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Jimson weed

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Reality, hallucination and death are critically close to one another when it comes to the plant most commonly known as jimson weed or loco weed.

The plant's alkaloids can cause fatal heart attacks and dehydration, especially in desert climates, as well as a list of other uncomfortable effects, said Jess Benson, director of the New Mexico Poison Center.

Potency is impossible to predict because it varies from plant to plant and even leaf to leaf, Benson said.

But jimson weed's most dangerous effect is on behavior.

"People will go swimming after red-eyed dolphins, or whatever they're seeing, but they can't swim," Benson said. "They'll think they can fly and jump off a cliff."

He said jimson-weed users are sometimes violent because they are reacting to "scary hallucinations."

The titles of accounts of jimson-weed consumption on the Web site Erowid.com, where drug users share their experiences, include "weird stuff" and "a tale of nudity, arrest and insanity."

Most accounts recommend not using the plant. Several end with the user in the hospital. Many users on the Web site describe intense hallucinations that were hard to distinguish from reality.

"Superman came back to my room dragging a large cross," wrote one user. "He talked to me as he proceeded to crucify himself."

Instead of the shifts in perception that drugs such as LSD and hallucinogenic mushrooms produce, jimson-weed users report true hallucinations — having conversations with friends that weren't there and smoking imaginary cigarettes.

Many say they didn't realize they were hallucinating until the drug wore off.

The poisonous, hallucinogenic plant's scientific name is Datura stramonium, but the foul-smelling plant goes by other, more descriptive titles: loco weed, moonflower, mad hatter and devil's trumpet.

The poison center gets 10 to 15 calls a year for poisonings from the plant, Benson said.

Most exposures are from adolescents trying to get high.

"It's sort of the poor man's version of LSD," Benson said. "It's a different type of hallucination, and the side effects are much worse."

In addition to vivid visual and auditory hallucinations, the plant induces many unpleasant effects, he said, including:

• Constipation.

• Inability to urinate or incontinence.

• Inability to sweat.

• The feeling of crawling bugs.

• Dry mouth and skin.

• Elevation in body temperature, usually to about 101 degrees.

• Dilated pupils and sensitivity to light.

• Elevated pulse.

Very few people use the plant twice, Benson said.

Part of the nightshade family, Datura stramonium has white, trumpet-shaped flowers and spiny seed pods.

The plant is not a controlled substance under federal law, but some states, such as New Jersey and Louisiana, have laws regulating the consumption of jimson weed.

The effects of jimson weed can last for a few days. There is no home treatment, so those who have been poisoned by the plant should go to the hospital, Benson said.

Because there is no antidote for jimson weed, hospitals can only try to keep the person comfortable until the effects wear off, Benson said. Doctors will sometimes clean out the digestive system with activated charcoal, which stops undigested plant from being absorbed into the body.

Jimson-weed use is nothing new. It takes its name from Jamestown, Va., where the plant killed a group of British soldiers in the 17th century, according to "Jimsonweed", a pamphlet from the National Drug Intelligence Center.

Members of the Datura genus have been used by American Indians for spiritual and ceremonial purposes, according to the pamphlet.

Many generations have experimented with the plant, Benson said.

"People will try it and realize it's terrible," he said. "But then, I guess, they don't tell their kids or their friends about it. Every generation kind of learns for themselves."