Jimson Weed 207and halt progress of material through the intestines. Jimson weed should be
avoided by persons with heart trouble, glaucoma, or slow bowels. Other body
signs indicating that Jimson weed should be avoided include enlarged pros-
tate, urination difficulty, fluid buildup in lung tissue, and obstruction that
impedes movement of food from the stomach. The substance can raise blood
pressure and body temperature while drying mucous membranes. Persons
hospitalized following jimson weed ingestion have shown a flushed face, ex-
aggerated reflexes, other reflexes consistent with a poison acting upon the
brain, and changes involving prothrombin (a factor in blood clotting). Para-
noia may be present. More than one report about jimson weed describes users
with a saying such as this: “Blind as a bat, hot as a hare, dry as a bone, red
as a beet, mad as a hatter, the bowel and bladder lose their tone, and the heart
runs alone.”
Fever and breathing difficulty may occur after using jimson weed. People
can become fidgety and even manic, talk continuously, go into delirium
(which may be combative), and fall into an exhausted sleep. Reportedly such
responses to the plant inspired medical use in past times against epilepsy and
psychotic behavior. The atropine component of jimson weed is powerful
enough to agitate an elephant.
Intoxicated persons can be unaware of what they are doing and unaware
of what is going on around them, additional hazards on top of the drug’s
sometimes dangerous physical effects. As with other substances accidental
dosage can occur. Cases are documented of agricultural workers and garden-
ers being affected by apparently rubbing their eyes after contact with jimson
weed or other datura plants; a case report also exists of absorption through
the skin. Contamination of food is known, and unsuspecting persons have
used wine and honey made from the plants. Rats on a 90-day diet including
jimson weed seed experienced lower cholesterol levels, less weight gain, and
increased weight of livers. Investigators running the experiment described the
consequences of chronic jimson weed seed diet as undesirable, but of course
humans do not eat the seeds as a regular food. In this experiment female rats
were more affected by jimson weed than males. Jimson seed meal has also
been found to harm development of chickens. Horses, cattle, and pigs react
badly to jimson weed, but rabbits and sheep are relatively unaffected.
Abuse factors.Europeans were usingDaturaplants such as jimson weed in
the 1500s; one account from that era mentions long-lasting intoxication with
emotions ranging from euphoria to weeping, with people having amnesia
about what they did while under the influence. The same account mentions
prostitutes usingDaturato make clients more pliable, and old reports speak
of sexual frenzy induced by the substance. During the 1600s soldiers sent to
suppress Bacon’s Rebellion in colonial Virginia partook of jimson weed, and
according to an account dating from 1722, some were incapacitated for days:
“One would blow up a Feather in the Air; another would dart Straws at it
with much Fury; and another stark naked was sitting up in a Corner, like a
Monkey, grinning and making Mows [grimaces] at them; and a Fourth would
fondly kiss, and paw his Companions, and snear [sic] in their Faces.”^1 Such
incidents still occurred in the twentieth century. In a three-week period during
1980 almost two dozen U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton were treated for