Mom warns of "Pink" drug that killed 21-year-old son

A mom says her son was killed by something she had never heard of before, a drug so powerful, it's seven times more potent than morphine.

"I thought I did everything right and when this happened I asked myself, 'What I did wrong?'" Mary Elliott, who lost her son Jeremy earlier this year, told CBS affiliate KHOU.

There's no cure for this mother's pain, but there's a message she hopes will save someone else.

"My son just tried something and it took a hold of him," she said. "I just wanted to collapse when he told me if Jeremy ever woke up, he wasn't going to be the same."

Her 21-year-old son, Jeremy Taylor Elliott, overdosed on April 9th. He spent four days in a coma before he died.

However, it wasn't until she got his death certificate that she saw heroin and something she had never heard of listed as U-47700.

"What is this? Is this bath salts?" she said she wondered.

"(The drug) is anywhere between 7 to 8 times more potent than morphine is," said Jean Cleary, PharmD., the director at the Southeast Texas Poison Center.

At the poison center, they know at least three people died from the same drug last year. It's called "Pink" on the street.

A pharmaceutical company developed the drug in the 1970's to treat severe pain, but problems with side effects kept it off the market.

However, there is plenty of it for sale online.

"Most of it comes from China," said Cleary.

"There's been seven overdoses that I know of," said Elliott.

This mom knows her son was no stranger to the law. He was arrested in 2013 twice, once for a fight outside Conroe High School and a second time for marijuana. 

Now, she is turning to Facebook, starting a support group called "MAH – Mothers Against Heroin" for other moms, hoping to help before it's too late.

"If it can just save one person, just one, and save one mother from the pain that I feel, it's worth it," said Elliott.