cannabisnews.com: COLUMN: New Drug Has Dangerous Potential COLUMN: New Drug Has Dangerous Potential Posted by FoM on February 10, 2000 at 09:45:18 PT By Anoop Swaminath, Tufts Daily Tufts U. Source: U-WIRE Colombia's national drug problem is no longer limited to cocaine and heroin. An ancient, but powerful drug, burundanga, has captured the market in Bogota. When consumed, this odorless, tasteless powder places the user into a zombie-like trance. Though able to walk and talk, the user is powerless to resist any orders. Also, this drug leaves the person in a temporary state of amnesia until it completely wears off. Considering all its ill effects, why would anybody willingly use this dangerous drug? Well, they would not. However, criminals have more than willingly utilized burundanga to perpetrate crimes in Colombia. In the past year, the number of burundanga-related crimes in Bogota has dramatically increased. Criminals slip the drug to innocent people, and then coerce the victims into making bank withdrawals, handing over car keys, or even emptying furniture from their homes. Usually, most people are victimized in sleazy bars or train stations. Recently, a more terrifying trend has begun. Criminals have targeted prominent politicians, lawyers, and doctors in their workplaces. Maids have drugged entire families in order to burglarize homes. Supposedly, everyone in Bogota knows somebody who has been victimized by burundanga. Crimes concerning this drug have become so commonplace that these stories no longer make even the local newspapers. The violence and crime erupting from the expanding burundanga trade has left the Colombian government to deal with another source of chaos. Is it probable that this chaos will be transported to America like heroin or cocaine was? American agencies like the CIA and the FBI already use burundanga on criminals in an attempt to extract information. However, demand for this product has not been substantial on American streets. In fact, it has not yet proven to be even a remote problem in the United States. Unfortunately, this trend will not continue. This potent drug is used by immigrant Colombian organized crime groups throughout the US as a form of currency. To them, it is an invaluable resource, as even small amounts of burundanga can yield enormous amounts of cash if used properly. Robbing the affluent has never been easier than with this scopolamine/tranquilizer mixture. As other organized crime syndicates begin to recognize the tremendous potential of burundanga, its demand will inevitably increase. The drug will definitely provoke power struggles between crime groups in the US. Street pimps, prostitutes, and common pickpockets will also benefit from the drug. Burundanga is abundant in Colombia, making its export the next logical and profitable step for a nation whose economy heavily depends on the illicit drug trade. The drug could easily make its way from Colombia to Mexico, then on to America on fishing boats, just as heroin and cocaine do. Prevention, as always, is the key. US Customs and American intelligence agencies have to ensure that burundanga does not penetrate our border. This objective could be accomplished through diplomatic negotiations with Colombia, a crackdown on the cartels, and from stringent border control. The US government must take action against this dangerous threat now. (U-WIRE) Medford, Mass. Published: February 9, 2000(C) 2000 Tufts Daily via U-WIRE Copyright © 1995-2000 Excite Inc. CannabisNews U-WIRE Articles:http://www.alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/asearch?type=all&query=CannabisNews+U-WIRE Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #16 posted by dr wants knowlege on January 15, 2001 at 21:48:12 PT: How does one go about getting some? How does one go about getting some. just wanting to know. [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by Malcolm X on February 11, 2000 at 08:07:19 PT Its not a new threat The drug in question has been used for years in Colombia. The article is pure hype. It will never catch on in America. Its too dangerous, too exotic, and the only reason its used by some Colombian criminals is because they are too poor to afford a gun. We don't have that problem here in the US. [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by FoM on February 10, 2000 at 21:49:23 PT Just One More Little Off Topic I'll just say this and we can stop talking horses or I'm afraid I could go on forever. I've raised 7 beautiful foals and worked with wonderful children. We kept the kids so busy training, and grooming etc. that none of them did drugs. I'm proud of that. I believe that is the answer for young people. Find something that want to do and help them get involved in it and that type of drug prevention does work I think.Here is my free chat room. I don't use it because I'm just too busy but if anyone wants to use it feel free and if you want to talk horses sometimes I'll find the time to do that!I only went to sulky races a few times in my life at Brandywine and I always loved watching them in the light at night, with the steam