A SPECIAL feature on Scopolamine, a Colombian drug supposed to strip the user of his or her free will, was aired recently. Scopolamine or burundanga apparently leaves the victim fully conscious and functional, but also totally open to suggestion.

Scopolamine is used not only as a date rape drug, but robbers also use it as their aid. Prostitutes can slip it to unsuspecting customers, while burglars can use it to get home owners to help them locate valuables and hand them over.

Scopolamine is a drug also known as levo-duboisine, and hyoscine, is a tropane alkaloid drug with muscarinic antagonist effects. It is extracted from plants of the family Solanaceae (nightshades), such as henbane, jimson weed and Angel's Trumpets (Datura resp. Brugmansia spec.), and corkwood (Duboisia species).

Vice staff person went to Bogota to inspect Scopolamine, but the tone of their trip changed from "let's try the new exotic drug" to "this is really terrifying" as they interview victims of the drug and criminals who have used it to commit crimes. 

One prostitute said who admits to using the drug to rob johns, "Just as we use the drug to rob men, men use it to rape us. Everything about scopolamine has to do with hurting people."

Scopolamine is made from the fruit of the Borrachero tree, whose flowers are narcotic. Locals use the tree's flowers in tea as a hallucinogen, but the fruit must be chemically processed to create scopolamine.

The Vice guys met a Bogota drug dealer named Demencia Black, who sells them some of the Devil's Breath. Demencia says, "You wait a minute and when you see [the drug] kick in, you know you own that person." An overdose, though, carries the risk of death. In a country overrun with cocaine, burundanga is really hard to get.

Scopolamine, also identified as levo-duboisine, and hyoscine, is a tropane alkaloid drug withmuscarinic antagonist effects. It is obtained from plants of the family Solanaceae (nightshades), such as henbane, jimson weed and Angel's Trumpets (Datura resp. Brugmansia spec.), and corkwood.

It is among the secondary metabolites of these plants. Therefore, scopolamine is one of three main active components of belladonna and stramonium tinctures and powders used medicinally along with atropine and hyoscyamine. Scopolamine was isolated from plant sources by scientists in 1881 in Germany and description of its structure and activity followed shortly thereafter.

Scopolamine has anticholinergic properties and has justifiable medical applications in very minute doses. As an example, in the treatment of motion sickness, the dose, gradually released from atransdermal patch, is only 330 micrograms per day. In rare cases, it can even lead to a drug overdose and death.