http://www.local6.com/news/6269732/detail.html

Internet Recipe For Tea Nearly Kills Teen
Angel's Trumpet Plant Can Be Hallucinogenic

POSTED: 6:41 am EST January 20, 2006
UPDATED: 10:41 am EST January 20, 2006

A batch of homemade tea made from a common flower in Central Florida has left a 17-year-old Titusville, Fla., boy fighting for his life, according to a Local 6 News report.

David O'Bryan Taylor, known as Bryan, is at Florida Hospital in Orlando waiting to find out why his heart is misfiring and whether he'll need a pacemaker.

About two weeks ago, Taylor brewed a batch of tea from the leaves or flowers of an Angel's Trumpet to get high, according to Local 6 News partner Florida Today.

Taylor said he followed directions he found on the Internet and accidentally overdosed. The drink nearly killed him, according to the report.

"I'm scared to death for him," his mother, Gloria Ryle told Florida Today. "They wake him up at night because his heart skipped seven beats and he doesn't even know it."

The shrub-tree with trumpet-like flowers is common in Florida and occasionally has been controversial because of its use as a hallucinogen.

In 1995, the city of Maitland banned planting Angel's Trumpet after two teens there died after ingesting it. Locally, in 2000, two teens from Indian Harbour Beach were hospitalized after drinking the poisonous tea, according to the report.

Local law enforcement officers and others say they've seen only a few cases over the past decade, but one is too many.

"It's not very common at all, nor would we like it to be," said Titusville Police Department spokesman Warren Van Vuren.

Five years ago, the Centers for Disease Control reported that more than 230 people had died in one year from psychotropic drugs of all types in Florida, including Angel's Trumpet.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

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YayAreaPnjbi Reviewed by YayAreaPnjbi on . Internet Recipe For Tea Nearly Kills Teen http://www.local6.com/news/6269732/detail.html Internet Recipe For Tea Nearly Kills Teen Angel's Trumpet Plant Can Be Hallucinogenic POSTED: 6:41 am EST January 20, 2006 UPDATED: 10:41 am EST January 20, 2006 A batch of homemade tea made from a common flower in Central Florida has left a 17-year-old Titusville, Fla., boy fighting for his life, according to a Local 6 News report. Rating: 5