TEENS USE GARDEN WEED TO GET HIGH

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."