A '60s Buzz Recycled

TEENS REDISCOVER MORNING GLORIES CAN BE USED AS A HALLUCINOGEN

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 teenagers know this.

Once popular in the hippie era of the 1960s, morning glory seeds as a
hallucinogen seem to have sprouted once again. Local gardening shops
have noticed their seed stocks depleted by adolescent hands, and
poison control centers in the District 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 teenage 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.

Signs that teenagers are experimenting locally are for the most part
anecdotal: Drug rehabilitation center staff members say they
sometimes hear about the seeds from adolescents receiving help for
other addictions, and some gardening centers have stated taking notice.

In Arlington County, the owners of Ayers Variety and Hardware learned
about the seeds' hallucinogenic effects when they caught two teenage
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 teenage 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 teenager 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."

Owen Ryan, 23, who works at Meadows Farms Nursery in Falls Church,
said he knows about the seeds because of incidents at the nursery. In
particular, he remembered a teenage boy whom employees called Shaggy
because he was a dead ringer for the scruffy-haired hippie in the
"Scooby-Doo" cartoon.

"He would just come in and buy a few packs at a time," Ryan said. "I
found out from a guy who used to work here what people were buying
them for, other than planting.

"It was sort of a shock to us all," he said.

It is difficult to say how many teenagers in the area 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. Neither were many substance abuse
counselors or organizations charged with monitoring the drug industry.

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 spoke with well-researched authority about drugs ranging
from cocaine to methamphetamines, but he, too, admitted ignorance
when it came to 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 teenagers, 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 G. Strain (R), 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," she
said. "It is sort of them dipping their toe into the waters of drug
use with something that is legal and easily accessible."

When she asked the adolescents she works with at the Inova Keller
Center in Fairfax City about the seeds, she said, they explained
nonchalantly how kids soak them in water and make a tea out of them.

"These are bright kids. They are getting information and they are
like, 'Ooh, I could do that,' " she said, adding that on the
Internet, one 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. Every kid in treatment knows about that Web site."

The fear among professionals, Ruff said, is not that a teenager will
die from using morning glory seeds but that the teenager has chosen a
lifestyle that could lead to use of more serious drugs.

"It's sad that there is something so not right that they need to go
to these lengths to feel better," she said.

But drug abuse counselor George Swanberg 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, executive director of Life Line Counseling Center in
Fairfax, said he hears sporadic reports of morning glory abuse. He
believes, however, what he once read in the popular 1970s book "Licit
and Illicit Drugs": The surest way to start an epidemic is to talk
about a drug.

Jeff Davis, whose 16-year-old daughter knows of at least one boy in
her Manassas high school who has tried morning glory seeds, 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, wearing all black on a sunny day, Matt Edelblute,
16, slouched with three friends on a bench near a skate park. Music
from the punk band Morning Glory ripped through his headphones.

Without pause, Edelblute 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.