Birthdays during my undergraduate days in the university were always lit. From early morning beating rituals to late night parties filled with food and booze. Did I say early morning beating? Yea, celebrants always take some beatings for the culture. The break of dawn usually sees friends (and foes, perhaps) gathered to take their pound of flesh from the celebrants. Some go as far as pouring powdery flower and water on the birthday victim. Missiles of sachet waters fly around like its Syrian war while assailants render a line from a popular song:
We are getting old and getting high!
Afternoons are filled with little or no activities since everyone would be engaged in one or more academic activities. It is a university after all. Nights are the most interesting and are usually filled with booze, girls, music and a whole lot of fun. I am sure some of my Nigerian readers can relate and would give anything to have those days back.
Back then, alcohol seemed like the heart of any party. Without it, party rockers don’t come to play. Alcohol level tolerance differs among individuals. While some are already talking gibberish and confessing their sins with just two bottles of beer (usually of about 14O proof or 7% alcohol each), some are just getting started at one crate (a crate of beer is twelve bottles). Science has it that alcohol tolerance is hinged on varieties of factors such as body weight, age, sex, mood, ethnicity (?), rate of consumption as well as the food and drinks taken before the commencement of alcohol consumption. However, I am sure there were guys that defied all the hypotheses of science about alcohol consumption back then.
It was during one of those night birthday parties a friend (birthday celebrant) of mine got introduced to a stuff that could help him save money on alcohol supply for his party. After taking the beating of his life early in the morning, plans went underway to make the night the talk of the town. The bulk of the plan focused on alcohol supply which seemed set to suffer due to a shortage of funds. Unfortunately, a couple of the invitees would pass as those that would readily defy scientific explanation on alcohol consumption. Something drastic had to be done and indeed, something really drastic was done.
Suggestions started flying-in left, right, front, back and center. The idea of beer for the night was totally ruled out simply because of those that could turn beer into water; no amount of beer can inebriate them. We jokingly call them antichrist because their actions seem to be an antithesis of Christ’s miracle in the bible. He turned water intto wine, they turn beer into water. Infusion of weed (Cannabis sativa) into home-made punch drink was also suggested but quickly thrown out because of the illegality of weed. Guys did not want the school authority clamping down on them because of a birthday party. Finally, one popular guy volunteered to provide something that could be mixed with home-made punch, legal, safe and guaranteed to knock even the biggest alcohol-tolerant person off his/her feet. The idea seemed perfect and everything seemed set. The night came and dissolved quickly.
The following morning was quite melodramatic. As at 10:00 am, music could still be heard loudly in the party room without any sound of life coming-in or going out of it. This aroused the curiousity of the neighbouring students and a visit was made to the party scene. A couple of participants were found sleeping in the room, some were found sleeping in the toilet and the celebrant himself was nowhere to be found. It took quite an effort to bring them back to life and when they did, no sense could be made of what they were saying. Whatever they have taken the previous night is yet to disintegrate half of its half-life in their systems. Where could the celebrant be? Perhaps he has early morning classes and has left for academic area?
Majority of those around concluded the celebrant must have gone for classes. It took almost four hours for those that were woken from slumbering to start regaining their senses, albeit none of them could vividly recall what transpired the previous night. Whatever has been introduced into their drink must be extremely powerful.
Six o’clock Post Meridiem: still, no sign of the celebrant.
After what seemed like an eternity, a call came through to one of the participants, a mutual friend of mine and the celebrant. The call was from Chief Medical Director of the University’s health center. The celebrant has been hospitalized and the attention of those close to him was needed. Ten minutes after, about ten of us were at the male ward of the university’s health center where our friend (the celebrant) was lying awake and looking at us like a total stranger. Something about him looked different and sinister. The doctor in charge of his case has a lot of explanation to do. What happened to him?
Your friend was brought-in about thirty minutes ago all the way from Benin. He was found sleeping by the road side along Ore-Benin highway and was brought here as a result of the university’s identity card found on him. We had to charge the phone found on him before we were able to contact you. He seemed to have lost his memories and reeks of alcohol………..
The doctor continued talking while all of us present kept looking at each other with a telepathic exchange of questions taking place. A lot of what the doctor is saying do not add up. If a driver moves at an average speed of one hundred kilometre per hour (which is almost impossible on Nigerian roads), it will take nothing less than six hours to get to Benin from the location of the University. It simply means our friend left for Benin long before the break of dawn, perhaps while his birthday party was at its peak. How did he get to Benin? What was his mission there and was he doing lying on the road? There are over a thousand questions with no single answer. Perhaps we should rather ask; what was present in the drink that they took at the party?
…..does anyone of you have an idea of what he happened to him?
