict as well. With a combination like this, we can only pray that he too will come to his senses soon. Again, I send my condolences to those of you who have lost loved ones to this. To those of you who have overcome it, please stay strong. Your life is worth so much more than a cheap high! Good Luck to you all!

 

im spending my first few hours of sobreity off spice it may be illegal but teens are making it in there back yards like meth they sell all the shit to do it online my organs ache im mentally damaged and i fear the damage that spice has done to my body my buddy matt had a massive seizure on it and i called an ambulance when he got back from the hospital all he wanted to do was get high i just got off the phone with him he said hes smoking a bowl right now and i said lets hang out until i came across this website i thought there was no bad side effects and as far as those panic attacks go i called them spice freak outs cause if you smoke to much then you have a full blown anxeity attack there pretty fuckin scary but theres something in spice that makes you crave the freakout its hard to explain but i appreciate this website it may save my life cause those are some scary but easy to relate to stories i just needed to see if there were any reported deaths and for the record i had planned my suicide last week and talked to my mom about it i dont have those feelings now but i feel they were linked to spizzle aka spice and to all the fams that lost loved ones i read all your stories and if it were not for them then my pic would most likely be going on that blog and who ever started this site i appreciate it my name is dallas im only 18 you just saved my life now i just need to show matt this site but if your using and u read this quit while you can

 

 

I heard all the hype about this compound sucastnbe and decided that I would try it out. I read reviews and say hey is legal and well why not. My wife and I sat down and decided it would be a good idea to try smoking the so called leagal weed. I took one hit from the stuff and immediately started feeling the effects. After about ten seconds my heart rate accelerated to a threatening level to where I stoped breathing and almost went into cardiac arrest. I told my wife to call 911 because I was starting to pass out. was then paralyzed and my wife reported unresponsive. I remember coming to and getting up trying to walk it off. This was one of the most painful things that I have experienced in my entire life. This stuff is poison and needs to be outlawed immediately. There is nothing natural about this. Just bad news get rid of it I almost died yesterday from smoking what they call Kush. Aka k2 .

I used Synthetic Marijuana for 5 years. ive been clean off it now 6 months.Im telling you my life is so much better now. While I was smoking this stuff all those years because I was on probation and didn’t want to fail a drug test. I became so depressed I hoped the stuff would kill me. I quit after I passed out while on it and woke up in the hospital. This stuff will kill you eventually. It took two years of smoking it before I even had a bad experience on it. But mark my words you smoke it for long enough you will have a bad trip. And im telling you its not fun at all. Ive been addicted to drugs since age 13 and Im 25 now. Ive done almost every drug in the book and the most terrifying drug experiences Ive had were on synthetic Marijuana. Please take it from me. This stuff is trash and should be banned. These people who make it don’t care at all if you die. Their the only ones who want it legal. The only people who think this stuff should be legal are the people getting the money. Look Im not the most anti drug person in the world at all. I believe Marijuana (Regular marijuana) should be legal. But these synthetic versions are so dangerous in my opinion and really I don’t know why anyone would continue to smoke it because when you really think about it the effects arent even pleasent. Most of the time theyre extremely intense and terrifying. Don’t do this stuff.

 

I have been a victim of this synthetic marijuana myself. Here are the facts from someone who smoked it first hand: To begin, the high is similar to marijuana (which I used to smoke in high school so I know the effects), but your tolerance increases incredibly quickly, making you smoke much more to be able to get the same effects. While I was on this stuff, I experienced the following symptoms: severe hallucinations, extreme paranoia, sleeplessness, suicidal thoughts, constant and never ending cravings, and constant feeling of worthlessness and lethargy. Here’s the part that news channel 11 didn’t cover, the withdrawal symptoms. These include extreme dysphoria, high fever (mine was 102 for 4 days), vomiting and nausea, restlessness, severe insomnia, and intense thoughts of self harm and suicide. Luckily enough, these withdrawals only last for about a week. I have been clean of the stuff for a little over a month and while I’m ashamed of the fact that I got addicted to this stuff, I’m sharing this information with you because I believe that people knowing the facts is more important than me hiding behind my shame. Mark my words when I say that people will die from this stuff. In reality, these are constantly changing experimental chemicals that no one truly knows the long term effects of. Quite frankly, I’m surprised I didn’t die and that my mental faculties are still intact. For those of you who smoke this, I beg of you, quit while you still can, before it claims your mind, or worse, your life. And for those of you who know people who smoke this stuff, do everything you can to get them professional help. This isn’t the kind of stuff you can quit cold turkey, at least I wasn’t able to anyway. I needed medication to help me out.