coming off of their bodies and hearing the pounding of their hooves was something I'll never forget. I really like the sound of trotters better then pacers. Don't know why but I do. I was in combined training and hunter-jumper shows. Horses are horses and I love them all! Enough now back to news but not anymore today! Peace, FoM! My Chat Room [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by CongressmanSuet on February 10, 2000 at 21:07:30 PT off topic...just this once.... Ah, a fellow horseperson on the board, very nice. I have trained and driven Standardbred Racehorses for many years. I maintain a small training center 80 miles south of Pittsburgh, Pa., and am currently racing 3 horses at the Meadows Racetrack, in Washington, Pa. I ship my horses 3 hours to race. I had a feeling you were a nice person..... [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by FoM on February 10, 2000 at 17:58:52 PT Horses! Off Topic! I Know! LOL! Just Once! That is very interesting CongressmanSuet since until the early 90s I was a horse trainer and riding instructor too. I have a 80 by 132 foot indoor riding facility that houses someones trucks and inventory now but it was my life. I have a Westphalian mare we bred, stabled with a friend who is showing her on the other part of our state and she has my retired show horse that now is teaching children to ride.Peace, FoM! [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by CongressmanSuet on February 10, 2000 at 17:51:01 PT South America discovers Jimson weed! Hooray!..... What a scare piece! And with such wonderful implications. We are seeing "New" and much more deadly drugs arrive on the global scene, so we really need to crack down even more on what is already available. The use of scopolomine derivitaves is new? Crime syndicates will fight over it? Even pickpockets will benefit from using it on their victims? We are now to expect some sort of great deluge of this new drug to our borders, to be used by all classes of criminals in the commision of their crimes against us, middle-class ,cowering ,Amerika[misspelling intentional, its my tribute to Abbie Hoffman, sorry]? This article is a classic, it has all the elements of excellent propaganda, and actually reads better as horror movie material than just a scare article. I think I remember seeing this movie "Night Of The South American Zombies" when I was a kid. Its all coming together now....PS. FOM. I have been a horse trainer for 16 years, and I believe the drug you are speaking of is Ketamine. Just this year it was reclassified and is now a schedule 3 I believe. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by FoM on February 10, 2000 at 16:22:38 PT Couldn't find it Thanks Doc-Hawk,I went to Time Magazine's web site and couldn't find anything but I thought maybe it was not on the net but just in the magazine. I know that one of the drugs that was on hand when I had many horses was a tranquilizer that I believe was similar to PCP. I only had to dose a horse one time and that was enough for me. We didn't give him enough and he fought the drug and almost fell on the Vet's truck. I guess there are plenty of drugs out there I just don't know anything about them. Peace, FoM! [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by Doc-Hawk on February 10, 2000 at 16:02:32 PT: Burundanga? Hey kiddies...it's already available by prescription here in the US of A. Page 15 of the Feb. 14, 2000 TIME magazine even has a full page ad for one version. There it is called "TRANSDERM SCOP" and is touted as "clinically proven more effective than Dramamine" for motion sickness. It has also been used to induce "twilight sleep" (amnesia) during childbirth. They probably have lots of other good uses for it too.Now for the bad news. Scare articles like this one have the unintended side effect of raising the awareness of the unscrupulous who might like to commit bad deeds. SCOP patches can be extracted in alcohol to deliver several hours worth of medication in one quick dose. Just be prepared to remove the victim from view quickly, and the victim will not remember a thing.I would expect that the use of burundanga is more a choice of availability rather than it being most effective, etc. Many species of nightshade and henbane have large quantities of atropine, scopolamine, hyoscyamine, etc. It is easily extracted (along with the other alkaloids) to induce hypnosis. At the time my old reference was published, it was even in Sominex, Sleep-eze, and Compoz.Just another scare story with a ring of truth....I wonder how long 'til McCzar strarts issuing warnings about the NEW MENACE TO OUR CHILDREN?I think I'll raise me up a crop of henbane;->Doc [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by FoM on February 10, 2000 at 15:53:08 PT Agent Orange My husband was on Cam Rahn Bay when when they were unloading Agent Orange and he was in many defoliated areas. I know you are right in not trusting the government. I've seen too much for too long that hasn't been right. I just hope that many of our loved ones that were exposed to this poison don't get cancer but we have some