Meet The Datura Plant, aka Stromonium, aka The Thornapple (note second picture), aka Jimson Weed, aka Jamestown Weed, aka the original Loco Weed, aka Moonflower, aka Hell's Bells, aka Devil's Weed, aka Devil's Cucumber. It has extremely powerful hallucinogenic properties and, because of its historical/botanical association with Belladonna, the first wave of experimenters back in the 1960s and 1970s often found themselves running around naked thinking that they were being chased by witches. It is very powerful stuff, usually a pretty unpleasant experience (or so I have read), and very easy to poison yourself with.
There have been several overdoses reported around Canada and Ontario in the last several years, and a number of jurisdictions have asked residents to cut down any plants seen growing naturally. Back in the day, when I considered myself a bit of s psychedelic warrior, I spent several pleasant summers biking around the Saanich dump in a futile search for examples of the species (they're supposed to grow around dump sites). However when I was older and came to Toronto, I found them growing everywhere!
Which brings me to the point. These pictures are of a plant I discovered two days ago in a neighbor's garden, obviously bought in a local shop for the striking white flower. And when I say I found them "growing everywhere" in Toronto when I first moved here, I mean I saw them being sold in flower and variety stores all across the city, something which has not really changed over the course of the 20 years or so since.
If these things are such a concern, wouldn't some kind of city by-law banning/restricting their sale, or at least some kind of awareness campaign informing residents as to their dangers, be in order?
No, inform everybody about them, tell them exactly how to use (abuse) it, where it can be found, etc. It'll work as successfully as sex ed does in keeping teens unpregnant.
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