By Eric Schelhopf (Kane County Chronicle)
Aurora mother Karen Dobner believes that a synthetic form of marijuana played a part in a crash that killed her 19-year-old son last month after his 1999 Chrysler Cirrus slammed into a house near the intersection of Mooseheart Road and Route 31 in unincorporated Batavia Township.
She will be interviewed this morning on the “Today” show to talk about her son, Max Dobner, and about what happened that day. Karen Dobner said she also wants to educate parents and teenagers about the dangers of synthetic drugs.
At 3:45 p.m. on June 14, about a half-hour before the crash, Dobner said her son had called his oldest brother, Justin Dobner.
“Max said, ‘I smoked that legal stuff, and my heart is pounding and I’m having a panic attack,’ ” Karen Dobner said.
The occupants of the home Max Dobner crashed into were in the backyard and were not injured. Witnesses said his 1999 Chrysler Cirrus was going at a high rate of speed before the crash, which occurred just south of the Mooseheart campus.
Dobner said she later found out that Max Dobner had smoked iAroma earlier that day. The product is marketed as potpourri or incense, and buyers are warned that it is not for public consumption.
“They sell it in tobacco shops,” she said. “Who goes to a tobacco shop to buy potpourri? Who buys potpourri by the gram?”
After talking to other teenagers about iAroma and its effects, Karen Dobner said she believes her son was hallucinating before the crash. The Kane County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate the crash.
Lt. Pat Gengler said the state crime lab in Joliet is still working on Max Dobner’s toxicology.
“It can take several months depending on the backlog of cases at the crime lab,” Gengler said. “We won’t know what the results are until we have them.”
Karen Dobner has been cooperating with authorities.
“The first thing I did was to call the police and tell them what I discovered,” she said.
She said what happened to her son that day was totally out of character for him.
“My son never hurt a fly, and he was very respectful,” she said. “He would be horrified to know that he damaged a home.”
She has started a foundation, www.tothemaximus.org, that seeks to provide education and awareness about synthetic drugs. The foundation would like to see a ban on these types of products. A news release from the American Association of Poison Control Centers noted that synthetic marijuana products have spurred more than 4,500 calls to U.S. poison centers since 2010.
“Our goal is to promote legislation to ban these products and educate and inform parents and teens,” Karen Dobner said.
“Most parents have no idea of their teens doing this.”
