Beating the scopolamine clock

If you try to picture shambling humans, seemingly powerless to think or act independently, you probably imagine a fictional zombie. The reality is more frightening: these are the symptoms exhibited by victims of scopolamine poisoning. Scopolamine’s history is the stuff of legend, urban myth, legitimate medical use, and – unfortunately – crime statistics. A naturally occurring alkaloid found in certain genera of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family, scopolamine is routinely prescribed to treat motion sickness. In recent years, scopolamine has garnered increased media attention as a predatory drug associated with drug-facilitated crime, which has bene used to subdue, manipulate and violate people. ‘Scopolamine has its roots in witchcraft, zombies, crime, murder, and a top-secret CIA programme,’ wrote Justin Brower, a forensic toxicologist that blogging at Nature’s Poisons. Like many other chemicals, scopolamine can be medicine or weapon. Both roles result from its biochemistry.