Mother Talks About Danger of Drugs 1 Year Later

In the days and weeks after Danielle Jacobsen’s death, her mother could hardly bear to talk about what killed her 17-year-old daughter.

But these days, coming up on a year since the Newtown High School senior was found dead in a pond in Monroe during Memorial Day weekend, Francesca Jacobsen finds herself frequently talking about her daughter, even forcing herself to bring up the topic with strangers and warning them about the dangers of drugs.

"Now that graduation, Memorial Day parties are coming up, I just want the kids to remember Danielle last year and be really careful," Francesca Jacobsen said. "To remind them, that if they deal with drugs or associate with people who deal with drugs, they can be exposed and not know it."

Danielle Jacobsen a high honors student at Newtown High School, was found dead in a Monroe pond on May 30, 2010. She and five others were at a Monroe condominium a day earlier where some of them allegedly experimented with DMT, a hallucinogen. The medical examiner ruled Jacobsen's death a drowning.

Quentin Ham, 23, a former Newtown resident, was the only one arrested in connection with the death. , suspended after five for distributing the DMT, the drug which prosecutors said they believed he brought with him from Texas where he had been living at the time.

The incident has put Francesca Jacobsen, a widow whose husband died about three years ago from a heart condition, on a mission to educate teens and parents on the dangers of drugs, advocating that parents keep more tabs on their children and for youths to watch over one another.

"Don't be a coward. If somebody needs help, help them. You have to take care of yourself and each other," she said. "It's been horrible. It's a year. Some days it feels like it was a lifetime ago and some days it feels like it was yesterday. It's extremely difficult, physically, mentally, emotionally. You not only get emotionally ill you get physically ill."

that can be found in many plants and seeds, and its usage traces back hundreds of years, particularly in connection with shamanic rituals and brews found in certain parts of South America, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Abuse of the drug gained popularity in the 1960s and was banned when the Controlled Substances Act went into effect in 1971, the DEA said. DMT is typically sniffed, smoked or injected, and its intense hallucinogenic effect lasts for about 45 minutes to an hour.

According to the DEA, some of the effects include intense hallucinations, depersonalization, auditory distortions and an altered sense of time and body image.

In this region, police said DMT use is rare, although it is more common in other parts of the country, including Texas.

Francesca Jacobsen said she does not believe her daughter would have knowingly used DMT, though some amount was found in her body. Still, its presence at the gathering where Danielle was last seen alive suggests it played a role, which is one reason Francesca Jacobsen said she feels a responsibility to educate other parents and teenagers.

"I do make it a point to remind people," she said. "This wasn't just an article, this is real...It's very important to me to get that message out."

Jacobsen said that based on her experience, she advocates periodically testing children for drugs, including her 14-year-old daughter Alexanna, who does not take drugs and who is not suspected of taking any. Over her daughter's objections, Jacobsen said she continues to test for drugs using kits sold at retail pharmacies as a precautionary measure.

"After your sister's death, I'm sorry, I'm not taking chances," Jacobsen said she told her other daughter.