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motaman
old hand

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Plant linked to death of man, 22
#5940015 - 08/07/06 07:29 AM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_4144645
Plant linked to death of man, 22 Grieving couple points to dangers of jimson weed Joe Nelson, Staff Writer San Bernardino County Sun CRESTLINE -- Jeff Chavis stood beside his wife, Rhona, at the edge of a cliff overlooking a gully that drains into Houston Creek, the spot where he found his son's body last week.
Chavis gently stroked the back of his wife's neck, consoling her as she gazed below Friday. It was the first time she had been to the spot where her husband made the grim discovery.
The Twin Peaks couple's 22-year-old son, Matthew Brewster Gardner, had apparently hiked into the remote area sometime between July 26 and July 31 and died, reportedly from jimson weed poisoning.
A friend of Gardner's told the Chavises that he and their son had been partying together the evening of July 25 and had ingested the plant. He told them that Gardner, in a state of delirium, wandered away from the home on Zurich Drive in nothing but his blue Bermuda shorts, Chavis said.
It was the last time Gardner's friend saw him alive.
Just before sheriff's deputies launched an organized search for Gardner on July 31, Chavis found his son's body in the gully below a Crestline Sanitation District access road.
"It looked like he had just fallen asleep," said Chavis, 46, who manages the Papaya Bay Thai restaurant in Lake Arrowhead Village. "He was lying on his back, face up, and his head was against a log in the dry creek bed."
An autopsy was conducted Tuesday, but Gardner's cause of death won't be determined officially until results from a toxicology test return. That could take six to eight weeks, said Sandy Fatland, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County sheriff's Coroner's Office.
But authorities and the Chavises suspect jimson weed, a highly toxic and hallucinogenic plant, caused Gardner's death.
Jimson weed grows in the wild in canyons, the desert and even in cultivated fields. When ingested, it causes powerful hallucinations that can last anywhere from several hours to a few days.
Though all parts of the plant are poisonous, most people who use it for recreational purposes extract and ingest seeds from the plant's thorny pods or use leaves to boil a tea, experts say.
If anything good can come from their son's death, the Chavises hope to get the word out to other parents and youths about the dangers of the wild plant. They also worry about the ease with which the plant can be obtained.
"It's not something you manufacture or buy in baggies. They're picking it out in the forest," Chavis said.
The plant blooms in late spring and early summer, which is the time hospital emergency rooms and poison control centers start fielding calls and seeing cases, said Dr. Lee Cantrell, director of the San Diego division of the California Poison Control System.
"We get a lot of calls on jimson weed poisoning. Usually hospitals will call us when someone comes in," Cantrell said.
The symptoms of jimson weed intoxication include a rapid heart rate, dehydration, dry and flush skin, delirium and dilated pupils.
Jimson weed is dangerous, Cantrell said, because it suppresses the body's ability to sweat and can cause severe dehydration.
"That's the primary way humans cool themselves, and your body temperature goes up tremendously," he said.
In July 2005, 17-year-old Carlsbad resident Eric Sears died in Joshua Tree National Park after ingesting jimson weed with a friend and wandering into the vast expanses of the park near the Jumbo Rocks campground. His decomposed body was found nearly a week later.
In the days following his disappearance, Riverside County sheriff's homicide detectives zeroed in on his friend, 17-year-old Ben Fogelstrom, as a possible murder suspect because he had made incriminating statements about waking up and finding his friend dead in the tent and placing the body in a bathroom stall at the park.
Authorities and an attorney representing Fogelstrom at the time believed the boy may have made the statements because he was still under the influence of the drug and was disoriented and under pressure.
Cantrell said the adverse effects of jimson weed are prolonged and vary.
`'It can be hours to days. It depends on how much you take," Cantrell said of the plant's hallucinatory effects, adding that the primary users of the drug are young men between the ages of 18 and 30.
He said there is no home therapy to abate the intense effects of the drug.
"You just have to let it run its course," Cantrell said. "Most people don't die from this. You just have to kind of wait it out."
That's of little consolation to the Chavises.
`'They find marijuana and they cut it down, but this is 100 times worse than marijuana," Rhona Chavis said.
In the last couple months of his life, Gardner lived his life to the extreme, his parents said. Though he had indulged in marijuana for some time, he had only recently started dabbling in harder drugs like Ecstasy.
"He was going real hard the last couple of months. The choices he was making really concerned us," Jeff Chavis said. "But he was a good kid."
Gardner was passionate about snowboarding, so much so that he moved in with his aunt in Anchorage, Alaska, to pursue a professional snowboarding career in the winter of 2004. Prior to that, he looked forward to the winter and frequently took to the slopes at Bear Mountain Ski Resort in Big Bear Lake, his mother said.
More recently, Gardner had been selling home-cleaning products door to door. The job allowed him to travel across the West to Arizona, Washington state, Nevada and California. His employer, Pro Tech Marketing, would put him up in hotels or motels, the Chavises said.
The Chavises plan to have their son's remains cremated. In the winter, they will scatter his ashes over Bear Mountain, Jeff Chavis said.
"We'll hold to them until then," he said.
-------------------- http://heffter.org
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CptnGarden
fuck this site
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Re: Plant linked to death of man, 22 [Re: motaman]
#5940151 - 08/07/06 08:57 AM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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sad. ive got a nice inoxia ive been waiting to test out, though I think I will do what these people dont and start LOW.
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dutchmushroom
mushroom invader


