The incongruous Sacred Datura

Once in a while you’ll be moving through the bush or down a dry wash, where the foliage is predominately dusty green and most of the few flowers that bloom are pretty muted, and you’ll come upon something with glossy dark green leaves and big splashy white flowers, a plant that screams, “Look at me!”

This is Datura Wrightii, called Sacred Datura in memory of all the people who ate the thing in hope of a sacred vision that wouldn’t kill them. Because natives of the SW desert didn’t already have enough things trying to kill them, I guess…

The world is full of self-destructive weirdos, and apparently always has been.

Effects may include dry mouth, hyperthermia, profuse sweating, drowsiness, lethargy, and anterograde amnesia – along with the afore-mentioned hallucinations and sensory distortions. These compounds also induce a profound dilatation of the pupils and suppress eye saccades, resulting in considerable degradation of visual acuity, often to the point of functional blindness. This may persist, to a reduced degree, for days. The combined effect may result in a panic state in the user, a particularly dangerous situation in someone temporarily deprived of useful vision; users are prone to serious accidental injury. Scopolamine induces respiratory depression at hallucinogenic doses. The combination of anesthesia (in the hospital) and Datura is usually fatal due to combined respiratory depression. Seizures and fevers as high as 43°C (110°F) have been reported.

Yeah. Hope I’m not pissing off any indigenous gods, but I’ll stick to the benevolent fruit of the agave if that’s all right…