Weed Harvested with spinach lets many accidently hallucinate in Australia
According to the South China Morning Post, hazardous weed testing has linked baby spinach consumption in Australia to the hallucinations experienced by nearly 200 people. A New South Wales production facility mistakenly gathered and packaged a plant called devil’s trumpet or devil’s snare alongside baby spinach.
Several persons in four different Australian states reported hallucinations after eating salads and stir-fry mixtures sold by different retailers. These goods having a December 28th expiration date were recalled by Food Standards Australia.
Hallucinations and delirium characterised by a loss of awareness of one’s surroundings were reported by those who had consumed the offender, in addition to dilated pupils, rapid heartbeat, dry mouth and skin, blurred vision, and fever. According to The Guardian’s reporting, the pollutant rendered some people unwell enough that they needed to be taken to the hospital.
Herbicides and other chemicals were initially suspected as the source of the contamination. In this case, however, authorities were able to narrow down the possible perpetrator after tracing the origin of the baby spinach across numerous retail brands and settling on Riviera Farms in Victoria as the common supplier.
While authorities were still looking into the matter, they had a sneaking suspicion that a certain plant was to blame. It’s possible that you wouldn’t have been able to tell the newborn spinach leaves apart from these weeds if you hadn’t seen them while they were young and still green.
Following this lead, detectives zeroed in on devil’s trumpet, also known as thornapple or jimsonweed, which had been gathered alongside spinach leaves and packaged for distribution to stores. As a preventative step, Riviera Farms has started destroying crops on neighbouring farms.