Datura is usually mentioned in singular form. However, it actually refers to a genus of several species of poisonous vespertine flowering plants belonging to the family Solanaceae, nightshades.
There is much confusion circling the Datura family of plants. There are many different species in the Datura genus. Probably the two most well-known are:
- Datura inoxia (devil’s weed)
- Datura stramonium (jimson weed or thorn apple)
One thing is for certain, though: all members of the Datura genus contain highly toxic tropane alkaloids, mainly scopolamine, hyoscyamine, and atropine.
The effects of these toxic substances include hallucinations and a delirious state, as the result of which they are sometimes used (although only by a small minority of hardcore “psychonauts”) as a recreational drug.
However, all deliriants, such as Datura inoxia, Datura stramonium, Datura metel etc. are extremely dangerous and there is a high risk of an unintentional fatal overdose, as the dose that triggers its psychoactive effects in not much smaller than the lethal dose.
Moreover, in most cases, the “trip” caused by the Datura plant is reported to be largely negative. For most people, it is downright disturbing and often described as a state of total delirium, with vivid hallucinations, loss of memory and self control and unpleasant bodily symptoms.
Datura plants are very dangerous, I do not recommend the recreational use of any species of the genus.
Interesting facts about Datura:
In many indigenous American cultures certain species of the Datura genus (Datura inoxia, Datura stramonium, Datura wrightii etc.) were regarded as sacred plants for their hallucinogenic properties. Some examples are:
- The Aztecs allegedly gave Datura preparations to their sacrificial victims in order to prepare them for death.
- The Algonquin Indians gave it to adolescent boys during a rite of passage between childhood to adulthood.
- The Chumash Indians thought, that by taking Datura, they come in touch with their “dream helper”, that guides them through the rest of their lives. Those who sought to strengthen their bond with this entity later on in their lives, took the substance on additional occasions.
Datura, along with Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), Hyoscyamus niger (henbane) and Mandragora officinarum (mandrake) was one of the plants reportedly used by medieval witches. The common belief held, that these ointments made witches fly.
Sources:
Drugs Across the Spectrum by Raymond Goldberg
The Datura Cult Among the Chumash
Why Do Witches Ride Broomsticks? Hallucinogens (Forbes)
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Datura guide
Datura – legal status
Datura is a wild growing plant, therefore it is rather hard to ban. However, many governments are reported to impose restrictions on possessing, cultivating, importing or growing it with the intent of consumption.
Countries with available information regarding the legal status of Datura:
| Datura – Legal status | |
|---|---|
| Country | legal status |
| Australia | Some species, Datura stramonium, Darura spp. and Datura tatula are controlled under the Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Medicines and Poisons Act |
| Brazil | Only Datura suaveolens is controlled |
| Canada | Neither datura nor scopolamine (its main active ingredient) are scheduled substances in Canada |
| New Zealand | appears to be uncontrolled |
| Norway | legal |
| UK | legal |
There are no federal laws in the US that would outlaw Datura. However, there are some states, that have restrictions in place on the plant. Most states’ regulations only mention Datura stramonium (jimson weed) See the table below:
| Datura – Legal status – USA | |
|---|---|
| state | legal status |
| Connecticut | Datura stramonium is listed amongst “Restricted drugs or substances”, Chapter 420b |
| Kansas | Datura stramonium is a Schedule I drug |
| Louisiana | Louisiana Act No 159 makes 40 plants illegal, including Datura spp., when intended for human consumption |
| Nevada | All parts of the plant are on the list of controlled substances |
| New Jersey | Only legal for medical uses, only on prescription |
| Oklahoma | As a result of a poisoning cases in 2004, authorities added “naturally occurring” to the definition of “synthetic controlled substances”, and outlawed Datura |
| Tennessee | legal, the state did not pass the bill in 2006, that planned to ban Datura and many other plants, instead they merely banned Salvia divinorum |
Buy Datura
Datura is a wild growing plant. It can also be purchased from plant shops, but its availability is dependent on the country’s laws.
However, it is not recommended for recreational use.
Buy Datura US
I cannot currently recommend any places to buy Datura in the US.
Buy Datura – Netherlands
I cannot currently recommend any paces to buy Datura in the Netherlands.
Main active ingredients of Datura
The main active ingredients in all members of the Datura genus are scopolamine, hyoscyamine and atropine. All three are tropane alkaloids, that are reported to cause a bizarre delirium and hallucinations, even at fairly small dosages.
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All parts of every species of the Datura genus contain these toxic compounds, but the concentration is reported to be the highest in the seeds.
The effects of the Datura
- No memories for periods of several hours
- Irrational behaviour
- Blurred vision/inability to focus the eyes (lasting up to several days)
- Dryness of mouth
- Rapid ood swings, most often alteration between excitement and sedation
- Inhibited digestion
- Inability to perspire
Source: Erowid Datura Basics
Dangers of Datura
Datura, as all other deliriants, is extremely dangerous. The main problem with these plants and all members of the Datura genus alike, (Datura inoxia, Datura metel, Datura starmonium etc.) is that the lethal dose is very close to the effective dose.
Moreover, the overwhelming majority of datura users describe their experience as very unpleasant and often physically dangerous. There are many reports of serious injuries and arrests, hospitalization resulting from Datura intoxication.
Taking Datura, in all cases, means putting your life at risk to some extent.
Fatal Datura poisoning cases are not unheard of. Several official and unofficial sources talk about cases, where experimentally minded teenagers died from Datura poisoning, after drinking “Datura tea” or eating the seeds, flowers or leaves of the plant.
There was also at least one reported occasion, when a person drowned under the influence of the substance, due to heavy incoordination issues and blackout-like state caused by the plant.
Even with non-lethal doses, Datura poisoning can get you hospitalised or in coma. Excessive use can have long lasting ill effects on the brain and liver as well.