Registered: 08/02/06
Posts: 1,393
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Re: Plant linked to death of man, 22 [Re: CptnGarden]
#5940256 - 08/07/06 09:46 AM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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they shouldint be sayin that it makes u trip cuz now evrybodys gonna try to git it
-------------------- "Comes a time when the blind man takes your hand says: don't you see? Gotta make it some how, on the dreams you still believe, Don't give it up, you've got an empty cup, only love can fill, only love can fill" < Grateful Dead! The bus came by and I got on, and thats when it all began GROWLIGHT KIT, 250w HPS Digital ballast, + Enhanced Spectrum bulb and Reflector Sale Or Trade!
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MustNotBe
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Re: Plant linked to death of man, 22 [Re: dutchmushroom]
#5940299 - 08/07/06 10:03 AM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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I was going to try datura, but there is too much risk of death.
-------------------- Junkies United we stand , Devided we're sick as fuck. - - - "Hallucinations are something heroin users are not at all accustomed to," said Const. Conor King, Victoria police drug expert. "They react like you or I would react if we took Aspirin and all of a sudden the TV got up and started walking across the room." - - - Make drugs legal, or alcohol and tobacco illegal. Either way it's more fair.
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iamyour_messiah
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Re: Plant linked to death of man, 22 [Re: MustNotBe]
#5940406 - 08/07/06 10:56 AM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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I would consider taking it some time probably, but as shroomieofdoomie said, take it easy at first. Dont wanna have your body found decomposing in a forest (although i really think thats like finding a needle in a haystack)...
At the same time I ask myself, how logical of an idea is it to not take that shit at home with (possibly) a sitter. Even without the sitter at home would be better than wandering off in the forest...??
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BGC
l'amour pour leschampignons

Registered: 07/24/06
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i've never heard of jimson weed, but i doubt i would try it.
i resort to safer hallucinators!
-------------------- "Education is an admirable thing." Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) "Behold, the bush burned with fire." Exodus III. 2. "Earth laughs in flowers." Hamatreya "Necessity hath no law." Speech 1664
Edited by BGC (08/07/06 11:30 AM)
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CptnGarden
fuck this site
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ive eaten brugmansia before 4 or 5 times, and thats said to be 3 times as mentaly psychotic. I handled myself fine on 5 whole flowers when 2 sent an equaly sized friend of mine to the ICU. I think some are more succeptable to its dangerous effects, and should start low in dosage to see if they are one of the succeptable few.
Datura, brugmansia, henbane, belladonna, Mandrake, vary so much in their alkaloidal contents, some of the chemicals act much differently than others and some of them can be more dangerous than others to different people. It's all about starting low, and possibly even staying low.
The low doses are a very cosmic trance with beautiful purple tracers in which one could meditate and see visions behind closed eyes. Higher doses just get insane and you start talking to your thoughts which become visual.
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Le_Canard
The Duk Abides

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Re: Plant linked to death of man, 22 [Re: BGC]
#5940666 - 08/07/06 12:22 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
BGC said: i've never heard of jimson weed, but i doubt i would try it.
i resort to safer hallucinators!
Good choice! I had a friend who tried some, and he described it as a three-day nightmare. There are better and safer things to get high off of out there.
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KittyG
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Re: Plant linked to death of man, 22 [Re: CptnGarden]
#10425148 - 05/30/09 12:57 PM (14 years, 7 months ago) |
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Um so, Matthew Gardner is my brother...and what this article also doesnt say is that he only took one hit and hes dead. SO the next time your getting high, you should go further than thinking about your awesome high and how much you can take and think about your parents, family and your friends. There isnt a day that goes by that I don't I dont think about my brother's dead body lying in the middle of the forest, or my moms heartbreak of her son dying. I hope the next time you get high you think about me and my family.
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piracetam
bioanalytical chemist



