KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Television station KMBC uncovered a new drug craze that could turn deadly.

The drug, which is ostensibly legal, is made from a plant available at many nurseries. When distilled, toxins in the plant's leaves can cause hallucinations that last for hours or days.

Last month, someone twice stole the plant -- called the Angel Trumpet, Datura or Jimsonweed -- from Johnson County Community College's botanical department. The plant has become such a hot commodity, local nurseries are getting calls from teens who ask how much the plant costs and how they can get one, the station reported.

Jesse Rollwagon, a narcotics detective with the Overland (Kan.) Park Police Department, first took notice of the plant a few months ago.

"Basically, this is just a poison," he said. "It cooks your brains sometimes."

The plant is not smoked, but instead brewed into a tea that can have disastrous results.

Bobby Wainscott, a nurse at the Mid-America Poison Control Center, recently took a call from someone who had taken Angel Trumpet.

"By the time they got him to the hospital an hour later, he was already hallucinating," Wainscott said.

And the hallucinations can be nightmarish and last for hours or sometimes days, the station reported. Those who take the drug are often left seriously ill, combative and uncontrollable. A German teenager who was reportedly high on the drug recently mutilated himself by cutting off his penis and his tongue.

Wainscott said the poison center has taken about 20 calls about Angel Trumpet in the last few months.

Police believe curious kids have been doing research on the Internet and taking it without considering the dangers.

"Word of mouth gets around, gossip gets around. Unfortunately, they don't tell them 'Here's the danger here, here's the danger there,'" Rollwagon said.

Police warned parents to keep an eye out for the new -- and potentially deadly -- drug.