Florida authorities are warning parents after a high school student was sent to a hospital after smoking marijuana with laced with what is believed to be synthetic fentanyl.
St. Johns County Sheriff’s deputies said the Creekside High School student met a friend who had the marijuana at an off-campus site.
The drug — a combination of marijuana and fentanyl — may have caused the teen to black out and be left for dead in a nearby neighborhood, deputies said.
The girl’s mother says it took only one bad choice for this to happen — and she has a warning for other parents.
“I didn't even know if she was going to be alive when I got there,” Marcia Mazzoni said.
According to deputies, Mazzoni's daughter and a friend left orientation at Creekside on Aug. 9. After that, they met an adult male and took two hits of marijuana.
“She said throat and chest started burning like it was on fire,” Mazzoni said.
Her friend thought she was merely dehydrated, so they took her to a nearby store to buy Gatorade.
It wasn’t long before her daughter was blacking out and vomiting, Mazzoni said.
Mazzoni says her daughter was driven to woods where kids often hang out. She was left to fend for herself, half-passed out and still throwing up, her mother said.
“I don't know if she had a guardian angel,” Mazzino said, “[But she was] able to text a friend [that was able to determine] she needed help.”
Mazzoni's daughter was taken to the hospital, where she received Narcan to treat the apparent overdose.
“It’s in our communities,” Mazzoni said. “I feel like I'm living a Lifetime movie. Always happens to someone else, but it's happening here."
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office says there have not been any arrests at this time, but they will be filing charges for a warrant on one individual with the State Attorney’s Office.
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