Every once in a while one hears about crazy kids eating the seeds of Jamestown weed or Jimson weed to get high. The high that is experienced is similiar to the high from oooh I dunno, eating rat poison. All of the hallucinogenic effects are actually just the body responding to the deadly poison that is Jamestown weed.

To review: If anyone offers you Jamestown weed just say no, that shit is poison which is a variation on the more misguided just say no. Be prepared to call poison control if you do see anyone taking it. No one really wants to be in a coma on the verge of death, do they?

Jamestown weed is often more commonly known as "jimsonweed" or simply "jimpson". It is a poisonous annual plant (Datura stramonium) in the nightshade family (Solanaceae). It has stinky leaves and white trumpet-shaped blooms and is the source of many useful alkaloids, including atropine, hyoscine and hyoscyamine.

Reputedly, the early settlers in Jamestown, Virginia discovered the toxic effects of the plant when a cook mistakenly collected several of them to make a side dish of greens to a meal.

---

From the science dictionary at http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/.

James"town` weed` (?). Bot.

The poisonous thorn apple or stramonium (Datura stramonium), a rank weed early noticed at Jamestown, Virginia. See Datura.

This name is often corrupted into jimson, jimpson, and gympsum.

 

© Webster 1913.