Cops fear new drug gaining popularity

BROCKTON — Police fear a new drug trend may be sweeping the area after a 17-year-old night school student got high on a hallucinogenic plant and had to be rushed to the hospital from his home late Wednesday night.

Police say the teen was transferred to the intensive care unit of Massachusetts General Hospital Thursday from Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center suffering from brain swelling after eating seeds from a plant authorities identified as jimsonweed.

"It could be harmful. It could be deadly," Detective Domenic Persampieri said of the plant.

According to police, the teenager obtained the seeds from a Randolph teen who is a classmate at his night school class, which runs Monday through Thursday nights at Brockton High School.

The night school division is run by the Community Schools program, under the umbrella of the Brockton public schools.

Jimsonweed is a plant that grows throughout the United States, can grow up to 5-feet tall and its seeds are the most toxic part of the plant. It is commonly consumed in herbal tea concoctions. Its seeds, leaves and flower nectar can be eaten or smoked, according to information from the U.S. Justice Department National Drug Intelligence Center.

The plant has been identified by the National Drug Intelligence Center as a cheap hallucinogenic and an alternative to costly drugs. It can produce delirium and hallucinations and is not an illegal substance. There is no antidote for jimsonweed poisoning, only treatment, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center.

Symptoms can include blurred vision, confusion, agitation and combative behavior. Ingestion can also lead to seizures, coma and death. Effects can occur within 30 to 60 minutes and continue for 24 to 48 hours.

Persampieri said the Brockton teen was given the jimsonweed seeds Wednesday night when the two males went to get a soda after their class let out. Persampieri said the Brockton teen saw some jimsonweed seeds fall out of his classmate's pocket when he took out change to get the soda. He then asked the Randolph teen if he could have some, Persampieri said.

Police said the teen was given the seeds while on school property, however he did not become ill until he was at his Belmont Street home later that night, shortly after 11:30.

"He woke up and was off the wall," Persampieri said. "He couldn't speak. He was incoherent and he couldn't walk. His mother called an ambulance."

The detective said the teen was tested for narcotics while at Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center. However, the tests that were run did not turn up answers for medical workers.

"They couldn't identify it to treat it. With his brain swelling, they had to find out what he took otherwise he could die in 24 hours," Persampieri said police were told.

Detectives called Brockton school police. Through a name the mother had given police that she found on her son's cell phone, they were able to trace his classmate, who lives in Randolph.

Persampieri and a Randolph police sergeant went to the teen's home sometime between 3-4 a.m. Thursday.

Randolph police had a pamphlet on the plant, which they took to Massachusetts General Hospital to give to medical workers. The hospital was then able to treat the Brockton teen.

Persampieri said the Brockton teen was in the intensive care unit Thursday night. On Friday, he said police had spoken with his mother, who told them her son was "doing fine" and might be released as early as today.

According to police, the Randolph teenager got the jimsonweed from along a street in Braintree where it was growing.

Police said the Randolph teenager is not facing charges in connection with the incident.

Persampieri said the Brockton teen is the most recent to be hospitalized in connection to having gotten high from jimsonweed.

In recent years, other cases have been reported in Milton and Randolph, Persampieri said. A Milton police officer said he believed the cases there occurred between two and three years ago.

According to the National Drug Center, numerous cases of jimsonweed poisoning were reported across the country in 1997 and 1998. A total of 33 people were hospitalized in those cases.

A Brockton School Department spokeswoman said Friday that officials will be working with police to alert parents and students to the dangers of jimsonweed. Police are expected to give the school a pamphlet to distribute.

"We've worked with the Police Department in the past and we'll certainly work with them to distribute information parents and students need to protect themselves," said Jocelyn Meek, communications officer for the School Department.

Persampieri said the teenager who got high off the plant was lucky authorities were able to determine what he took. They want to prevent similar situations for others.

Nasty stuff. Take a look. BTW, anticholinergic means the blocking of acetylcholine receptors, leading to loss of motor control, and, as more recently discovered, loss and/or impairment of short-term memory.

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PHARMACOLOGY
The toxins in Jimson Weed are tropane belladonna alkaloids which possess strong anticholinergic properties. They include: hyoscyamine (leaves, roots, seeds), hyoscine (roots); atropine (d,l-hyoscyamine) and scopolamine (l-hyoscine). They act as competitive antagonists to acetylcholine at peripheral and central muscarinic receptors at a common binding site. The peripheral receptors are on exocrine glands which affect sweating, salivation, and smooth and cardiac muscle. Poisoning results in widespread paralysis of parasympathetic innervated organs. As tertiary amines they also have central nervous system absorption, inhibit CNS receptors and result in a central anticholinergic syndrome of acute psychosis or delirium. These toxins are easily absorbed from mucous membranes and the GI tract. The half-life of atropine is approximately 4 hours. Metabolism occurs in the liver by hydrolysis which eliminates approximately half the drug. The remainder is excreted unchanged in the urine.

TOXICOLOGY
Datura stramonium is an annual plant. It grows 4 to 6 feet tall and has dark green, long stemmed, lobed leaves which exude a foul odor. Its flower whic blooms in late spring is usually white, sometimes lavender, solitary and tubular. A four lobed, thorny, green seed pod fruit ripens in early fall. Each lobe contains 50-100, 2-3 mm, kidney-shaped, black/brown seeds. All parts of the plant are toxic. They are ingested, smoked and absorbed topically especially through mucous membranes. The exact concentration of specific alkaloids varies with species, cultivation, environment, temperature, moisture, and storage. The range of toxicity is highly variable and unpredictable; toxicity may vary from leaf to leaf, plant to plant and season to season. This contributes to the danger of misuse of the plant since the dose cannot be predicted. The highest concentration occurs in the seeds: approximately 0.1 mg of atropine per seed or 3-6 mg/50-100 seeds. An estimated lethal dose in an adult is >10 mg atropine or >2-4 mg scopolamine.

CLINICAL EFFECTS
The mnemonic for clinical effects of typical atropine poisoning is: "blind as a bat, mad as a hatter, red as a beet, hot as a hare, dry as a bone, the bowel and bladder lose their tone, and the heart runs alone." Symptoms include mydriasis; cycloplegia; flushed, warm, dry skin; dry mouth; ileus; urinary retention; tachycardia; hyper or hypotension; delirium with hallucinations; jerky, myoclonic movements; choreoathetosis; hyperthermia; coma; respiratory arrest; rare seizures; and central stimulation followed by depression. Hallucinations are reported in as many as 83% of cases; typically they are simple visual images in natural colors, but infrequently also tactile hallucinations of crawling insects. The onset of symptoms occurs within 30 to 60 minutes after smoking leaves or drinking tea; and 1-4 hours after ingestion of plant material or seeds. Initial symptoms include dry mouth then pupil dilatation. The duration of symptoms is often 24-48 hours because of delayed gastrointestinal motility; symptoms have been reported to last up to 1-2 weeks.Although poisoning may lead to fatal medullary paralysis, arrhythmias and cardiovascular collapse, Jimson Weed-related deaths mainly are as a result of impaired judgment and coordination resulting in risk-taking activities associated with accidental death.

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