USA - Teens overdose on jimson weed

[Phungushead]

Teens overdose on jimson weed

Three Spokane teens have recently overdosed on the seeds of a hallucinogenic plant called jimson weed.

Health officials want to warn teenagers and their parents about the possible dangers of jimson weed now that the school year is over and many children are left home alone.

Spokane Regional Health District spokeswoman Julie Graham said people should be wary of jimson weed’s toxicity.

Jimson weed is also commonly called loco weed, stinkweed and a host of other slang terms such as angel’s trumpet and Beelzebub’s Twinkie. The plant’s scientific name is datura stramonium, a member of the nightshade plant family.

Though the plant reportedly has medicinal uses for maladies including asthma, medical experts say the plant’s seeds, leaves and flowers are dangerous and should not be eaten, smoked or brewed into a tea.

There have been deaths linked to consumption of jimson weed, including a teen in New Mexico last year.

The plant has foul-smelling leaves, prickly fruit and purple or white trumpet-shaped flowers. It grows wild – up to about 5 feet tall – throughout the country, including Washington and Idaho.

Health officials urge parents to address other risks their children may face, including keeping guns locked away separately from ammunition; locking up prescription medicine, alcohol, over-the-the-counter drugs and even natural supplements; and discussing sexual safety.

June 17, 2009
John Stucke
The Spokesman-Review
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/200...e-jimson-weed/

[Greenport]

Jimson weed is that one drug that you take and when the effects hit, you realize 'oh shit I've really fucked up this time', and actually be 100% right haha. By that time you're running around your apartment building screaming about how you're in Kansas and a tornado is chasing you down the road.

That's what happens when the teens can't get 'good' drugs They start searching for other ways to alter their minds and what do they find? This legal plant that grows everywhere that makes you trip. Unfortunate they don't take the time to take a trip to erowid first and that's then the fun starts

[corvardus]

SWIM wonders when government will realise humans will get high no matter what they do. SWIM wonders when they will resign themselves to the fact that people will simply move onto more dangerous substances thanks to the criminalisation of the safer ones. SWIM wonders when the realisation will come that people are now moving onto poisons to get high. SWIM wonders if there will ever be a day when drug use is legalised and those addicted get the treatment they need.

SWIM believes this day is not in his life time.