Family release pic of man hospitalised after being spiked with ‘Cotton Candy Carnage’
Ben Dobson was found unconscious and fitting in the middle of the road after taking the dangerous legal high by accident
A SHOCKING picture of a man who was hospitalised after being spiked with "Cotton Candy Carnage" drug shows the devastating effects of legal highs.
Ben Dobson ingested the drug and ended up hallucinating, before being found unconscious and fitting in the middle of the road.
The 24-year-old was passed what he thought was a shisha pipe, but actually contained the deadly legal high.
He suffered an adverse reaction and disappeared for 20 minutes, before someone spotted him in the street and called 999.
His shocked dad Mark Dobson said his son didn't even recognise him when he eventually regained consciousness at the hospital.
Mark, 47, watched in horror as hospital staff battled to try and control his son, before he was attached to a life support machine.
He said: "He didn't know what he had taken and they couldn't treat him because they didn't know what they were treating.
"His blood pressure was up, his heart rate was up and then he couldn't breathe for himself.
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"He was put on a life support machine. They tried to bring him round 24 hours later but he was still not breathing on this own but they tried again and thankfully he could."
Ben disappeared for a significant amount of time after unknowingly taking the drug, and turned up battered and bruised on the road in Burnley, Lancs.
It is still unknown how he ended up taking the legal high, and what happened after he did.
Mark said: "He went missing for 20 minutes and in that time he ended up pretty smashed up with cuts and bruises all over him; his face, elbows and chipped front teeth.
"We still don't know what happened. He remembers running out the house, the ground came up to swallow him and he just remembers grabbing hold of a car wheel.
"They sent him for an X-ray at the hospital thinking that he might have been run over but there was nothing from that."
Mark added: "Ben was at home with his girlfriend and one of his mates - there was only three of them in the house.
"Ben had been upstairs and when he came down the stairs his mate passed his a shisha pipe and obviously he inhaled the substance.
"He didn't know it was the legal high Cotton Candy Carnage at all - but his friend said that is what he had in it."
Mark added: "Ben doesn't even drink - let alone do drugs."
Mark is hoping the devastating photo of Ben in hospital will make others think twice before trying the dangerous drugs, which have recently been banned.
The concerned parent backs new legislation on psychoactive drugs, which came into effect last week under the Psychoactive Substances Act, but still sees ways around abiding the law.
He added: "We're just so relieved Ben is fine. He's been quiet since. The experience has put him off everything. He's been scared and has a four-year-old daughter to consider.
"We've had a bad week. It left us with sleepless nights. I wouldn't want any parent to go through what we did. They just don't know what they are taking.
"I welcome the new ban, I think it will be a help.
"The website which I believe it was bought from has been taken down but another one has appeared saying grow your own and people will get hold of it if they want to."
Ben's mum and Mark's wife Teresa Dobson, 44, a health worker, has also been by her son's side throughout the entire ordeal.
Marc said: "Obviously like any mother - she was absolutely devastated with what happened.
"She works with people with brain injury patients in her job - so this was even worse for us all."
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