TOXIC PLANTS NIPPED IN BUD

City workers were expected to lop the tops off toxic plants that have
been linked to the hospitalization of at least a dozen teens in an
effort to prevent others from hurting themselves.

Parks manager Dave Hilton said Tuesday work crews were told to cut
the blooms from angel's trumpets in city-owned flower boxes at Sport
Mart Place and along Columbia Street when they made their late-night
watering rounds.

The decision follows news that some Kamloops teens have been
experimenting with the flower's hallucinogenic properties. More than
a dozen teens were admitted to Royal Inland Hospital this past week
suffering ill effects after eating the inside stems of what they call
'moonflowers.'

Doctors at RIH said the affected teens displayed a variety of
symptoms, including severe hallucinations, rapid heart beat, dilated
pupils, elevated body temperature and dry, flushed skin. The effects
of angel's trumpet poisoning often last for hours, even days.

Angel's trumpet, or datura innoxia, is also known as the thorn apple.
All parts of the plant are poisonous. The plant is grown because of
its spectacular tubular flowers and is common throughout Kamloops.

Hilton said the city may reconsider planting the flower in future
years now that it appears young people are munching on it in search
of a high.

"If what those individuals did will be an example for others, we are
concerned. If there's a possibility of someone getting injured from
it, that's not something we would want to contribute to," Hilton said.

This is not the first time teens have experimented with angel's
trumpet in Kamloops.

Patrick MacDonald, a program supervisor with the Phoenix Centre's
Raven Program for young people, said a similar outbreak occurred in
1994, when about nine young people were hospitalized.

"My clients were eating hundreds of the seeds and were virtually
debilitated. I had one client who couldn't recognize his relatives,"
he said.

"One of my clients said he was basically knee-walking. He had no idea
where he was. It really hits hard and hits quickly."

MacDonald said the plant's mind-altering properties have been
recognized for centuries. Southwestern U.S. aboriginal people
sometimes used the plant ceremoniously. In 1676, U.S. soldiers at
Jamestown, Va., were poisoned by ingesting the flowers, inspiring
another of the plant's nicknames - jimson weed.

"It's pretty darn serious. It's been well documented. It just seems
to appear every once in a while, unfortunately."

MacDonald said the Raven Program will try to get the word out to
teenagers that moonflowers are best left alone. He added no one he's
spoken to who has experienced an angel's trumpet's wicked punch wants
to get hit again.

"For a couple of (clients), it was a turning point in their substance
abuse," he said.

"After that, they decided to take a serious look what they were
putting in their bodies."