By SHAUNA ANDERSON
This is an image difficult to see.
A dead teenager, a boy described as having everything to live for.
A boy with a loving family – a boy tender-hearted and passionate.
Now dead on a hospital bed.
And yet this is an image his family want you to see. An image his family want you to share. An image his family want to be used by others so that no other tender-hearted, passionate teenage boys die as Connor did.
Three weeks ago on a Saturday night in Orange County, California, Connor Eckhardt smoked synthetic marijuana known as “Spice” with a friend.
The 19-year old fell asleep. His brain, deprived of oxygen, began to swell. He fell into a coma.
His mother Veronica Eckhard told The LA Times that they are sure Connor did not know the dangers of the synthetic drug and made a fatal choice.
“Connor did not want to die,” his mother says. “Connor very much wanted to live. He had everything to live for.”
His family were given the heartbreaking news that Connor was going to die. He had signed an organ donation consent form meaning the devastated family of five got four more days together.
Connor’s parents, Devin and Veronica Eckhardt, his two sisters Sabrina and Ashnika sat by his bed.
The LA Times reports that at one stage his Mum painted the soles of his feet to make a matching set of footprints for the ones she had made when he was a tiny newborn.
They decided to spend the four days they had left with their son remembering him, breathing him in, caressing him but also photographing him to use as a warning to others who may experiment with the dangerous – yet easily obtained drugs.
In their last minutes with their son, Connor’s family and a close friend filmed a video about the danger of spice.
“This is our son, Connor Reid Eckhardt,” The LA Times reports his mother said.
“He made the deadly choice to use a product called K2, or spice, and Connor is completely brain-dead… This is not a game, it is totally real, please help us fight his fight.”
Spice – often known as K2 – is a mixture of green herbs that gets sprayed with chemicals to produce a similar sensation to regular cannabis – but is often 1000 stronger.
In 2013 The Conversation reported that in Australia the TGA introduced a blanket ban on any type of synthetic cannabinoid that produces the same pharmacological effect as cannabis in 2012.
However a quick search on the Internet shows that it isn’t hard to buy in Australia even today.
As the four days they had with their son drew to a close, Connor’s family knew the time had come to say goodbye.
They posted a heartbreaking image on their Facebook page and described the moment their son’s organs were taken away by helicopter.
“It is impossible to describe the feelings and emotions flooding my soul when I kissed and held my son, Connor Reid Eckhardt for the last time on this earth and now I watch as his heart and other organs are being taken to give life to someone else we don’t even know.While our family is grieving an inexplicable loss with sorrow like no other, another family that was anticipating and counting down the days to the death of their loved-one, now races to the hospital to receive our son’s gift of life. Experiencing this unfold before us was the single most intense moment of my life.”
Connor’s family has vowed to warn others about the perils of synthetic marijuana.
They have started a Facebook page on which they ask for their message to be shared.
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Top Comments
In 2012 over 10,000 people lost their lives because of drunk driving in the USA. The yearly cost of drunk driving is $132 billion. I think that Alcohol affects a lot more people than you think. I don't use drugs or drink it just irritates me when people get on their trip about alcohol being legal. Just because it's legal doesn't mean we have to drink it. We know the consequences of drinking the same as we know the ones of drug use. A drug is a drug, is a drug and alcohol is a drug. And I don't give a rats ass how it was made or how it got it here...Pot does not kill the amount of people that alcohol does, not even close. Alcohol kills more people in the USA than Firearms. Think about that.
To all the smokers trying to defend altering one's conscience: get over yourselves. Be it alcohol, illegal stimulants, illegal depressants (which weed is considered) or prescription drug abuse it's still done to alter one's state of mind because you have a problem dealing with your reality. There was once a time you could live with yourself without the use of drugs and you can do it again. It is not impossible but you do have to want sobriety. Don't be a slave to dope or anything else. I do not drink nor smoke nor take prescriptions. It's a beautiful life and I remember every single moment. Value love, value yourself.
People don't alter their state of mind / change their perceptions because they have trouble dealing with reality; people change their perceptions because it allows them to see life in a different light and, in the main, it's fun.
Did you never spin around as a child, until you were dizzy and fell down? You altered your perceptions.
Did you never climb up high and look down with a thrill? You changed your perceptions.
It's not about 'escaping reality', it's about exploring. Unfortunately for a small minority, they don't handle it as well as others or they make some poor choices about HOW to do it.
I tried quite a few different drugs when I was young, including alcohol and tobacco, but didn't persist with them because they didn't agree with me. Maybe this young person would have been the same - unfortunately he won't get the chance to find out.
Your arguments are void as spinning or climbing don't require consuming a legal or illegal depressant or stimulant. Altering your state of mind using outside chemicals is not the same as using no chemicals to changing your perception. Did you think I was not perceptive enough to see thru your straw man? Sorry you tried drugs because some pusher told you it was fun and you'd see things differently and you, in your weakness, believed them. If you need to have more "fun" in life and need to "see life in a different light" that IS admitting you can't deal with reality as it is. Your own words defeat you.