Is Your Teenager Eating Morning Glory Flower Seeds to Get High?

Your backyard may be a danger zone for your teenager, especially if you happen to be growing Morning Glories. These beautiful blooming flowers, also known as heavenly blue, crimson rambler and pearly gates have seeds that contain Lysergic Acid Amide that gives an LSD-like high when swallowed by the hundreds, and kids are gaining this knowledge all too fast. The age of the internet puts information into the hands and minds of kids at such a rapid pace that most parents can barely keep up with the new trends and fads that come and go.

The Morning Glory fad is not a new trend by any means; in fact it was one that grew heavily in the 60's with the hippy era. The seeds of these flowers were often used as a hallucinogen by teenagers looking for a cheap high. The morning glory seeds, containing Lysergic Acid Amide is found to be one-tenth as potent as LSD. The seeds are brown or black and may be eaten whole or ground up, but when the seeds are eaten whole, the effects will be smaller than when they are chewed or ground up.

When the seeds are chewed up, the effects of the drug will take affect within 30 to 90 minutes of ingestion with results that mimic taking LSD. If Lysergic Acid Amide is extracted from the seeds, it can be injected to produce a more immediate and intense experience, and too many children are aware of this. Morning Glory seeds are available to kids at just about any retailer, but store owners have taken some precautions, such as changing the bar code on the seeds so that the supply can be monitored when a teenager is attempting to purchase them in bulk.

The physical effects of ingesting Morning Glory seeds can have a large range of affects varying from anxiety or panic attacks, distortion of time, space and body image, difficulty concentrating and thinking clearly, severe mood swings, often ranging from a hyper-interested mood to a withdrawn disinterested mood, questionable behavior resulting from the confusion, panic, and paranoia that the drug produces when ingested, toxic psychosis from children suffering from depression, and death.

Unfortunately teenagers have the common misconception that because the drug comes from a natural source, that it's safer than other drugs, but this just isn't the case. Signs that teenagers are in fact experimenting include stores nationwide reporting missing packages of Morning Glory seeds, large amounts of the seeds being sold from various retailers, internet searches of the Morning Glory, and hospital visits from teens suffering from spiked heart rates and hallucinations that admit to eating the crushed up Morning Glory seeds.

In 1955 a close study of the Morning Glory began when a psychiatrist published notes on self-experimentation with flower seeds, showing that they brought on intoxicating affects, accompanied by hallucinations. By the 1960's the news of this discovery was wide spread and teens looking for cheap thrills could easily find it right in their own backyard.

Law enforcement has become concerned with teens using the drugs as it is a perfectly legal drug to obtain, and they claim that they weren't aware that the seeds produced effects similar to those produced by LSD. Substance abuse counselors and organizations that monitor problems within the drug industry were not aware of the growing problem either. Some media attention has heightened their awareness of the problem, but it is still a sketchy area as little information is available on the flower seed trend. It is known that chemicals, insecticides, and fungicides are often found on Morning Glory seeds which can lead to a child being poisoned if enough seeds are consumed.

Recreational drugs like the Morning Glory seeds are just beginning to register nationally. After hearing about their wide spread use of these flower seeds among teenagers, the Ohio Early Warning Network issued an alert to school, health and law enforcement officials. Louisiana has recently jumped onto the bandwagon, and they have passed legislation that made morning glories and 38 other plants containing hallucinogenic compounds illegal when intended for human consumption.

Drug counselors, law enforcement, school officials, and parents feel that the only way to control this growing problem is to educate kids and make them aware of the potential dangers of ingesting these types of drugs. They want kids to know that they are not safe in any way, and that permanent damage can result in their use. http://www.slate.com/id/2141138/