In a disturbing new trend, young adults are using the delicate, and poisonous, flowers of the Datura plant to get high.
“I heard about it from a friend; it was growing in his mom’s garden,” a young man, who didn’t want to be identified, told CBS Philly.
“It was just really, really intense — seeing people that weren’t there, talking to people that weren’t there,” he said of the hallucinogenic high he experienced from the flower. “It was horrible, and it lasted two days. The after-effects were terrible. We got blurry vision; we actually thought we were going blind.”
One female user said her trip lasted over 30 hours.
“You really can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what’s a dream,” she told CBS.
Thousands of people chase the flower’s high all the way to the hospital each year, with severe anxiety, heart palpitations, paranoia and vomiting, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers.
Datura is on Pennsylvania’s Noxious Weed List, which means it is against the law to sell, transport or plant it, and in New Jersey, it is also illegal to use, possess or sell the plant, CBS reports.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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