Students hospitalized after eating hallucinogenic plant
By Jennifer Pritchett
Wednesday, September 18, 2002 - 7:00:00 AM
Local News - Three students in Picton were rushed to hospital after they ate a hallucinogenic plant so toxic it can cause death.
Prince Edward County OPP say two 15-year-old girls and a 16-year-old boy are believed to have ingested jimson weed ? also called devil?s trumpet or stinkweed ? over their lunch break on Monday.
Then at around 2 p.m., a teacher at Prince Edward Collegiate in Picton spotted the trio acting strangely on the lawn in front of the school.
The teacher immediately called police.
All three students were transported to Prince Edward Hospital and admitted for observation overnight.
They were expected to be released yesterday.
Though jimson weed grows wild in various parts of Canada and the United States, it?s unknown specifically where the youths obtained the plant.
Police are still investigating.
OPP Const. Greg Richardson said although this is the first case of jimson weed poisoning he?s seen in the Picton area, there have been previous cases reported in Belleville and Toronto.
?There have been cases all over, but this is the first one here I?m aware of,? he said.
He urges people to stay away from the toxic plant.
?I just can?t believe someone would take something that?s toxic, something that could possibly kill them, for fun,? he said. ?Life is too short as it is.?
George Janota, principal at Prince Edward Collegiate, told The Whig-Standard yesterday that school officials are conducting their own investigation into the incident at the school.
Janota said he hopes other students will learn from what happened Monday.
?If you don?t know what you?re consenting to, don?t take it,? he said.
?When kids have free time, let?s hope they make wise decisions.?
Janota wouldn?t say whether the three students who were hospitalized will be disciplined when they return to classes.
?Once we finish investigating, we?ll have a better idea of the consequences,? he said.
Jimson weed, which also grows in the Kingston area, is described as having large, jagged leaves with white or purple trumpet-shaped flowers.
When eaten raw, prepared as tea or smoked, its effects range from rapid pulse and breathing to convulsions, unconsciousness and death.
Incidences of poisoning from the hallucinogenic drug usually peak in late summer and early fall when the plant matures.
http://www.kingstonwhigstandard.com/content.asp?contentid=2878
Edited by Thor (10/01/02 10:49 AM)
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TEENS USE GARDEN WEED TO GET HIGH
by Aaron Sands,
Ontario
Two Cardinal Youths in Critical Condition After Trying Hallucinogenic Jimson Weed
Lauded by Shakespeare for its "magic" effects, a legal but toxic weed common to Ontario's gardens, fields, ditches and vacant lots has ushered more than a dozen Ontario teens into hospital emergency wards in the past two months.
The victims include two teenage Grenville boys who remain in critical but stable condition at Brockville General Hospital after they swallowed the plant -- commonly referred to as jimson weed -- in an attempt to get high.
As old as time, the use of jimson weed for recreational purposes is increasing today among teenagers who read about its fabled effects on the Internet, health officials say.
Drug experts warn dabbling with this plant -- in the Bard's day or now -- is potentially deadly. Whether eaten, prepared in tea or smoked -- even in small amounts -- the weed alters the mind, and the trip can be a bad one.
The Ontario Regional Poison Information Centre recorded five reported cases of jimson weed ingestion in 1999, followed by 18 cases in 2000.
Three youths in Cardinal, 75 kilometres south of Ottawa, experimented this week. It almost killed them. Police were called to a home, where they found the boys hallucinating. Two still are in critical condition in hospital. Police said at least five other youths were involved.
"Even if your friends try to convince you it's safe, use your own judgement," OPP Const. Holly Howard said. "In the case of this plant, it could easily be fatal."
Last month, three Picton high school students ate jimson weed seeds over their lunch break. A teacher called police after seeing the group acting in a wild manner on the school's front lawn.
In late August, 11 young Kitchener residents learned a dangerous lesson about the weed. One of them, a 16-year-old girl, spent a day in restraints as she struggled through powerful hallucinations. Waterloo police said men who planned to cultivate paying customers distributed the seeds to the teenagers.
In Toronto this year, two men ate jimson weed before skinning and torturing a live cat on videotape.
The plant is sometimes sold on the streets as marijuana, but once smoked creates shortness of breath and can paralyze the respiratory system.
The Ottawa police drug and youth sections reported no recent incidents of jimson weed poisoning inside the city. But police in London, Sarnia, Windsor, Niagara Falls, Hamilton, Kitchener, Sault Ste. Marie and Brampton, among other cities, have issued warnings after near-deaths involving the poison.
Police often find those in the grip of jimson weed wandering the streets, naked and screaming, even in sub-zero temperatures. As the poison leads the nervous system into revolt, experts say, the user is faced with hallucinations, which commonly include visions of snakes, spiders and frogs.
One young man found wandering through traffic in Britain told anyone who inquired that he was trying to pick up leprechauns.
Psychological symptoms of jimson weed poisoning include wild delirium accompanied by muttering, confusion, a lack of co-ordination, an inability to respond to outside stimulation, restlessness, irritability and, in 83 per cent of reported cases, frightening hallucinations.
Physically, the skin turns hot and scarlet red, the pupils dilate, vision blurs, the mouth goes dry and the heart races. The poison can result in seizures, paralysis, heart attacks, coma and death.
Medical professionals remember typical clinical effects with this phrase: "blind as a bat, mad as a hatter, red as a beet, hot as a hare, dry as a bone, the bowel and bladder lose their tone, and the heart runs alone."
Jimson weed -- also called Jamestown weed, Angel's Trumpet, locoweed, devil's weed, gypsy weed, stinkweed, green dragon and thornapple -- smells foul. The plant can reach a height of five feet, has jagged green leaves, prickly seed pods and white or purple flowers. Each part of the plant is toxic.
The plant, part of the nightshade family, is referred to in various literary classics including Homer's Odyssey and Shakespeare's Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Anthony and Cleopatra. It was the primary ingredient in love potions during Shakespeare's time.
It became known as Jamestown weed after it was served in a salad to British soldiers sent to quell the Bacon Rebellion in Jamestown, Virginia in 1676. The soldiers reportedly had to be confined for 11 days as they hallucinated.
One sat naked in a corner, grinning and making mooing sounds. "They would have wallowed in their own excrements if they had not been prevented," a doctor who treated the soldiers said.
"It's scary stuff," Ann Martel of the Ontario poison centre said, adding the weed is most often used by young people not familiar with its effects. "Those who try it usually find out quickly how dangerous it is ... and they stop."
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