Burundanga business cards ... Is it True. Are you in Danger?

Hi Mel,
I hope this is a bit helpful to you. What I have found ( and this is not totally conclusive) but I think it can serve as a fairly good guide. If I discover other situations I will let you know, as far as the Burundanga business card thing goes. You are wise to note that you weren't sure if it was right or not. I am sure you will be relive to know that it is not true. To have a potent psychoactive dose on a business card; that would have to be some powerful s_ _t!
When stories get out of hand like this it is known as a "Urban Myth". It is nothing but people just not knowing or at worst fear mongering based on a half truth. A far as I can tell, you have nothing to worry about with business cards. The active alkaloid in burundanga is scopolamine which has been known and used by medicine for years. It’s nothing new.
But there is much more to say. This drug (scopolamine) is real but one would need a much stronger dose to have the alleged effect. If it is in a drink or ingested in some manner is a very different matter. The rest I am sure you know, probably more about than I do. But it is interesting to know that women use these drugs on men; not for sex but for money. The abuse is apparently wide spread in Columbia where 1 in 5 poisoning cases at the hospital is from scopolamine poisoning. Norway is a lot closer to home for you in Germany which has had 20 documented cases where Rohypnol (Rohypnol comes as a pill that dissolves in liquids. Some are small, round, and white. Newer pills are oval and green-gray in color. When slipped into a drink, a dye in these new pills makes clear liquids turn bright blue and dark drinks turn cloudy. But this color change might be hard to see in a dark drink, like cola or dark beer, or in a dark room. Also, the pills with no dye are still available. The pills may be ground up into a powder) tablets contain scopolamine. Either way if someone has ingested rohypnol, scopolamine or something similar, they could have a problem. This is what you need to be acutely aware of. I've included a few links for you in case you want to look into this more.

I highly recommend you go to:
http://www.womenshealth.gov/faq/date-rape-drugs.cfm#b
This is a good resource about many aspects of date rape drugs. It lists the drugs that are commonly used; what they look like and how they are used or abused.

Best of Luck to you and all your goals and endeavors.

Please be safe
and take good care,
There are wolves out there
Tim

FYI Where I live here in the Arizona desert we have this plant they talk about. It has several names; Jimson Weed, Local Weed, Sacred Datura, and others. It has been used by the Native American Indians for centuries as a ritual ceremony. It is very dangerous if abused and can cause insanity. Hence the names. I don't know about Jimson, maybe he's crazy. I don't know. But the stories go that many miners were, some we are sure because of the Jimson Weed. It does have a very strong pungent and (and maybe intoxicating) smell when cut. It always reminded me of an interesting peanut butter (a little bit seductive) and yes the smell is almost enough to send you somewhere. The plant grows surprisingly fast and large all in one season. It is soft and fleshy and one chop with a spade kills it. Then you smell it. It has the most beautiful lily white trumpet shaped flowers.
Doctors have used and chemical alkaloid, scopolamine at one time to assist birthing mothers with the delivery of her child. I had a number of beneficial effects for her. Mostly she forgot about it all because it can cause amnesia.


Other Useful Links You May Want to Look at:
http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/burundanga.asp
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/crime/a/burundanga.htm
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/burundanga-warning.shtml
http://earthops.org/scopalamine1.html
Scopolamine
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Burundanga
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopolamine

Indeed, the quantity of toxin diffusing through the skin barrier after one short contact of the fingers with an object is much too small to be readily absorbed in the body and to have any significant effect.
In recent years the criminal use of scopolamine has become epidemic in Colombia. Approximately one in five emergency room admissions for poisoning in Bogotá have been attributed to scopolamine.[14] In a bizarre case, a band of female thieves would impregnate their breasts with scopolamine and then would lure potential victims to lick their nipples. "Losing all willpower, the men readily gave up their bank access codes. The breast-temptress thieves then held them hostage for days while draining their accounts."[15] In June 2008, more than 20 people were hospitalized with psychosis in Norway after ingesting counterfeit Rohypnol tablets containing scopolamine. [3] There have been many reports of tourists robbed after having scopolamine slipped into drinks in bars, as well as food saturated with scopolamine being served to tourists in fast-food stands in various Asian countries. Most recently, these incidents have been reported in Thailand. [16]

Popular culture
The fictional use of scopolamine as a truth serum is featured in a number of works including Farewell, My Lovely, Where Eagles Dare and The Guns of Navarone. In 1957, scopolamine achieved a moderate level of notoriety via its mention in the film I Was a Teenage Werewolf, where Dr. Alfred Brandon uses it as part of his endeavor to regress the titular character to his "primitive roots." According to Dr. Liz Kingsley's film review site And You Call Yourself a Scientist, Brandon's line "Prepare the scopolamine!" is "the only scientifically accurate line in the whole film." In Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, Dr. Gonzo mentions an incident in which he was given an entire datura root as a gift, ate the entire thing at once, and subsequently went blind, had to be taken back to his house in a wheelbarrow, and started making noises like a raccoon. In Carlos Castaneda's series of books The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, the datura plant is the favored shamanic, revelatory drug of the titular character. The book explores, in depth, Castaneda's alleged experiences under the influence of the drug, as well as the alleged rites surrounding its use and preparation. It was also used as an interrogation tool during Episode 9 of NBC's Kidnapped (TV series). It was also featured in the season 10 episode "Smut" of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit wherein a rapist was using the drug to prevent the women he raped from resisting him and from forming memories.

http://www.womenshealth.gov/faq/date-rape-drugs.cfm#b
a good resource about many aspects of date rape. Lists the drugs that are commonly used; what they look like and how they are used or abused.