Sources:
Fatal poisoning from ingestion of Datura stramonium seeds
Datura poisoning-the Angel’s Trumpet
Datura health benefits
Datura has plenty of pharmacological uses. It is reported to treat or alleviate many medical conditions. The primary biologically active substances in Datura are the alkaloids atropine and scopolamine.
Datura extracts are known to be used or had been used to treat or alleviate the following medical conditions:
- Parkinson’s disease,
- peptic ulcers,
- diarrhea,
- bronchial asthma,
- hemorrhoids,
- burns, inflammations,
- mental diseases, like depression and schizophrenia,
- abscesses, wounds,
- rheumatism,
- falling hair.
Parts of the Datura plant are being and had been used in traditional, folk and Ayurvedic medicine as well.
Datura – consumption, preparation
Buy Datura
Datura is a wild growing plant. It can also be purchased from plant shops, but its availability is dependent on the country’s laws.
Buy Datura – US
Currently, I cannot recommend any shops to buy Datura in the US.
Buy Datura – Netherlands
Currently, I cannot recommend any shops to buy Datura in the Netherlands.
Datura trip reports
Almost every Datura trip report out there ends with a “this is not for everyone” disclaimer, and for a good reason.
Datura is not fun, it is not for people looking for a good time. Most experiences are very dangerous and include a complete loss of touch with reality with hallucinations ranging from just strange to downright dreadful.
I highlighted some excerpts from trip reports posted on Erowid.org, that I felt, sum up the “Datura experience” quite well:
“The entire house is dead silent. Then I hear the tv go back on, but the screen is blank, and I hear Steve saying ‘hey I’m over here’. I realize that he’s calling me from out in my backyard, so I put my shoes on and go outside. At first I scanned my back yard for him, but couldn’t see him, and I couldn’t hear him anymore. I suddenly get the idea that Steve had come over for a hide and seek game (at this point I have absolutely no idea that I have taken anything) so I run into the yard looking around for him. Then I speak ‘come out come out where ever you are’ . Right when I say this my voice sounds very different, like a person who has gone totally insane. This starts to scare me very much, and Steve is nowhere to be found. I look way across to the other end of my yard (my yard is only about a 100 foot by 200 foot area, but now it was a soccer field size) and at the other end I see my dog’s pen, a fenced in area in the corner with all my friends who are straight edge that stopped being friends with me when I started smoking pot. I haven’t seen them in so long, so I run towards the pen. They look just as happy to see me as I am to see them, and they let me into the pen. We start talking and to my surprise, one of them pulls a blunt out of nowhere and sparks it. I am naturally amused but shocked, then they start to explain to me that they came to see me cause they all ‘got into the game’ and don’t think drugs are that bad after all. On the outside I am pleased to hear this, but on the inside I begin to get feelings of untrust. These bastards abandoned me years back. I don’t show any unpleasant feelings on the outside, and I continue to be cheery with them, although I keep a state of mind not to trust anyone there. […]
Next thing I know I’m back in my kitchen lying on the floor very sweaty, Steve is there sitting on the kitchen counter. My focus is very blurred and ‘off’ and I feel very confused about why he’s there on the counter and I’m on the floor, but every few moments I kinda snap back into reality and know exactly what going on, then snap back into delirium and totally forget everything.”
Source: Erowid Datura Trip Report: Truely The Devils Weed
“Next thing I know I whip out a cigarette that I distinctly remember leaving behind my ear. I begin a quest in search for a lighter. I continuously search over and over the same square feet of carpet in front of me for a lighter but I don’t find one. Magically I realise that my cigarette is already lit. “Duh!” I think to myself, and begin smoking it. Moments later it falls on the floor and I start searching for it, but it’s gone. Wtf? WHAT THE FUCK? Take a wild guess what I do next? I reach behind the same ear and find another one; however this doesn’t seem to strike me as slightest bit unusual. I just go on smoking it. Oh.. of course- without a lighting it first.
Another blackout happens. A fraction of my memory is erased, and I find myself naked in bed, hiding under my cover sheets. “I” is telling me to put on my clothes, but I just tell him to fuck off and began to feel the incessant and irrevocable pain growing inside my body. I still have no idea till this day how to describe the pain, or have I ever recalled feeling the same way on any other substance except for high doses of dimemhydrinate.
Right about that time, Kim (being sober) decided to call the ambulance for we had all become a bit like a bunch of zombies, with slightly worse motor function skills. The whole lot of us were stumbling around and crashing into everything. I do not recall any of this; but apparently there were two ambulances that arrived outside our house. 3 of us were put in one, and B and C hopped in the other one, or rather, were forced. I refused to get into the ambulance apparently, and kept dropping my shorts that were loosely bound to my waste.”
Source: Erowid Datura Trip Report: Delerium in Perdition
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Some of the information presented here might be outdated or incorrect (check “last updated” below). Make sure, that if you are planning to try out any of the substances to research them yourself as well.
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Datura is only one of the legal highs included in Simon’s legal high guide, check out the others as well.
If you are only interested in legal deliriant, then check out Simon’s Legal Deliriant Guide for more (coming soon).
Last updated: 2015. 11. 16.
Smoking one of the dried flowers of Datura Stramonium seems to produce a relatively pleasant effect. So far a friend and I have only smoked the flowers and had very mild experiences which have all been fairly pleasant so far. In many ways an interesting alternative to ‘good-old’ cannabis, although with a shorter duration. It seems to me that most people take a much too heavy dose the first time around. Definitely something only for serious psychonauts who practice ordinary meditation as well as experimenting with drugs. You really need a clear head and good concentration for this stuff. I will experiment more with this plant gradually increasing the dose to find out if it is possible to understand and avoid the unpleasant effects.