friends that already have it.Peace, FoM! [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by kaptinemo on February 10, 2000 at 15:12:58 PT What's scary is if the gov't has it. I can certainly understand your fears, FoM, but we should be more worried about what the government might do with a drug that destroys volition. They've already proven, in the examples that I gave, that they have done similar things.Remember Agent Orange? I'm sure your husband might. Monsanto made it and *knew* before they sold it to the military exactly what dioxin did to the body. I'm sure they probably even told some of the Pentagon types that it caused cancer. And they still used it. On our troops as well as the NVA. And then lied through their teeth about its' effects until a lawsuit forced them to reveal the truth. But they delayed for years in hope that enough vets would die from cancer that they wouldn't have to pay out so much. And this is the same government that wants to tell you what you can and cannot put in your body, but was secretly poisoning people with plutonium, deliberately, to see what the effects might be? Trust people like that to look after my welfare? Trust them with safeguarding my Constitutional rights when they've shown such a criminal disregard for people's lives? Not bloody likely. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by FoM on February 10, 2000 at 13:15:38 PT Bad Drug I Think! kaptinemo that movie really scared me and I read a book a few years ago and that drug was mentioned but I can't remember the name of the book. I always was afraid when I was young of being buried alive and the movie The Serpent & The Rainbow brought back some of those long gone childhood fears. If this is the drug it could stop people dead in their tracks and that is scary! [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by kaptinemo on February 10, 2000 at 11:38:32 PT FOM, I was just thinking about that I don't know whether this is the same drug that Wade Davis wrote about in the book that was later made (mangled) into a movie, but it sure sounds the same. And it would be just what the CIA would like to have - and with all that has happened over the years, probably *does*. Governments have shown that they deserve no trust or faith when they dose people unknowingly with psychotropics like LSD, feed plutonium contaminated milk to retarded children, release radioisotopes from fission reactors down wind to study the cancerous effects of fallout on unsuspecting civil populations, or spray deadly bacilli into subway tunnels. The American government has done all that - and admitted it! - and probably has used this 'new' drug for equally nefarious means. Which was the point I was trying to make. Another case of 'Do as I say, not as I do!' The government can medicate you against your will (like Ritalin, and [shudder] possibly this drug as well) but you may not medicate yourself under your own free will. And it has the audacity to say it is doing it 'for your own good'.Yeah, right. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on February 10, 2000 at 11:07:16 PT VooDoo Drug We owned a large video store for ten years and I've watched more then enough movies for a lifetime but I'll never forget the movie: A Serpent and a Rainbow! This appears to be a VooDoo drug like what was used in the movie. If you haven't seen this movie I recommend it. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on February 10, 2000 at 10:59:05 PT Burundanga I found these links and maybe they can shed a little light on what this substance is!http://corpus-delicti.com/smp/Pittel_Burundanga.htmlhttp://168.143.10.25/burundanga.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on February 10, 2000 at 10:37:04 PT Project MK-ULTRA rears its ugly head again 'American agencies like the CIA and the FBI already use burundanga on criminals in an attempt to extract information.' If this is true, then we have major, major problems.Just as they had during the Cold War, the CIA is messing around with the Nazi-originated MK-ULTRA mind altering chemicals program, again? Why am I not surprised; after all, *they* introduced LSD to the States, why not this stuff? But this stuff would be the perfect population control agent. I'm writing my Reps and Senators to demand to know just what's going on with this, if there's any truth to it, and I'd advise you to do the same.Remember, despite what Barry-the-Two-Faced says, it *is* a war. We are the enemy. And this country has never shied away from using new technologies - or in this case, a very old one - against its enemies. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Dr. Ganj on February 10, 2000 at 10:17:12 PT Burundanga! This is exactly what we need to force feed our politicians. Then we'll order the end to this drug war-and yes, that's what it is, Barry. Then we'll order the release of all the people in jail because they had extracts, powders, and dried flower tops of special herbs and plants. Now, where can we get this in quantity?Dr. Ganj http://amazing-nature.com/p-herbs.htm [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: