As a result, police, school leaders and health officials met Thursday to create a plan to educate parents and teens about the potentially deadly plant.

The school division has placed a link to information about jimson weed on its Web site and will hold programs at parent-teacher meetings.

“If beer gave this reaction, you would not have alcoholics, said Chief Bruce Nedelka of the Virginia Beach Department of Emergency Medical Services. “We just want to get the message out that this is not a cool thing to do.”

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The first case in Virginia Beach was reported Wednesday. Shortly after 5 p.m., police and emergency personnel responded to a car crash at North Landing and West Neck roads.

There, they discovered something was wrong with five teens traveling in the car. The teens were combative and had severe stomach pains, hallucinations and body temperatures greater than 105 degrees.

After that, seven more teens were taken to Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital complaining of symptoms related to jimson weed poisoning, according to Sentara spokeswoman Emma Inman.

Four of the teens, 16 to 18 years old, were admitted to the hospital. They were in good condition Thursday. Medical personnel would not say which school or schools the teens attended.

There have been no other reports of jimson weed overdoses in Virginia, according to the state Health Department.

Jimson weed is a smelly, inconspicuous plant that looks like a spiked pear with green leaves. It sprouts horn-shaped white or purple flowers, and its stem is about 3 feet tall. It is found on roadways, in fields and just about any place weeds become budding nuisances in rural Virginia.

It is also known as stinkweed, devil’s trumpet and Jamestown weed, for the place where someone ate it three centuries ago and got sick.

Jimson weed attacks the central nervous system in about 30 minutes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The heart beats faster, vision becomes blurry and the individual becomes thirsty and has trouble swallowing or talking. Hallucinations ensue. A person can have seizures or slip into a coma.

“It’s not a particularly pleasant high,” said Dr. William Alford of Virginia Beach.

Alford said his first experience with a patient who ate j imson weed seeds was in 1977. People can also smoke the weed or brew the leaves, stems and seeds as tea.

“Taking jimson is like sniffing glue,” Alford said. “It’s a way for a young teen to get a new high experience. It’s a fad.”

Even though the government banned over-the-counter products prepared with jimson weed, the plant can be picked when it blooms in the late spring.

It does not have any medical benefits and is rarely habit-forming, Alford said.

The plant is not regulated, so police are not investigating where it came from or who gave it to the teens. “It’s not something that we can prosecute,” said police spokeswoman Rene Ball. “We don’t know how kids got hold of it.”

Staff writer Matthew Jones and researcher Jakon Hays contributed to this report.