A driver who prosecutors allege was high on marijuana struck 19-year-old Eryk McPherson in October while he biked home from his job stocking shelves in Central Islip.

Paramedics rushed the Longwood High School honors graduate to the hospital, where he later died, another fatality underscoring a growing problem of Long Island motorists who cause injuries while under the influence of drugs.

"I saw him take his very first breath and his very last breath," his mother, Erika Woods, 47, said of her son, who loved animé and took care of his autistic younger brother. "I really wouldn’t wish that on anybody."

Crashes like these are at the center of a simmering political debate in Albany over laws that in some cases are more lenient toward drugged driving than drunken driving.

While alcohol is t

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