This needs to be said over and over again. There's two different species of plants commonly known as Datura: Jimsonweed, Datura stramonium, and Sacred Thronapple, Datura wrightii. It's Datura wrightii that the Native Americans used as a hallucinogen, while Datura stramonium seems to have only been used as medicine or poison.
People don't bother making this important distinction anymore and end up foolishly taking the more common D. stramonium. This is probably why Datura has become so infamous, not that D. wrightii is "safe", but it certainly appears to be safer than D. stramonium.
People don't bother making this important distinction anymore and end up foolishly taking the more common D. stramonium. This is probably why Datura has become so infamous, not that D. wrightii is "safe", but it certainly appears to be safer than D. stramonium.
From the Native American Ethnobotany Database:
Datura wrightii: http://naeb.brit.org/uses/species/1244/
Datura stramonium: http://naeb.brit.org/uses/species/1243/