7/8/04 An off-road, poisonous plant is making the rounds as a recreational drug once again and is taking some Lompoc teen-age users on a magical mystery tour of their hospital's intensive care unit.

The drug in question is Jimsonweed, commonly called locoweed, stinkweed, or apple's thorn. Known medically as Datura Stramonium, the plant is an extremely toxic hallucinogen.

In the last two weeks, Lompoc Hospital emergency room has seen three teens who ingested the plant. Each had to remain in the Intensive Care Unit for two to three days after experiencing serious adverse reactions.

One of the teens, who did not want his name used, said he had no idea the plant was that powerful. He will be called Jason.

"We thought it was like marijuana, which you can't (overdose) on," Jason said. "I went to sleep at my friend's house and woke up three days later."

Jimsonweed is a stronger hallucinogen than LSD, psylocybin (mushrooms), or mescaline (peyote), according to various research agencies. It dates back to the pre-colonial Americas, when various Native American tribes and the Aztecs used the drug for visions, but favored peyote because Jimsonweed was too uncontrollable.

Effects range from agitation, rapid heart beat, aggressiveness, and paranoia to seizures, cardiac arrest, coma, and death. Fatal doses are extremely small and hospital officials say even an incremental difference in consumption could be the difference between intoxication and serious injury.

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"We get different variants of reaction," said Mary Puryear, nursing supervisor at Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital's Emergency Room. "Some go to being a little bit drunk to being unconscious, unresponsive and give the appearance of overdose."

Jason experienced a high for two hours before blacking out and being rushed to the hospital.

For the mother of the victim, it was three days of hell, during which she never left the emergency room.

"It was terrible," she said. "For awhile we didn't know which way it was going to go. He could have died."

When Jason finally woke up, he didn't know where he was and became aggressive with the nurses. Hospital officials were forced to restrain all his limbs.

"You wouldn't believe the things that were coming out of his mouth," said Jason's mother. "It was like the devil."

The plant is not physically addictive. Experienced users rarely use Jimsonweed and regard it as drug for novices because of its tendency to induce a bad trip. Users rarely try the drug more than once or twice before souring on the experience, according to numerous online sites devoted to the drug.

A check with four local hospitals found that only Lompoc Hospital had experienced cases this year. Puryear said that Santa Ynez usually sees one to two cases annually. Jimsonweed grows all year long, but usage increases in the summer time when the plant has fully matured and becomes more noticeable with a stature of one to five feet tall and a white flower.

The entire plant contains the toxic alkaloids that can induce symptoms. Users typically open the plant's fruit, a spiked green bulb, and ingest the seeds, which have the largest concentration of alkaloids. The seeds are typically eaten, smoked, or boiled to produce a tea, says Jason.

There are no hard numbers on Jimsonweed's level of usage, though it is considered low due to its relative obscurity and bad reputation. In 1998, 152 cases of Jimsonweed poisoning were reported nationally, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. This is down from the 598 cases reported in 1995.

According to the Jason, however, use is common in Lompoc. He said he ate the plant seeds with 10 people, mostly high-school age, the day before he overdosed. In total, Jason claims to know 50 people in Lompoc who have tried Jimsonweed.

"It's everywhere," he said, rattling off various locations to find the plant growing.

Jason admitted he had spread the word about the plant to a lot of people, but that he strongly discourages it now. Regardless, his mother is concerned for those that insist on trying it for themselves.

"I can see it being an epidemic here if they don't look out," she said.

Hospitals typically go for long stretches without seeing victims, then will see a string of incidents in a small time frame. A nurse at Lompoc Hospital said that prior to the recent string of incidents, she hadn't seen any cases in her ten months there.

Jimsonweed is not illegal to grow or own. Pharmaceutically, its properties are used in a number of over-the-counter asthma treatments. It received its name from Jamestown, Va., after 18th century English soldiers reportedly died from eating the plant as a vegetable.

Staff writer Mark Baylis can be reached at 736-2313, Ext. 105 or by e-mail at mbaylis@pulitzer.net.