Scopolamine Can Cause Plenty Of Legal Trouble Without Officially Being A Controlled Substance
Of the many drugs available only by prescription, only the ones considered to have substantial potential for abuse are on the controlled substances list. Even though you can’t just buy boring prescription drugs like Metformin off of the drugstore shelf, the law does not consider it tempting enough to list it as a controlled substance. The designation of controlled substance is a legal one, not a pharmacological one; it is based on whether people are likely to use the drugs recreationally because they find their effects pleasant. Scopolamine, also known as hyoscine, burundanga, and Devil’s breath, is not on the controlled substance list, but if you possess it without a prescription, you could easily find yourself under investigation for other crimes. If the only suspicious thing that police found in your car at a traffic stop was prescription drugs, but now you are being accused of conspiracy to commit another crime, contact a Tampa drug crime lawyer.
The Boring Applications of Scopolamine and the Dastardly Ones
Scopolamine is not new, and neither is knowledge of its pleasant effects and its dangerous ones. It occurs in various plants of the genera Scopolia and Hyoscyamus, hence the drug names scopolamine and hyoscine. Some of the European species where the plant occurs include the black henbane and the deadly nightshade, but it is also present in other plant species that grow in the wild in temperate regions of Asia, Australia, and the Americas. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was used in combination with small doses of morphine to sedate patients before surgery or childbirth. Today, many other medications are available for sedation, but doctors still sometimes give scopolamine before surgery because it decreases the production of saliva and respiratory secretions and reduces postoperative nausea.
All of this makes scopolamine sound like a less fun version of ketamine, but one could also think of it as ketamine’s scary, older cousin. Instead of inducing a pleasant, dissociative state that causes users to giggle like Minions, it makes users disoriented and suggestible at low doses and causes unconsciousness at higher doses. The reason for its scary reputation, including its nickname Devil’s breath, is that crimes have occurred where conspirators added scopolamine to a target’s drink before committing kidnappings, robberies, or sexual assaults. Like Rohypnol, scopolamine does not change the appearance or taste of a drink. The difference is that scopolamine has a shorter half-life, so people who have been drugged and targeted for crime may no longer test positive by the time they report the crime to police. Therefore, if you possess scopolamine without a prescription, police may be about to show probable cause to investigate you for something worse.
Contact Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Bryant Scriven
A criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are fighting your charges for conspiracy to commit a crime if all you have done wrong is possess a drug that was not prescribed to you. Contact Scriven Law in Tampa, Florida to schedule a consultation.
Source:
outofofficegal.com/blog/scopolamine-devils-breath-colombia