The question from the doctor must have jolted us all back to reality. An explanation was made to the doctor about went down and how no one has an idea of when, why and how he got to where the patient was found. The doctor explained further that our friend needs urgent medical attention but what was mixed with the drink he took at the party needs to be identified first. Unfortunately, the supplier of the substance was not at the scene. A call was made through to him and he mumbled faintly on the phone;
Gegemu
WTF is Gegemu?
Those that are close to me know that I am a teetotaller; an attribute that is virtually incompatible with a typical birthday party in the student’s hostels within the university. Therefore, even though I participated in the early morning beating rituals for my friend’s birthday, I was deep asleep while the night party was going on. Hence, I knew virtually nothing about what they ate or drank during the event. However, the mention of the word ‘Gegemu’ reminded me of one of the songs that were reigning then:
Gegemu de yen, ma fiku sere (is that gegemu? don’t toy with death!).
It was later on after the whole incidence that I took my scientific self to research about the substance that was responsible for such an evil and dangerous reactions. The after-party experience observed was as a result of an infusion of a particular plant into their drink of the participants. Datura as the plant is botanically called is a genus of a flowering plant in Solanaceae family; the same family with the egg-plant. The genus is believed to be native to North America (Mexico to be particular) and exotically found in other parts of the world. It is made up of about nine species; D. stramonium, D. innoxia, D. wrightii, D. metel, D. discolour, D. leichhardtii, D. ferox and a host of others.
Out of the nine species, three are found growing in different areas in Nigeria including D. innoxia, D. stramonium and D. metel with the latter being the most popular among the populace, especially the youths (the reason is quite obvious).
D. metel is popularly known as ‘gegemu’ or ‘apikan’ among the Yoruba tribe found in the Southwestern part of the country, ‘zakami’ among the Hausas found in the North and ‘Myaramuo’ among the Igbos which are predominant in the South. The plant grows as an annual shrub or perennial herb with erect stems and a characteristic smell. Depending on the cultivar, the colour of the plant’s flower ranges from white, cream, yellow, red to violet. It produces a green, knoby fruit.
The plant has a wide variety of application that has been investigated both scientifically and ethnobotanically. It has been shown in several types research to have antifungal, antibacterial, cytotoxic as well as hallucinogenic properties. Proximate, nutritional and phytochemical analysis of the seeds of the plant revealed a highly nutritious but phytotoxic potential. Tropane alkaloids and scopolamine have been reported to be present in the plant and both have wide application in the world of medicine.
The capacity of the plant and its component to cause memory loss as well as slurred speech has been investigated in rats under laboratory condition and results showed a modification to the brain frontal cortex, the portion of the brain associated with memory, verbal communication and reasoning etc. Several medical cases associated with deliberate or mistaken ingestion of the plant have been reported prior to this particular incidence. In fact, a majority of the population of a whole town have been reported to have run mad because they mistakenly utilized the leaves of the plant in cooking their food.
Report of abuse of the plant also abounds both locally and internationally. It has been recognized as one of the most popular and readily available as well as legal alternative to illegal/scarce/expensive psychoactive active substances in the country. According to several sources, fresh or dried parts of the plant are wrapped and smoked by youths and hoodlums as an alternative to marijuana.
Back to the health center scene
Those that participated in the bash that has regained some level of normalcy explained that a decoction of D. metel was mixed with punch drink that already contained a significant level of alcohol to make the birthday party go wild. The individual effects of alcohol and the active substances present in the plant is quite enough to provoke series of undesirable reactions, let alone a combined/synergistic reaction. They really invited it on themselves.
The mention of ‘gegemu’ helped the doctor in diagnosing what could be wrong with the now indisposed celebrant. He was placed under intensive care for close to 5 days before returning to a semblance of himself. However, up till today, none of those that participated nor the celebrant himself could recall what transpired during the party. How the celebrant got to Benin overnight remains an absolute mystery
Say no substance abuse!
Thank you all for reading.
References
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nauss.edu
lucid central
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Damilare, A.A., Tijani A.A. and Ghazal O.K (2010) some effects of the aquoes leaf extract of datura metel on the frontal cortex of adult rats (rattus nurvegicus) Eur.J. Anat. 14 (2) 83-89.
Halpern, J. H. (2004). Hallucinogens and dissociative agents naturally growing in the United states. J. Pharmacol. Therap. 102: 131-138
Steenkeep, P.A., Harding N.M., Van Heerden F.R., Van WYk,B.E. (2004)Fatal Datura Poisoning: Identification of atropine and scopolamine by high performance liquid chromatography/ photodiode array/mass spectrometry. J. For. Sci. Int. 145:31-39.
Adegoke S A, Alo L A. Datura stramonium poisoning in children. Niger J Clin Pract 2013;16:116-8
