Pubdate: Wed, 22 Aug 2001
Source: Kamloops Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2001 Kamloops Daily News
Contact:  http://www.southam.com/kamloopsdailynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/679
Author: Robert Koopmans

TOXIC PLANTS NIPPED IN BUD

City workers were expected to lop the tops off toxic plants that have 
been linked to the hospitalization of at least a dozen teens in an 
effort to prevent others from hurting themselves.

Parks manager Dave Hilton said Tuesday work crews were told to cut 
the blooms from angel's trumpets in city-owned flower boxes at Sport 
Mart Place and along Columbia Street when they made their late-night 
watering rounds.

The decision follows news that some Kamloops teens have been 
experimenting with the flower's hallucinogenic properties. More than 
a dozen teens were admitted to Royal Inland Hospital this past week 
suffering ill effects after eating the inside stems of what they call 
'moonflowers.'

Doctors at RIH said the affected teens displayed a variety of 
symptoms, including severe hallucinations, rapid heart beat, dilated 
pupils, elevated body temperature and dry, flushed skin. The effects 
of angel's trumpet poisoning often last for hours, even days.

Angel's trumpet, or datura innoxia, is also known as the thorn apple. 
All parts of the plant are poisonous. The plant is grown because of 
its spectacular tubular flowers and is common throughout Kamloops.

Hilton said the city may reconsider planting the flower in future 
years now that it appears young people are munching on it in search 
of a high.

"If what those individuals did will be an example for others, we are 
concerned. If there's a possibility of someone getting injured from 
it, that's not something we would want to contribute to," Hilton said.

This is not the first time teens have experimented with angel's 
trumpet in Kamloops.

Patrick MacDonald, a program supervisor with the Phoenix Centre's 
Raven Program for young people, said a similar outbreak occurred in 
1994, when about nine young people were hospitalized.

"My clients were eating hundreds of the seeds and were virtually 
debilitated. I had one client who couldn't recognize his relatives," 
he said.

"One of my clients said he was basically knee-walking. He had no idea 
where he was. It really hits hard and hits quickly."

MacDonald said the plant's mind-altering properties have been 
recognized for centuries. Southwestern U.S. aboriginal people 
sometimes used the plant ceremoniously. In 1676, U.S. soldiers at 
Jamestown, Va., were poisoned by ingesting the flowers, inspiring 
another of the plant's nicknames - jimson weed.

"It's pretty darn serious. It's been well documented. It just seems 
to appear every once in a while, unfortunately."

MacDonald said the Raven Program will try to get the word out to 
teenagers that moonflowers are best left alone. He added no one he's 
spoken to who has experienced an angel's trumpet's wicked punch wants 
to get hit again.

"For a couple of (clients), it was a turning point in their substance 
abuse," he said.

"After that, they decided to take a serious look what they were 
putting in their bodies."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Josh