Pruning under the influence

Marneros A, Gutmann P, Uhlmann F. Self-amputation of penis and tongue after use of Angel's Trumpet. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2006 Oct;256(7):458-9. Epub 2006 Jun 16.

Kids, this is why you should just bite the bullet and fork out the necessary cash for some quality bud instead of cheaping out and making tea from some plant you found growing in your backyard.

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This will probably never be made into an anti-drug ad campaign, but I can't imagine a stronger deterrent. Angel's Trumpet is a flower that contains scopolamine and other alkaloids. It's known as a "biogenic drug" and presumed by naive recreational drug users to be harmless because it's a plant.…
Toxicity reports are re-emerging in southern California this week after a dozen hospitalizations of kids using teas made from a fragrant flowering plant called Angel's Trumpet. A tea made from the plants is used to produce hallucinations, but they can progress to extremely unpleasant experiences.…
Santucci RA, Deng D, Carney J. Removal of metal penile foreign body with a widely available emergency-medical-services-provided air-driven grinder. Urology. 2004 Jun;63(6):1183-4. Dude! Remember that one time when they had to remove that barbell from my dick with an air grinder? That was so sick…
Children assigned to chew sugar-free gum purportedly score 3% higher on standardized tests of math skills (as widely reported in the press). But is this just one of the 5% of all possible untrue hypotheses statistically guaranteed to have some significant result in its favor (in fact, it's worse…

It sounds like this plant should be nipped in the bud early with a little help from the media.

Gopel C, Laufer C, Marcus A.
PMID: 11869466 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

An increase of intoxications in persons using alkaloid-containing ornamental plants (mainly angel's trumpet) for their hallucinogenic effects and easy and cheap availability is registered. It is mainly adolescents who are experimenting with these plants. In addition to severe vegetative anticholinergic symptoms, the clinical picture is often dominated by a toxic psychosis with hallucinations, disturbances of orientation, and psychomotoric agitation, aggression, or anxiety. Three cases of severe psychotic pictures with only mild or completely missing vegetative symptoms after ingestion of angel's trumpet tea are reported. Caused by the increasing spreading of angel's trumpet shrubberies in Europe and North America, intoxications with large numbers of fatalities have to be expected in the future. The taxonomical, pharmacological, and clinical aspects of angel's trumpet-induced disorders are discussed. Knowledge of the clinical picture is important for correct diagnosis and treatment. Prevention by mass media should mainly focus on the medical fatalities of abuse and not emphasize the hallucinogenic effects, presumably increasing unwanted interest for these plants among youths.

Kids will be kids.

By Gene Goldring (not verified) on 07 Feb 2008 #permalink

Omni Brain had that one covered (so to speak) in December: http://scienceblogs.com/omnibrain/2007/12/man_severs_own_penis.php

Angel's Trumpet is a flower that contains scopolamine and other alkaloids. It's known as a "biogenic drug" and presumed by naive recreational drug users to be harmless because it's a plant. However, it can cause psychosis, delirium, visual hallucinations, agitation, incoherence, aggressive behaviour, memory problems and "convulsive sobbing" as well as somatic symptoms and well, things like this incident.

'Tis a good thing for non omni brain-readers. The post that is, not the self-mutilation, psychosis, delirium etc.

No worries, Chris, this case has cropped up in the media now and then for years. I thought I had a fresh topic, too, I wrote before I Googled thoroughly. I spent more time looking for a good picture (oh, and catch the URL on the photo at Omni Brain, that was even better...).

But anyway, our reports are written independently so it doesn't matter who came first. We both have taste, is all. :)