These plants, which grow wild in the Greater Knysna District as well as Bitou, are recognised poisons and hallucinogens.
Errol Hartnick was one of the children hospitalised. His mother, Angie Buys, explained: "I noticed that Errol wasn’t himself on Friday, he just wanted to go sleep at 14:15 and he is not a child that sleeps during the afternoon." She further related how she tried to wake him for his dinner around 20:00, but he didn’t want to eat, and kept asking for drinking water.
"That’s when I noticed that he wasn’t making any sense and spoke of things climbing up the walls." Buys didn’t sleep and around 01:45 found Errol trying to climb a tree outside the family home. "When I tried to get him out of the tree, he shaped his hand like a snake and tried to strike at me! We threw a cloth over him and just watched him."
Later that morning Errol was taken to the Knysna Provincial Hospital where he was diagnosed as suffering from substance-induced psychosis as a result of eating the seeds of Datura stramonium (also called Jimson Weed). According to SA Medical Journal, "fatalities have been reported from ‘malpitte’ poisoning."
It further states: "In South Africa today, the problem of drug abuse among teenagers is common. The background psychological factors include, curiosity, boredom, rebellion against taboos and authority, escapism and peer group acceptance."
The journal discusses the ready availability at no cost of ‘malpitte’ as well as the often frightening ‘come-down’ effects which follow the acute phase.
Dr AJ Venter, Knysna Provincial Hospital superintendent, confirmed that five to six children were admitted to hospital after experimenting with ‘malpitte’.
"One of the children experienced psychotic episodes and we had to put him in our lock-up facility."
Buys recalled that her son had said, "I’m going to kill you." She tried to remind him that she was his mother, but he was not responding to anything she said. "That’s when they locked him up behind bars. When I later saw him, he had gotten worse, he was climbing the bars without any of his clothes on. To watch your child being robbed of his sanity is the most frightening thing," Buys explained.
Her son, together with the other children, were discharged on Monday, February 14. "He still has spasms during the night, and the doctors say that it will take months to get out of his system."
Once Errol was home his mother was admitted to hospital as a result of a serious asthma attack, said to have been brought on by the stress of her son’s psychosis.
"The headmaster of Rheenendal Primary called a meeting to explain the dangers of ‘malpitte’ to the parents," said Buys. She said that a municipal development worker was present at this meeting. "I hope that she has gone back to the municipality to ask them to remove all these plants as our children’s safety depends on the eradication thereof."
The SA Journal reports that the use of ’malpitte’ by schoolchildren have reached noticeable proportions in South Africa. It further reports that the abuse of ‘malpitte’ may lead to an acute psychiatric emergency.
Malpitte contains, as the psychoactive compounds, hyoscyamine as the chief alkaloid, with scorpolamine and atropine occuring in lesser concentrations. In South Africa, poisoning is more common by eating the seed, and less common by eating the leaf.
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Several Keurhoek children were admitted to the hospital after eating ’malpitte’ (Datura stramonium) on Friday, February 11. Leionel Donson (left) of the Keurhoek Neighbrouhood Watch, accompanied Magda Williams (right) to remove these poisonous, hallucinogenic plants. With them are Angie Buys, her son Errol Harnick, Zait and Kurtley Barends (all three children were hospitalised) and young Marlow Qeza, who alerted the parents that the children had eaten ‘malpitte’, standing in front of Williams.
ARTICLE: FRAN KIRSTEN
