COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. – A local garden center is limiting the sale of morning glory seeds, hoping to prevent teenagers from using them to get a cheap high.
One of the side effects is death, but that hasn’t discouraged teens from using it.
"There's a lot of morning glory [seeds] on the racks, all different varieties and things,” said Mark Landa, Boulevard Flowers.
Landa has spent days fielding questions from concerned parents over the issue.
“Had a couple of parents that had seen an article, matter of fact, had one this morning that talked about an article they had seen about the morning glory seeds being an hallucinogen,” he said.
Mark Landa, Boulevard Flowers.
It may sound crazy but there's a reason.
"Very close chemical relationship to the old LSD, which was processed,” said Dr. Boyd Wickhizer, Southside Regional Medical Center.
While the chemical composition is similar to a drug, so are the dangerous side effects.
“So somebody that's pregnant may go into labor…things like that,” he said. “ It's how it affects the nausea, the vomiting, the GI distress that comes from ingestion."
Parents have asked what to do if they see a packet of seeds.
“It’s the fact that in any given event, a bad trip, bad physiologic side effects are dangerous enough that we have dead children from the experiences,” Wickhizer said.
Starting last year Landa’s staff limited the sale of packets to minors.
"There's no law says you can't buy morning glory seeds, but at the same time, we told them if they saw any young people that were not of age, that we limit to two packs without an adult being present.”
