Yes, you read that title correctly. Those of you who read Harry Potter know the effects of the Imperius Curse very well: loss of memory; inability to control your actions; extreme susceptibility to outward influence; and all while acting and talking completely normally. Your friends have no clue you're under someone else's control. Pretty scary, right? Now imagine the ramifications of all of those symptoms in our world today: bank accounts cleaned out, people raped and murdered. A recent article on CNN.com enlightens the world about Colombian Devil's Breath, a plant that strikes fear in the hearts of Colombian citizens but is little known in other parts of the world. Scopolamine, which is essentially a date-rape drug on steroids, is derived from Devil's Breath and is responsible for countless Imperius-esque episodes in Colombia. VBS.tv (CNN's source for the article) interviewed a Bogota drug dealer named Demencia Black who explained Scopolamine like this:
Scopolamine is a drug like no other. Nothing can compare. Got me? For example, with this you could be walking right here and suddenly... *poof* [he mimes somebody blowing a powder out of their hand onto another person]... you have your back turned or a girl walking right here and I walk up and I go *poof*. Just like that. With just that flash the person is totally drugged. You wait a minute and when you see it kick in then you know that you own that person... If you exceed the dose, you run the risk of the person dying.
With effects like that, Scopolamine has the potential to become one of the most dangerous drugs in the world. It completely takes away your free will. I have to hope that governments everywhere are already in the process of controlling the Colombian Devil's Breath trade, or we may be in a heap of trouble.
For the full stories, see:
CNN (written article)
VBS (2 videos)
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