News from the Denver Post states that five local kids have been hospitalized for using, or rather misusing, moonflowers. This pops up every now and then. Kids are looking for a legal high and end up messing with a variety of moonflower and, in this case, wind up seriously ill.
The five lived within 3.5 miles of each other, the Jefferson County Department of Health and Environment said in a news release, and all have recovered. However, two of them were at one time in intensive care.
The flowers have large blooms and a delicate fragrance. The seeds, leaves and roots - when eaten, smoked or brewed into a tea - cause hallucinations...
Kids only seem to know that much about it and go no further. I bet they know better now!
Ingesting the plant causes agitation, confusion and hallucinations. Heart rate and blood pressure can climb, mouths can become dry, skin turns dry, hot and flushed, and vision is blurred. In severe cases, the plant can cause seizures and comas.
In addition to the five Jeffco teens, four other cases of moonflower toxicity have been reported to the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center in the last month, the release said.
It's a shame.
Not only have these stupid kids been sick as shit but they've scared the hell out of their families and tarnished the already questionable reputation of the moonflowers of the world. I don't expect anything positive about the use of the plants to be in a cowan newspaper. Anything involving hallucinations is automatically evil in the eyes of most people, and with good reason: if these things are misused they are dangerous. It's even more of a shame because if these kids had waited until they were older, wiser and more knowledgeable the moonflowers could have helped them reach previously unreachable levels of awareness. It could have helped them learn about themselves and the world around them in a way their "normal" consciousness does not allow.
Too bad.
6 comments:
Sad that for some, the world leaves them so distanced and alone that they feel the need to try something like this. Plants like this are poisonous unless used, as you say, with care.
... and there are easier ways to kill yourself, if that's what you had in mind.
Well, it's not all doom and gloom. Everyone deserves a little help when it comes to feeling good. And alcohol just isn't for everyone. In fact, alcohol does far more damage than most other things. But I agree, if you really wanna die there's got to be better ways to do it.
I agree. It's almost a basic human nature to seek out "excitement". some folks take up skydiving, some folks seek drugs/alcohol, and others embrace ancient literature for the mental stimulation.
But even as kids, our instinct seems to try transcend mundane life (through roleplaying as kids, more visceral things as adults).
Shunning such forces and needs, vilifying them, is harmful and drives kids to do stuff like this, looking for a 'legal high" as you say.
I feel it's better to have open honest discussions about all such things, so that they know the dangers and benefits of any activity, and thus can approach the experience wisely, or not at all once their judgement is clear of "awesome-sounding unknown counter-culture thing!".
"I feel it's better to have open honest discussions about all such things, so that they know the dangers and benefits of any activity, and thus can approach the experience wisely, or not at all once their judgement is clear of "awesome-sounding unknown counter-culture thing!"."
Maebius, I'm definitely with you there. Information is knowledge and knowledge is power.
I think it also depends on what your life has done to you when very young. As someone who's looked death in the face twice as a kid, my excitement is in stories, not in the 'real' world.
This is rather a fad out here, has been for at least a few years. Every so often there's another story in the new like this one about kids trying this and winding up in the hospital.
I think it was a couple years ago that the city of Denver voted on legalizing cannabis and it passed. So under city law you can have it (less than an ounce, for personal use), but by State and Federal law, if you get caught with it, you're still gonna get arrested. At least that's how I understand it. Doesn't affect me anyway, I live in a suburb. :(
Another good post! Kids rarely wait until they have knowledge and wisdom about natural herbs and plants. I remember somebody telling me when I was about 13 that hops would get me high...we went searching for those hops immediately! Don't think they worked though, I can't remember, lol!
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