Derby — Concerns over jimson weed have surfaced in the Wichita suburb of Derby after two recent cases of teens ingesting the plant and becoming seriously ill.
When the trumpet-shaped, white or purple flower is consumed, it can cause a powerful hallucinogenic effect and result in chemical effects that can be fatal.
Wichita area police and health officials say cases of teens eating or smoking jimson weed - or drinking it in tea - tend to pop up in the summer or fall when the plant matures. The teens are looking for a quick high and usually ingest more of the plant when the high doesn't come fast enough.
Some end up in emergency rooms. At least two recent incidents ended with teens hospitalized after ingesting the plant, say parents in Derby and a poison control official. They think kids and their parents need to be warned of the weed's dangers.
"The worst part is I don't think any adults know about it," said the father of one Derby teen who ate seeds from a jimson weed pod - also called moon pod - and experienced dizziness and hallucinations. The man asked that his name not be used to protect his son's identity.
Derby police have been talking to parents about jimson weed during drug-awareness meetings this school year. It's not against the law to possess the plant in Kansas, but selling or giving it to minors could lead to an endangerment charge, said Kyle Smith, a spokesman with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
The potentially deadly symptoms of ingesting the plant include abnormal heart rhythm, respiratory arrest, high fever, hallucination, seizures and coma.
Kent Potter, an emergency room physician at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, said jimson weed is different from other hallucinogens in that it causes the person who takes it to become very agitated.
Poison specialist Lisa Oller said hot, dry skin are also symptoms, which explains why some patients show up nude at the emergency room.
"They're hallucinating, and they're delusional and they're hot," said Oller, who's with the Kansas University Hospital Poison Control Center in Kansas City, Kan. "So they take their clothes off."
She said the center has recorded four jimson weed poisonings involving patients ages 15 to 20 in the past two months. At least two of those reports came from Wichita hospitalizations.
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