The family of a teenage boy who was found dead three months ago say the boy died after smoking Spice, a synthetic drug with unknown ingredients that's sold as a form of incense, the Alaska Dispatch reported Jan. 10. But medical and state officials say the drug is not directly related to his death.
Kerri Stevens found her nephew, 18-year-old Kurtis Hildreth, dead in his room in her Wasilla, Alaska home on Nov. 16, 2013. Stevens found Hildreth slouched against the wall with his arms on the windowsill and a pipe full of Spice beside him.
"Whatever hit him, (it) hit him hard and hit him fast," Stevens told the Alaska Dispatch. "The pipe was right there by his feet. He was a healthy kid. The lighter was right there. The pipe was right there. He never had any kind of heart problems or seizures."
Spice is a drug that's gaining popularity as a legal alternative to marijuana. The drug is manufactured in China with an unknown blend of chemicals. After it's shipped to the U.S., the drug is then sprayed onto plant material and marketed as incense, the Alaska Dispatch reported.
The drug is difficult to detect in the body after someone suspected of smoking it dies. Toxicology tests on Hildreth's blood found no traces of illegal drugs or alcohol, prompting the Alaska Medical examiner to rule Hildreth's death as "undetermined," the Alaska Dispatch reported.
"Currently only 22 of several hundred cannabinoids can be identified in blood fluids," Karen Dobner, founder of the anti-Spice nonprofit To the Maximus, told the Alaska Dispatch. "The are actually looking for metabolites in blood, and it is a difficult and slow process to identify these chemicals."
Dobner's son died in 2011 after he smoked the synthetic drug and drove his car into a house.
Hildreth's family wants Spice to be recognized as an illegal substance, which has been associated with several other deaths. They're also demanding the state perform a special test on the drug itself to find the synthetic ingredients. However, state officials denied their request because Hildreth's death was not determined as criminally related.
"I know Spice killed my son," Kelli Farquer, Hildreth's mother, told the Alaska Dispatch.
Though it's abused as a way to get high, Spice is still legal. The makers of the drug often change the ingredients, thus escaping laws targeted at their products.
"It's not a marijuana alternative, and these newer chemicals have never been seen on earth before- the kids are the lab rats," Dobner told the Alaska Dispatch.
