DANGEROUS SEEDS

Kids know about morning glories, parents, do you?

They have such whimsical names as heavenly blue, crimson rambler and
pearly gates, and delicate blooms that crawl quickly up trellises.

But when morning glory seeds aren't planted -- when they are instead
ingested -- whimsical thoughts can crawl through altered minds with
kaleidoscope-like visions.

And teen-agers know this.

Once popular in the hippie era of the 1960s, morning glory seeds as a
hallucinogen seem to have sprouted once again. Washington-area
gardening shops have noticed their seed stocks depleted by adolescent
hands, and poison control centers in the District of Columbia and its
suburbs have received calls from hospitals with patients experiencing
adverse reactions, or bad trips, from the seeds.

"They are certainly being used," said Chris Holstege, a doctor who
runs Virginia's Blue Ridge Poison Center. "Kids are getting brighter.
Between the Internet and magazines like High Times, they are learning
about this."

Just a few weeks ago, he said, a mother called the center after
finding seed packets in her teen-age son's bedroom. She wanted to
know what they were used for, Holstege said. A more serious call came
from hospital emergency officials who needed to know how to treat an
18-year-old who had taken the seeds along with an antidepressant and
cough syrup. His heart rate spiked to 150, his body went rigid and
his mind reeled with hallucinations.

"These kids have a misconception that it's natural, that it's more
safe" than other drugs, Holstege said. "They are not. It alters your
perception, and that puts you at risk."

The seeds contain lysergic acid amide and give an LSD-like high when
swallowed by the hundreds. A simple Internet search reveals a slew of
Web sites offering dosages and tips.

In Arlington County, Va., the owners of Ayers Variety and Hardware
learned about the seeds' hallucinogenic effects when they caught two
teen-age boys stealing their supply.

"They had 13 or 14 packs of these seeds. You think, hmm," said Kristy
Peterkin, whose family owns the store. "We then started asking
around, and our teen-age employees informed us that if you checked
the Web that it was an easy way to alter themselves."

The store owners have taken some precautions, such as changing the
bar code on the seeds so the supply can be monitored and noticing
whether a teen-ager is buying them in bulk. The owners have stopped
short, however, of putting the seeds behind the counter with the
compressed gas that can be used for huffing, or carding every
customer buying seeds who looks young.

"We don't sell pocketknives to children under 16, but can I keep them
from buying morning glory seeds?" Peterkin asked. "We struggle with this."

It is difficult to say how many teens are using the springtime seeds
as a drug. Since it is legal to buy them, there are no police reports
to track. And law enforcement officials across the region said they
weren't aware that the seeds produced effects similar to those produced by LSD.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, citing ignorance about the
seeds, referred an inquiry to the National Institute on Drug Abuse,
where a spokeswoman, Sara Rosario Wilson, said, "We really don't have
enough information on it to make comments." She referred calls to
Lloyd Johnston, a research professor at the University of Michigan
and the principal investigator of Monitoring the Future, a study of
drug abuse among adolescents.

Johnston has studied drugs from cocaine to methamphetamines, but he
also knows little about morning glories.

"I am afraid kids are ahead of me in that case," he said, adding that
drug trends emerge every decade. "Over time, the regulatory agencies
and Congress begin to catch up with these things, but there's usually
a pretty long lag."

The use of morning glory seeds as a recreational drug is just
beginning to register nationally. After hearing in March about use
among teen-agers, the Ohio Early Warning Network issued an alert to
school, health and law enforcement officials. Louisiana passed
legislation that made morning glories and 38 other plants containing
hallucinogenic compounds illegal when intended for human consumption.
State Rep. Michael Strain, who proposed the legislation, said a
number of youths had been hospitalized after abusing such plants.
"Some tried to literally fly," he said.

Drug counselor Mary Ellen Ruff said she believes the issue has
remained under the radar for several reasons: Drug tests don't detect
such plants; they're legal; and their use appears to be an adolescent
phenomenon that doesn't extend into adult drug use.

"It is more for kids that want to be druggies but aren't really,"
said Ruff, who works with adolescents at the Inova Keller Center in
Fairfax City, Va. "It is sort of them dipping their toe into the
waters of drug use with something that is legal and easily accessible."

Ruff said one Internet site that talks about morning glories and
other drugs has garnered a loyal following. "That's a one-stop shop
for anything you want to know: how to beat your drug tests and
testimony as to why everything is so great," she said. "Every kid in
treatment knows about that Web site."

The fear among professionals, Ruff said, is not that a teen-ager will
die from using morning glory seeds but that he or she has chosen a
lifestyle that could lead to use of more serious drugs.

But drug abuse counselor George Swanberg, executive director of Life
Line Counseling Center in Fairfax, said that kid will always exist:
"That kid who will find something. He will find something under the
sink or on a walk through the woods."

Swanberg, however, said he believes that the surest way to start an
epidemic is to talk about a drug.

Jeff Davis, who has a 16-year-old daughter in a Manassas, Va., high
school, said talking is the only way to stop the problem.

"I've never met a kid that is not more intelligent than their parents
on the Internet," he said. "How can I prepare my kids for what
they're going to face if I don't have a clue what they're facing?"

A few feet away, Matt Edelblute, 16, slouched with friends on a bench
near a skate park. He explained how the seeds are used. "You have to
eat a lot of them," he said. "I know it lasts between six and eight
hours." A friend of his had done it, he said, but he hasn't.

"I never felt I had enough time to sit there and eat 500 seeds," he explained.