Legal highs: Long road back from harrowing ordeal

BROKEN: It will take time for this Rotorua mum to rebuild her relationship with her son after his synthetic cannabis use. PHOTO/BEN FRASER 250414BF12

A Rotorua man went from having a life full of ambition to a psychiatric breakdown after smoking synthetic cannabis to fit in with friends, his mother says.

The woman, who didn't want herself or her son to be identified, said she wanted psychoactive substances banned to prevent other mums from going through the same stress and hurt.

The woman said her son was now off the synthetic products but it had taken six months to get his life straightened out and their relationship was still on the mend as trust needed to be regained.

"He came home and he was totally out of it, he was paranoid a lot of the time," she said.

"He said, sarcastically, 'mum, it's legal. You buy it from the dairy', so I relaxed a bit. I hadn't heard of it before. It went under the radar for a long time and I thought 'if you buy it from the dairy then where's the harm?' I thought I was panicking and being an anxious mum. If it's legal it must be okay. I've heard so many stories since and they all say the same thing."

She said her son, who had a degree and a job, had moved back home a year ago. She noticed a chance in his behaviour immediately and wondered if he had a mental illness such as bipolar disorder.

She later found out he had been using synthetic cannabis for years as his friends were smoking cannabis and he didn't want to be a killjoy nor break the law. "I kept a diary. One day he woke up, had a coffee and then started to cry hard. He said we were all crazy. He said 'I have a message. A message from him and I will be world leader one day'."

She said his tone of voice would change from calm to aggressive and he would make pointed gestures. "It was very scary. His father died in 1999, which was very sad, but this was harder for me to manage because I didn't know what was going on. I had no idea."

He would be calm one moment then angry the next. She had no idea whether he would become violent towards her or other family members.

He flitted between friends and family before finally seeking help from a hospital in Auckland. He was prescribed an anti-psychotic drug and help from psychiatric services.

"After a few weeks he was back to his normal self. He's now living overseas, working full-time. He has ambitions and he's talking very positively about where he's living. I feel hopeful that that experience is over but I've had to recover as well. My life has changed completely in the past 18 months."