America and Drugs - Deliriants

Deliriants are an odd and little mentioned class of drugs, yet they are used. Certain plants such as Datura (jimson weed, may apples, devil's weed are some of the common names) are consumed. There are also closely related plants such as Angel's Trumpet, belladonna, and deadly nightshade.

All of these have been used throughout history by shamen, healers and practioners of certain forms of occult magic. They are often mistakenly referred to as hallucinogens, but they definitely are not, The effects are a sort of blend of drunken stupor with visual distortions and periods of an odd kind of sleep with vivid dreams. Most find the effects extremely unpleasant. Yet still, from time to time, you hear reports of people, usually kids, turning up at hospitals after consuming these plants. Angel's Trumpet seems to be the usual culprit, maybe because it is such an attractive flower.

The effects of these plants come mostly from 2 chemicals, atropine and scopolamine. Both have some limited medical use. Scopolamine in particular was one of the drugs tested by the government in the infamous MKUltra era. The thinking was that since, among other things, scopolamine robs one of their will power, they might be useful in interrogations. Such testing was abandoned because it seem s that the drug was too strong to be controllable.

I had a friend once who took belladonna, a drug found in deadly nightshade. At that time it was used in asthma medicine and he took a bunch of that all at once. I didn't see him until after his experiment or I would have called an ambulance. His roommate at the time, just left him alone and fortunately, he lived. For 3 days he laid in bed. Most of that time, he seemed to sleep, however, here and there, he woke up and had what seemed to be fascinating conversations with folks who were not there, For 3 days after he came around, he could not see well enough to read. Finally, everything wore off and he was fine although he later told me it took weeks before he felt right.

There is another drug, quite common, that is a deliriant, diphenyl hydramine. commonly known as Benadryl. Take a little too much of that and you are guaranteed to have a most peculiar and likely unpleasant, evening. I know that from experience.

These are not commonly abused drugs and I hesitated to bring them up. However, their abuse, especially of the plant forms, is something that does pop up from time to time and when it does, it is like a mini epidemic. There is a bunch of usage, again usually by kids, then it fades away, only to return at another time. If you know anyone contemplating the use of these substances, do all you can to stop them and if you run across anyone who has consumed them, get them to a hospital ASAP. These drugs are psychologically damaging and physically, they can be fatal.