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  • 2015-08-20 (xsd:date)
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  • Connor Reid Eckhardt (en)
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  • On 16 August 2015 the Facebook page Connor Reid Eckhardt published the status and video embedded below, which was subsequently shared hundreds of thousands of times in one week alone. Example: [Collected via e-mail and Facebook, August 2015] The basic context of the clip is not in dispute. In July 2014, 19-year-old Connor Reid Eckhardt slipped into a coma and was declared brain dead after smoking a synthetic form of marijuana known as spice or K2. Reid's father spoke to Los Angeles television station KTLA about Connor's death in August 2014: On 9 August 2014, the Los Angeles Times published a lengthy profile of a grieving vigil held by the Eckhardt family in the somber hours before Connor's organs were harvested for donation. In that piece, the paper reported that neither spice (nor any other known drug compounds) had been found in Eckhardt's system: As the above excerpt noted, spice's uncertain (and variable) composition makes it nearly impossible to pinpoint as a culprit in incidents like the one that led to Eckhardt's death. The wide-ranging nature of synthetic cannabinoids in circulation under the name spice was described in an 18 August 2015 article: Although Eckhardt's adoptive father Devin suggested peer pressure was responsible for Connor's possible experimentation with spice, the Los Angeles Times also reported that the teen had previously battled an addiction to heroin: Connor Reid Eckhardt died in July 2014, and his parents strongly believed the synthetic cannabinoid spice directly caused his death. But spice (or K2) is a substance about which little is known, and inconsistencies from batch to batch further obfuscate specific dangers associated with the substance. Since spice is hard to detect on any standard toxicology panel, its use may very well go unnoticed as a contributing factor in serious adverse incidents. Eckhardt's official cause of death (if any was determined) was not disclosed to the media, but his sudden death was not attributable to other common factors (such as detectable drug use or alcohol intoxication), and the teen was still carrying an envelope of spice when he was hospitalized. (en)
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