Don't confuse Salvia with Jimson Weed

As I'm always on the lookout for news of people stupid enough to mess with Datura, I ran across this local Nebraska news story which appears to confuse Jimson Weed or belladonna type nightshade plants with the less noxious Salvia divinorum. The resulting copy would be very confusing for anyone who doesn't know that the author is actually talking about two different plants.

Two 16-year-old high school students were cited by the North Platte police for use of intoxicating compounds, a Class-III misdemeanor, for allegedly smoking Jimson weed.
...

Jimson weed – also called Gypsum weed, stinkweed, locoweed and Thornapple – is a common name for a plant known botanically as salvia divinorum, which has been used as a medicine and intoxicant for centuries.

The plant is native to Mexico and much of the U.S. It has been used by young people unfamiliar with its reputation and unprepared for its side effects.

Jimson weed can reach a height of 5 feet, bearing white flowers and prickly seed pods that split open when ripe, usually in fall.

Okay, now here it is obvious they are confusing datura and salvia, but it goes on:

The plant, known as Salvia divinorum, can be chewed, smoked, or taken as a tincture to produce experiences ranging from uncontrollable laughter to much more intense and profoundly altered states, according to Wikipedia. The duration is much shorter than for some other more well known psychedelics; the effects of smoked salvia typically last for a few minutes.

The phrase "Red as a beet, dry as a bone, blind as a bat, mad as a hatter" has been used to describe Jimson's effects, and it does a good job of summing them up. All parts of the plant are toxic, so pleasant effects are limited, according to police.

Wikipedia reports that Salvia divinorum is not generally understood to be toxic or addictive, but police believe there is a real potential for accidental poisoning when using Jimson weed. Symptoms include incoherent speech, impaired coordination; rapid heart beat; and dry, flushed or hot skin. In extreme cases, users can experience seizures, intense visual or auditory hallucinations, or cardiac arrest. A Jimson weed overdose should be considered potentially serious and medical intervention sought.

So whoever wrote this story obviously did some research, but still messed it up. They are describing the effects of datura or Jimson Weed and ascribing them to Salvia. Anyone who has tried the two would clearly know the difference.

You'd think it would end there, but the pain goes on. The author now confuses anti-salvia legislation with legislation to outlaw Jimson Weed, thinking they are the same thing:

Jimson weed is not a controlled substance but some states are looking to outlaw it.

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning wants the Legislature to outlaw the herb this year.

Bruning announced a new bill that would take aim at salvia divinorum, commonly known as Jimson weed, which he categorizes as a dangerous drug.

“This legislation will…put it on par with other powerful drugs like peyote, psychedelic mushrooms and LSD,” Bruning said. “Several other states have already made salvia illegal. It’s time to add Nebraska to the list.”

Selling, owning or using the hallucinogenic drugs salvia divinorum and jimson weed would be illegal under the proposed legislation. So far, only seven states have passed laws restricting use of Salvia in varying ways. The states are Delaware, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Maine and North Dakota.

“Nebraska needs to classify salvia divinorum and its active ingredient, salvinorin A, as a controlled substance in order to protect our children from a drug being portrayed as harmless when it’s not,” Bruning said.

I could go into a detailed digression here about how the article refers to salvia as an anticholinergic plant (which is wrong) or how they used a photo of a salvia plant in an article on Jimson Weed that was actually supposed to be about salvia (I think), but you get the idea. Don't confuse the two kids, okay? Learn how to use that WikiPedia thing for good.

I'm guessing what these poor teens were busted with was salvia, and that Jimson Weed had nothing to do with it. Nebraska.