Students Seek High From Toxic Plant

MILTON, Mass. -- Some local high school students learned a dangerous lesson about a toxic weed when one student ended up in the hospital after eating the hallucinogenic plant.

Newscenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that the incident prompted Milton High School adminstrators to issue a warning.

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The plant is a common weed called datura or jimson weed, and can be found all over the commonwealth. Officials said that three Milton High School students found it in an unidentified neighboring community after learning about datura's hallucinogenic effects over the Internet.

"It's really basically a toxic plant. And so some students were experimenting with something and a student did end up in the hospital. At the time, they were concerned about respiratory failure, but he ended up being all right. He came out of it, but he was unconscious for a while," Milton High School Principal John Drottar said.

Milton police said the teenagers apparently broke open the spiky pod, which can be peeled to look like a chestnut, swallowing an unknown quantity of seeds. The poison took hold within hours. The school superintendent said that the boys' frantic parents were very cooperative.

"They communicated honestly with the school, and they were looking out for their children and all the children of Milton. They wanted something gained out of this," superintendent Mary Gormley said.

Because word traveled fast among students about what had happened, school officials said they opted to make this an opportunity to educate students, so school officials sent a health alert home to all Milton High School parents.

"The letter ends with a request that they talk to their sons and daughters about anything. There can be things that students choose to do to experiment that are just poor choices, and we want to make sure that parents are informed and aware of that," Drottar said.

Because jimson weed is not illegal the students involved were not charged with any crime. They have recovered and are back in school.

Although the superintendent said there was discussion about punishment for the boys that included suspension, school officials decided they, and especially their parents, had suffered enough through their ordeal.