Teenage convict has warning about synthetic marijuana

Different forms still being sold in Orange County

ORLANDO, Fla. – Local 6 went undercover and found a store selling a form of synthetic marijuana. We first exposed the store in an investigation six months ago.

Local 6's producer went in and bought what's being sold as "herbal incense." The clerk asked him for ID and to sign a waiver. Within minutes, he paid $20 and scored the purchase.

[RELATED: Synthetic marijuana sold despite bans | Local 6 producers explain undercover investigation]

Local 6 asked the owner why he continues to sell a product that kids use to get high.

Matthew Tercsak said he didn't know why kids purchase the product, but said he asks them to sign a waiver "to product ourselves against any possibility of misuse," he said.

It was misuse that landed 19-year-old Anthony Moffa in prison. He was high on a form of synthetic marijuana, which he calls K2, when he killed a man in a car crash in October 2012.

"The last two years of my life is one big regret," Moffa said.

Moffa was candid and stoic when Local 6 talked to him in prison at the Lancaster Correctional Institute in Coleman, Fla., after he pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide.

Moffa told Local 6 he started smoking synthetic marijuana because it was less expensive and more accessible. He said there are numerous tobacco shops willing to sell it.

Moffa said his drug career was fast and furious. He said he started smoking weed at 16. At 17, he started smoking synthetic marijuana.

Right around his 18th birthday, Moffa got high, blacked out and crashed into a bicyclist, killing 53-year-old Forrest Flaniken, a devoted husband with three children.

"There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about him," Moffa said.

Even though Florida's Attorney General has banned more than 129 different compounds of synthetic marijuana, just as one is banned another form hits the market.

Tercsak said he keeps a list of the compounds that are banned. He said the products he sells don't contain those chemicals.

Local 6 asked if Tercsak feels any responsibility for the teens who are getting addicted.

"No," he said, "because I'm not doing anything to promote that."

Moffa wants teens to be careful and their parents to be vigilant.

"It's destructive," Moffa told Local 6.


Recommended Videos