Harvested my first Illegal Crop at Ford City Community Garden. Please be alert for this weed (Jimson Weed) and pull it if you see it. This weed can cause serious damage to anyone experimenting with it. SEE BELOW!
"Jimson weed (Datura stramonium) is also known as devil's apple, fireweed, stinkweed and stinkwort. It is both a potent hallucinogen and highly toxic. According to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms of poisoning may include dry mucous membranes, thirst, difficulty swallowing and speaking, blurred vision and photophobia, followed by hyperthermia, confusion, agitation, combative behaviour, urinary retention, seizures and coma. As one cliché-loving nursing supervisor told the Salt Lake Tribune last year: "They are red as a beet, dry as a bone, blind as a bat and mad as a hatter."
All parts of the plant are poisonous, although the highest concentrations of the anticholinergic agent are found in the seeds (typically equivalent to 0.1 mg of atropine per seed.) A student hospitalized last month in London reported ingesting just 1 seed.
Recreational users may ingest seeds or prepare jimson-based tea or cigarettes. The plant is also used in folk medicine to make topical salves and poultices. Some teens learn how to use the plant through Web sites and news-groups. However, most news-groups accessed by CMAJ described it as a bad trip. "The high lasts about 36 to 48 hours," said one. "It will allow you to do very stupid and dangerous things."
Thanks to Chris Reid for pointing it out to me. I made an incorrect suggestion that it was Moon Flower. It looked very similar. And is in the same family, also toxic!
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