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Re: Plant linked to death of man, 22 [Re: KittyG]
#10425183 - 05/30/09 01:07 PM (14 years, 7 months ago) |
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what is one hit?
I've eaten 50-60 fresh seeds on a couple occaisions and had nothing more than an 8 hour stupor each time. this was several years ago it doesn't feel all that great, and I wouldn't recommend it. but, some people actually enjoy it... just tread with caution
condolences for the loss of your brother
Edited by piracetam (05/30/09 01:17 PM)
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marshalldylan1
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Re: Plant linked to death of man, 22 [Re: KittyG]
#10425335 - 05/30/09 01:43 PM (14 years, 7 months ago) |
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Why didn't his friend run after him if the last time he saw him was leaving the house?
Quote:
KittyG said: Um so, Matthew Gardner is my brother...and what this article also doesnt say is that he only took one hit and hes dead. SO the next time your getting high, you should go further than thinking about your awesome high and how much you can take and think about your parents, family and your friends. There isnt a day that goes by that I don't I dont think about my brother's dead body lying in the middle of the forest, or my moms heartbreak of her son dying. I hope the next time you get high you think about me and my family.
Sorry about your brother, but it is a well known fact around here that Datura is a dangerous plant to mess with. This site is aimed more towards hallucinogens, like LSD and mushrooms. It is unfortunate what happened, but this site is designed to stop things like that. We are all about harm reduction. People are going to be getting high, we just try and make it as safe as possible.
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TheHauntingSoul
Not really that cool



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Quote:
"We get a lot of calls on jimson weed poisoning.
$100 says this is bullshit.
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inSense
Puppet
Registered: 05/18/09
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$2 says this is two years old!
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marshalldylan1
Stranger


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Re: Plant linked to death of man, 22 [Re: inSense]
#10429636 - 05/31/09 12:55 PM (14 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
inSense said: $2 says this is two years old!
Wow, didn't realize that. I guess his brother searched his brothers name and found this site and decided to post it.
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oxalic32


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Edited by oxalic32 (12/19/10 03:36 PM)
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piracetam
bioanalytical chemist



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Re: Plant linked to death of man, 22 [Re: oxalic32]
#10429779 - 05/31/09 01:26 PM (14 years, 7 months ago) |
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if you want to know what it feels like, it's like taking more benedryl than directed. it really doesn't feel nice... drymouth from hell, elevated body temp and heart rate, and ataxia (poor motor control). they're anticholinergics . it really is a stupor
-------------------- "Experiments are the only means of attaining knowledge at our disposal. The rest is just poetry, imagination." ~Max Planck
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KittyG
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Thank you, When we spoke with some of the people that were at the part with him they all said they only saw him do a small amount. I happy that who ever posted the story did because it grows like crazy where we live and I thought it was just a roadside weed before what happened and researched it. Maybe its because I have never even smoked a cig but just reading the effects of it I have no idea why anybody would want to try it. It sounds awful and my brother was a moron for doing it. I understand that people are going to get high and that's just the way it is, but they should really think twice and realize that their actions don't just affect them but every person they have ever met. I think its great to bring awareness to how deadly it is.
I don't know why his friends didn't go after him. his girlfriend and her friend were arrested as soon as the cops showed up and another one of his friends was found the next morning 5 miles away with 2 broken arms with no idea of what happened.
And as the fact that the post is now almost 4 years old doesn't make it any better to speak ill of the dead. So watch your words, you may regret them one day. And I didn't google my brother, I googled my moms name on her birthday and this was the first link.
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nomadjames
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Re: Plant linked to death of man, 22 [Re: KittyG]
#11807043 - 01/11/10 10:05 AM (14 years, 20 days ago) |
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Terrible, I feel for your loss KittyG.
Datura and Jimson Weed and the other delierients were used for thousands of years by medicine men, but are not a good thing for people to use recreationally. It's a tricky situation because you want to educate people to the danger, but if you draw attention to the existence of the plant, people are going to go out and eat it. These plants are ancient tools that were used by people for thousands of years in controlled environments by people who understood them to reach a higher level of consciousness. They weren't used just get a buzz. The whole situation is very tragic.
You will be in my prayers.
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oxalic32

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Edited by oxalic32 (12/20/10 12:50 PM)
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smokescreen
80's Transformer



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Re: Plant linked to death of man, 22 [Re: oxalic32]
#11811844 - 01/11/10 10:22 PM (14 years, 20 days ago) |
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jimsonweed is a terrible buzz.
--------------------
"Let's get together and feel alright" 
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