My heart goes out to all who have lost loved ones to this sinister drug.. I’m from Australia and unfortunately the problem is also rife here in Oz.. My husband of 2 years is still alive after 18 months of using this drug but most days it feels as though he has died and sadly, most days I think if it would end all the sadness and suffering this drug causes, it may be easier to heal if he was.. I had 4 children and was divorced when I got together with my husband, who was once my brothers best friend. He was a wonderful man who took on my 4 children as his own and provided for them. I was utterly and totally in love and although I had had a rough time in my first marriage, I opened my heart to him. Things were wonderful for a couple of years and the kids still love him but about 18 months ago, not long after I fell pregnant with our first child together, he smoked this ‘legal’ drug to see what it was like. He had smoked real pot on and off previously and was always able to stop and just do it recreationally ( not that I condone this either) a condition of us getting together was that he didn’t smoke anymore and for the these first 2 years we were both gym fanatics- he was in peak physical condition! Fast forward these last 18 months, we just had to sell our family home and I’m facing being a single parent again to 5 children.. This drug has taken hold and he has a full blown addiction. We have not a cent in the bank and he has wasted $12000.00 since July smoking this poison. I beg him daily, have gone to dr appts with him, taken him to detox ( when we got there he wouldn’t go in as he doesn’t see himself like ‘those’ people) he has so far kept his job ( which pays up to $1500 a week after tax so we should actually be quite well off) but he has just had the last 2 weeks off to smoke more so won’t be long til that’s gone too. I’ve been supportive but now feel the kids and I ( our gorgeous daughter will be 1 in 5 weeks!) are in danger around him. He dropped her on her head yesterday, is aggressive when not stoned and has threatened to harm me and the kids if I refuse to give him money ( I don’t have!) for this stuff. He has been taken to hospital twice in psychotic states and has turned a sickly shade of yellow which I can only put down to liver damage ( he doesn’t drink at all!) he has been up vomiting for 3 – 4 hrs most nights this week from about 1am so he is either getting VERY ill or is that addicted his body goes into withdrawals when he’s not smoking because he’s asleep.. This synthetic ‘marijuana’ is NOTHING like marijuana so please don’t be fooled by the name.. I fear it may be too late to save him or our marriage but hopefully someone thinking about trying it reads this and thinks twice

i have about 10 people in my life addicted to this horrible stuff and they all have the same problems anger/physcosis episodes, severe abdominal pain and digestive problems, & browing of the teeth. people are selling valuable things for $7-15 dollars just to get it- my brother smoked this stuff when he was on parole and said thar the cravings for this DRUG were worse than cravings for heroine or methamphetamines it has broken whats left of my family apart this stuff needs to be gone ots terrible my uncle even threatened to kill my grandparents when he smoked something has to be done!!!

i felt like i was always in a dream,and i always have that feeling a “bad trip” is about to happen,but it never does,i always feel like im out of my body,but when i day dream,my thoughts are so vivid its unreal and not even in a bad way…and for example,after i smoked i saw a water bottle laying on my floor and i got so mad at it because it was’ent in the place where i set it that i threw it and nearly started to have a mental break down.  i think the most scariest thought is losing touch with reality mentally, because once you reach that moment its like you never come back..but slowly and gradually i recovered

My son has been suffering terribly for almost a year and a half now.  When he was smoking it back before this he was angry and impatient and that is so not his personality.   At first it was physical, he could barely move. He had body aches and head pain. Then he began holding his breath. Then he had hallucinations and voices continually. He still holds his breath to breathe sometimes and relieve what he calls pressure in his head. The voices are less now but he has a hard time thinking to connect things and he says he has amnesia and can’t find himself. There has also been anxiety and some paranoia.

I used to smoke synthetic pot. The last time i did it is something i will never be able to forget. I was hearing voices in my head, & they were telling me they were going to get me and kill myself. I was in my bathroom & i sat on the floor. My heart was beating so fast i didnt think i could keep up with it. I started seeing black spots & heard a ticking noise, like a clock. The voice in my head told me to turn the water on in the bathtub, so i did. It told me to take my clothes off and get in, so i did. When i got in, the voice told me to turn around & taste the water, & i felt my body being pulled down. It wanted me to drown myself. I remember getting out & sitting on the floor bawling. When i looked around, an image would stay stuck in my head. If i looked at the wall & turned, the wall would be in front of me even if it wasnt really there. I called my sister & told her i was going to die. The voice told me it was goin to get me to die & told me to slit my wrists with a razor. I went upstairs & collapsed by my door, & it was tellin me to strangle myself. My sister ran upstairs to see what was going on, & i told her to feel my pulse. She did & she told me it was normal, but her eyes were wide with horror so i knew she was lying. I thought i was goin to die. & i couldnt tell my parents, who were downstairs, because i didnt want them to know i was doing drugs. I made it though. I was 16 years old. Im 18 now & my brothers smoke it. They know what happened to me & one of my friends was on it & had a seizure; they thought he died. & even seeing that, they wont stop. It hurts me a lot. I have mental problems now because of this drug, & i will NEVER do that to myself again. If you want to live a nightmare & feel like you are living in hell, try this drug. I wish i could take everything back, but i am glad i have come so far because of it.

