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Comment by sleazebreeze | Hacker News Reader

I'm not trying to cast any doubt on this author's story, but Snopes regards this particular drug story as "False" [1]. This seems too crazy to be 100% true.

Could it be that nobody knows how this drug really works? According to Wikipedia, NASA is using this drug as a counter to motion sickness [2].

What's even more strange is that the credited author of the story is not the actual author. At the end it says it was told to Daniel Krieger, who ostensibly wrote the article.

Something doesn't smell right about this whole thing.

[1] http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/burundanga.asp

[2] http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=38893

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The part of the story that Snopes marks false is its use in the US :

> While burundanga is a frightening drug, in all our searching for information on it we failed to come across news articles about its being used in the U.S. The regions in and around the country of Colombia appear to be its hunting grounds.

On the other hand, it still sounds fairly unlikely as a story.

Wired reported on it in 2011. Seems like a real thing. http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/04/start/mind-c...

It's not much of a report. No references, no names and dates, packed full of appeals to authority, and appallingly vague. It sounds like something someone knocked together in 30 minutes after reading some urban legends, TBH.

I'd have thought that if this were a real thing, it'd be way better known - the psychiatric industry would be committing minor flesh wound to get their hands on it, for example. A drug that can suppress free will while leaving the patient conscious and responsive could revolutionise therapy.

For therapeutic use the drug has to work reliably and predictably. For criminal use it only has to work sometimes.

Though I agree the whole thing sounds made up.

Here's an interesting investigation by Vice, although they don't actually end up using scopolamine themselves: https://www.vice.com/video/colombian-devil-s-breath-1-of-2

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