Frisco Father Fought For New Laws Against Synthetic Drugs After Son's Death
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FRISCO (CBS11) - Eric Brown's life changed forever in December 2013, when his 15-year-old son died after experimenting with N-Bomb, a synthetic drug similar to LSD.
"He was a great kid. Straight A student. Athlete. Montana's death was the impetus for me to do something," says Brown.
Brown says he testified at ten different hearings at the state legislature to crack down on synthetic drugs.
That resulted in five new laws, including the Montana Brown and Jesse High Act, named in part after his son.
It allows the state to quickly ban a chemical that's used to make synthetic drugs.
Brown says, "Texas can act on its own. It can clear the shelves of those chemicals and there now are significant civil and criminal penalties to put these distributors out of business."
Experts say part of the problem has been, once a chemical was banned, drug dealers would change the compound slightly so it wouldn't be illegal anymore.
But Texas expanded the number of outlawed chemicals.
Elaine Cesare of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Dallas says, "Now, since most, if not all of the chemicals are illegal, we don't have to worry about that anymore."
To get an idea of just how big the synthetic drug problem is, Cesare showed us a large container filled with K2 their agents continue to seize.
"The entire container, top to bottom, front to back," says Cesare.
When asked how regularly it's filled up, Cesare said, "It stays full."
Cesare says she hopes the new laws in Texas will drastically reduce the amount of synthetic drugs on the streets.
As for Eric Brown, he maintains a Facebook page about his son's loss hoping everyone, especially teenagers and young people receive the message.
He estimates at least 250,000 people 24 and under go to the page every week.
Brown says, "I hate that my child's name and face is a poster child for just one time what can happen. But for me, I want to make sure that his short life mattered."
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