One bag was never enough. Once I got started on it, I had great trouble keeping myself going back for bag after bag, even if it meant bills did not get paid. So much of my stuff is gone now, Just barely getting caught back up on my bills. I am a retired/disabled vet so I get paid once per month. We would always run out of food days before payday.
While smoking, which quickly becomes all the time, I neglect my daily affairs, appointments get missed, house don’t get clean, animals don’t get walked nearly enough. All this leads to a great deal of guilt for me since my life can’t be paused and so many negative consequences arise from neglecting.
Normally I am a very kind and generous person but using turns me into a mean, selfish A-hole. I don’t like being that way, especially with my wife who deserves better treatment.
The side effects of this stuff are way worse than natural marijuana for me. While using I am nauseous every single morning, to the point of throwing up blood and bile. Also, I cough up black stuff which bothers me a lot. I get one respiratory infection after another. My wife also gets these side effects. 
 I smoked day in and day out. I got hooked on MJ when I was only twelve and for years I was convinced it had only positive benefits for my anxiety and depression, but I was lying to myself. I am 43 now and it has taken me years to realize all this.

I had to quit because it was giving me panic attacks even when i quit. I had to get a perscription because I was having such bad anxiety that I ended up in the hospital a few times thinking that i was dying. I also have an enlarged ventricle in my heart now because of it. I wish everyone would wake up and see that this stuff is harming their bodies.

I used to smoke synthetic pot. The last time i did it is something i will never be able to forget. I was hearing voices in my head, & they were telling me they were going to get me and kill myself. I was in my bathroom & i sat on the floor. My heart was beating so fast i didnt think i could keep up with it. I started seeing black spots & heard a ticking noise, like a clock. The voice in my head told me to turn the water on in the bathtub, so i did. It told me to take my clothes off and get in, so i did. When i got in, the voice told me to turn around & taste the water, & i felt my body being pulled down. It wanted me to drown myself. I remember getting out & sitting on the floor bawling. When i looked around, an image would stay stuck in my head. If i looked at the wall & turned, the wall would be in front of me even if it wasnt really there. I called my sister & told her i was going to die. The voice told me it was goin to get me to die & told me to slit my wrists with a razor. I went upstairs & collapsed by my door, & it was tellin me to strangle myself. My sister ran upstairs to see what was going on, & i told her to feel my pulse. She did & she told me it was normal, but her eyes were wide with horror so i knew she was lying. I thought i was goin to die. & i couldnt tell my parents, who were downstairs, because i didnt want them to know i was doing drugs. I made it though. I was 16 years old. Im 18 now & my brothers smoke it. They know what happened to me & one of my friends was on it & had a seizure; they thought he died. & even seeing that, they wont stop. It hurts me a lot. I have mental problems now because of this drug, & i will NEVER do that to myself again. If you want to live a nightmare & feel like you are living in hell, try this drug. I wish i could take everything back, but i am glad i have come so far because of it.

 My son has been living somewhere between this world and another for almost a year now. Some days are better that others. He cannot do much of anything and some days just stares.

I smoked that 7h and i seen the end of the world thats not the first time this has happend to me but this 7h was different my boyfriend says i looked possesed by some kind of demon i could hear my voice and it wasnt my voice my boyfriend sayed i sounding nothing like myself i was screaming n wouldnt stop. I felt this jolt of liquidy fire blow through the top of my brain then slowly leak down the back then through my whole body i seen myself in a hospital bed with my head cut open my hours later i still feel the pain exsept it feels like my brain is slowly melting away. I seen how my town will end. Im sobar now and im still soo scared i beleive everything i seen to be true i feel as if god is sending me messages we need to get spice out of here 7h is back after a year its stronger than ever and i believe this will b the start of the end of our world as we know it. Call me crazty buti will stand firm in what i believe spice and bathsalts 7h and its makers are going to put an end to all

Personally, i had been smoking spice for a year and a half to the point where i honestly thought i was dying from it. About 9 months ago I stopped. I was one of those people who had all the horrible side effects you hear about. ALL OF THEM. For example, extreme panic attacks, anxiety, heart palpitation, chest problems, constant heartburn, feeling like you were never coming down from the nasty intoxication of the high (just to list a few). I thought i was going to die. I had about 30 Er visits and I still owe them thousands of dollars. Keep your heads up, stay away from these drugs and fight your way back. You can win, you can be healthy again. Like i said, its been 9 months and Im still not fully healthy like i was to begin with, (You have to put as much effort as you did with getting these drugs and getting high, into getting better.) For me, the anxiety was the worst.

