Boy, 13, Ill After Smoking Synthetic Pot, Dies

A Pennsylvania eighth-grader who became ill after smoking synthetic marijuana and had a double lung transplant has died.

Tonya Rice told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that her 13-year-old son, Brandon, died Thursday morning at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh at UPMC.

The boy smoked the fake marijuana out of a plastic PEZ candy dispenser and suffered chemical burns to both lungs as a result. He was put on a respirator in June and had a double-lung transplant in September.

The boy's mother says anti-rejection drugs he's taken since the transplants weakened his immune system and made him unable to fight off a recent infection.

Gov. Tom Corbett signed a law outlawing such substances in Pennsylvania a few days after the boy smoked the substances. The ban took effect in August.