It’s a drug with a terrifying reputation for leaving ‘zombified’ victims at the mercy of criminals.
So-called devil’s breath has allegedly been used to swiftly incapacitate people who are targeted for sexual assault and robbery.
The latest report came in the UK when a woman told how she believed she was targeted with the substance – also known as scopolamine – as she travelled on the Tube.
Used in London?
Deborah Oscar, 30, described how she felt ‘high’ and ‘sleepy’ as a woman sitting beside her slowly waved a newspaper in an empty carriage.
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The content creator, from south east London, feared she was being targeted for robbery after running into two suspicious men in another carriage as she fled.
However, a former British drugs intelligence head told Metro that the notion of devil’s breath being used as a potent airborne incapacitant is likely to be an urban myth.
Dr Les King said: ‘Scopolamine is strictly called hyoscine as a medicine and it’s allegedly used in Colombia for criminal purposes.
‘But the evidence is very, very thin and there’s no toxicology, blood or urine analysis, or any other body analysis, to show that people have been attacked with this substance. It all seems a bit unlikely to me.
‘I’ve heard stories of business cards being impregnated with this substance and the recipient falling ill.
‘That’s really not just on.
‘Although this substance is present in skin patches you can buy for travel sickness, it takes hours to absorb into your skin.
‘My attitude as a scientist and a forensic scientist is: Where’s the evidence for this? There is no evidence, it’s all rumour.’
‘The world’s scariest drug’
Derived from plants native to South America, including the Brugmansia, the drug does have potent effects on humans.
Stories abound of victims in Colombia and Ecuador being ‘zombified’ by criminals who then assault, rob or even kill their human prey.
In 2012, the US State Department cited unofficial estimates of 50,000 scopolamine incidents a year in Colombia.
More commonly known as burundanga in South America, it’s even been called ‘the world’s scariest drug’ by the UK Addiction Treatment Centres.
The folklore surrounding the drug includes stories of it being used as a Nazi interrogation tool and in ancient Colombian times when it was said to have been given to the mistresses of dead leaders who were willingly buried alive with their lovers.
The myth forms part of a fabric of well-documented ritual or shamanic use of such plants in the country.
The name refers to the drug stealing someone’s soul.
In more recent times, the CIA trialled the drug unsuccessfully as a ‘truth serum’ in Cold War interrogations and it has taken on a number of medical uses, including for the relief of motion sickness.
However, the clinically documented effects of the drug come from it being absorbed in liquid or powder form rather than being blown into someone’s face or planted on a business card.
Devil’s breath drug effects
In high doses scopolamine is incapacitating.
Someone who has taken the substance will feel drowsy and might not remember what had taken place.
Scopolamine has been associated with short and long-term memory loss and been used in research into Alzheimer’s disease.
Used for travel sickness, it comes in patches or tablets that prevent vomiting. NHS advice for this form of the drug says side effects can include blurred vision, dizziness and being unable to concentrate.
One documented poisoning made UK headlines when Joel Osei used a fake dating app profile to entrap 43-year-old Irishman Adrian Murphy before killing him with an overdose of scopolamine.
A can of Coca-Cola was found to contain traces of the substance and Osei’s fingerprints were discovered on a bottle of whisky left at the scene.
Osei was jailed for life with a minimum of 32 years in 2021.
A published academic paper in 2013 did find that ‘scopolamine has become a drug of common use for recreational and predatory purposes’.
Jorge Sáiz and his co-authors found that devil’s breath ‘has become a drug of increasing use in Europe’.
However, Dr King, who was the head of drugs intelligence at the former Forensic Science Service, is sceptical.
Urban myth?
In a response to the paper along with four scientific peers, he found: ‘There is little doubt that when used in sufficient quantity, and added to food or drink, scopolamine has the ability to incapacitate.
‘In Norway in 2008, there was an epidemic of poisoning caused by tablets containing scopolamine sold and used under the impression that they were Rohypnol tablets.
‘On the other hand, suggestions that scopolamine can be unwittingly absorbed by skin contact with impregnated cards are considered to be a myth.’
The NHS said it had ‘no info or data on the usage of hyoscine/scopolamine.’
Metro has contacted the European Drugs Agency to ask if there is any evidence of devil’s breath use on the continent.
‘The stories of people being hit in the back of taxis are pretty unlikely,’ Dr King said. ‘To begin with, where would you get such a concentrated amount of the drug from?
‘Hospitals might have it, pharmaceutical companies might make it, but I’ve never seen any suggestion of it being stolen or diverted.
‘This is not to say I’m not open-minded, but there’s just no real evidence that any criminal activity is taking place.’
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