By Jen Carlson | Sept. 9, 2019 10:57 a.m.
A close-up of the datura stramonium plant and its flowers | Jen Chung / Gothamist
If you've heard of the Datura stramonium plant (it has many names, including the commonly used "jimson weed"), you've likely heard about its hallucinogenic effects, or, perhaps, how it may be used to manufacture the undead. In Wade Davis's book The Serpent and the Rainbow, he notes that in Haiti the plant is called "zombie cucumber" and is used "as a central ingredient of the concoction voodoo priests use to create zombies." It's also a popular hexing herb amongst those practicing witchcraft; was allegedly used by Josef Mengele, the Nazi physician known as the Angel of Death, during interrogations; and it has been at the center of many crimes, given its ability to "turn victims into 'zombies' devoid of free will," making them easier to manipulate or rob.
You will not find many good things written about this plant; what you will find is an endless stream of nightmarish tales and insane mythology, dating back centuries.
The plant is pretty common, and has been right there wreaking havoc in the background throughout history — according to the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, it pops up in Homer's Odyssey, as well as some of Shakespeare's plays, and it reportedly got some early Virginia settlers pretty high in the 1600s, for at least 11 days straight.
“While across the river awaiting reinforcements, the British troops lead by Governor Berkeley had one of the first documented ‘trips’ in American history with datura stramonium aka Jamestown Weed… “[the plant] was gathered for a boiled Salad, by some of the soldiers sent thither, to pacify the Troubles of [Nathaniel] Bacon; and some of them eat plentifully of it, the Effect of which was a very pleasant Comedy; for they turned natural Fools upon it for several Days. In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves – though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed they were not very cleanly; for they would have wallowed in their own excrements, if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after 11 days returned themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed.”
It's been referred to as "the scariest" drug by outlets like Vice, and if you don't believe everything you see about it on the internet, maybe you'll believe Timothy Leary, famous evangelist for psychedelics, who once declared: "I never heard of a good trip on datura."
And if you still need more proof of its evil, look no further than the Manson family, who also ingested the plant: "It was the inadvertent key ingredient to the dissolution of reality into fantasy... in particular with key members of the family." (Sometimes they incorrectly called it "belladonna," which is a related plant, but their descriptions more accurately fit datura, and it is believed that both Manson and Tex Watson partook, along with others).