We know it's toxicity, I think what stone was questioning is your statement "Children and pets die from it with grim regularity".
Here's one report I found:
"The National Poison Database System was queried for all Phytolacca americana exposures in the state of Kentucky between 2000 and 2019. After the removal of non-human cases, 1669 cases of human pokeweed exposure were reported. Patients were predominantly young in age, with a median age of 3 years reported. Exposures were generally well tolerated. 239 total adverse events were noted during the timeframe. Abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea were most common. Dermal exposures resulted in cutaneous edema, pain, and swelling. Treatments were mainly supportive, with
no deaths reported during the study timeframe.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go...
I found a death report from 2020 on OHSA.gov of a grown man eating an entire root.
This site
https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildfl... states "The entire plant is poisonous causing a variety of symptoms, including death in rare cases."
Sounds like deaths are not that common from several other sites and studies I found.