My 20 year old foster son moved out las fall and began using synthetic marijuana, marijuana, and alcohol. He lost his home, job, girlfriend, car, dropped out of college, and ended up living under a freeway ramp with nothing but the clothes he was wearing. He agreed to go to treatment. He was not allowed into detox because he was “only” under the influence of synthetics at the time. It seems there is another horrible side to this poison that we didn’t think about. Our son is staying with us now, sober since 9/7/12, and is awaiting a spot in a residential treatment program. We are so proud of him for taking a stand against using synthetic drugs and getting help for his addiction. Jim Carlson and The Last Place on Earth will NOT take my family away!

I know there are a lot of horror stories with k2. I want to share a triumph story. My son smoked K2 July 2011. He was a mess for days, hallucinating. For weeks after he was paranoid. For months after, he thought he was crazy. We took him to a psychiatrist and he put him on anti psychotics and he nearly ended his life. We kept searching for answers. We finally took him to see his family doctor who is a very kind hearted lady and she listened and felt that anti psychotics were too harsh and put him on a low dose of Zoloft. His improvement was nearly immediate. We slowly saw him return to his normal self…. well what we remembered as normal. This past month, he felt he was well enough to wean…. and he has and it is a success!!! He has his drivers license, a car and he just got a job!!!! Do not give up on your kids. I know that not everyone will have a success story like my son. I know we are so very blessed. Be there for them, cry with them and triumph with them…. My son was addicted to water after this. He carried around 7 and 8 bottles of water. That night it was what he felt helped him. Slowly he’s given up the water bottles. He now takes one to school. No one would ever believe the nightmare unless you live it. I understand, parents…. I understand. And, I know some of you only wished you could have gone through this horror as we have and I cannot imagine the horror you are living as you have to live without your child. This stuff is a nightmare. Every parent needs to know how horrible this drug is…..

I am from New Zealand and K2 is being sold here. Over the last three months I have seen two of may sons get addicted to this horrid substance and the effects it has on them. One of my sons has been arrested not because he had smoked it but because he hadnt for 6 hours and went completly out of control I have cleaned up vomit I have walked the floors at nights making sure after smoking it they would wake up the next morning. I have been abused as they get very fustrated,I have seen them not beable to hardly walk, not eating well so Why wouldnt people want to make others aware of the problems is causes.

“my son Kris 19 yrs old smoked Spice 5 months ago and has been nearly catatonic I have talk to Doctors,Nurses and any one who would listen and no one knew how to treat him.He has just started improving slightly but he is afraid every moment of every day he thinks everyone and everything is trying to kill him even his own saliva I am grieving over the loss of my sons soul its a nightmare that seems to never end.I needed to hear that it was possible to pull him out of this alternate reality”

I’m going to keep it really simple.

Smoke Synthetic weed for little bit over a year, never had a problem until the weekend just gone. I was sitting on my computer playing a computer game and I had been smoking all day, anyway.. I OD on it and god and my mother who is now dead spoke to me. Mum told me if I didn’t stop smoking this stuff I would die and that my life is worth living as I’m married now and that god was healing me and told me to never go back.. as I write this I get goosebumps of what happen that night. I have not touched the stuff since. I feel my heart hurting and I just pray and pray that it will all good away.

I felt soo scared and I was left shaken afterwards. I felt like I was going to die. and even if it was god speaking to me and my mum I’m glad they did. It really woke me up. Im going through withdrawal symptons at the moment but I know it will pass in time.

I should be fine by the end of the week.

its terrible stuff, it’s so evil.

yea this stuff is really bad for you….ive smoked it for about 3 weeks and yesterday i had a fucking hallucination. i will never be smoking this shit again….it also made me feel like i was in danger(racing heartbeat, uncontrollable shaking) i was very close to calling 911 on myself because i have never experienced anything like this before with ANY drug…be warned this stuff CAN do some bad things to you.

A few years ago I was introduced to the drug and used it for a period of time. One day after using it with a few friends I began to feel sick and started getting migranes. I went to the emergency room and the treated me for a severe headache. To this day I get headaches that I believe are linked to the synthetics. After that day at the hospital I decided to do some research about the synthetics and what I discovered was shocking. When I found out what was actually used and sprayed on the natural ingredients i was very upset. The way the drug was marketed portrayed it as a safe legal alternative. This was intended to target kids and young adults. I just can’t believe that this isn’t being shown to the public on the scale that it should. I am willing to help spread the word and get this stuff off the street in any way possible. Please let me know i there is anything i can do.