Opinions - Knockout Drug Absorbed Thru Skin - Do you think this story is real?

[Expat98]

I have read many stories about the use of scopolamine in Colombia and other places to incapacitate people either by putting it in a drink or blowing it in their face.

I just read another story about a drug called "La Roche" which was allegedly absorbed through the skin when someone touched an ATM keypad in Bogota. Do you think this is for real, or just someone telling a tall tale?

Hello all!

Thanks for all your warm comments and your calls. I am OK feeling very lucky that a Police patrol came along just after I left the teller machine. Some 7 officers all over the street. Have no idea why but they saved me without even knowing it.

OK to the meat. I am still pretty messed up right now as my Central Nervous System is a mess. Some time ago I would like to say that I noted another street drug here in COlombia used to rob the people. Well it turns out that the drug that "does not exist" is the very one that got me. So sorry that I had to set that straight but I did. My friend at the pharmacy warned me about it and I passed it on that the thieves were buying the drugs and manipulating them into a zombie drug.

Here is the info.

OK you have Escopalamina which we all know about which can be passed in your drink blown at you etc etc.

The other two drugs that exist ehre are called "ROCHE" They are made from Psychiatric drugs Penotiazetinas which are the names of the two examins to check for them. The street name is "La Roche" this drug can be passed the same way as scopalamina but is more often passed by touching you. This happened to one person on PBH that I know of and it is not scopalamina. It is La Roche the other name for Escopalamian is "Barrachero". Back to the the La Roche drug it can be used against you by touching your arm or any part of your skin. Of course they will be wearing gloves. ALSO and this is how they got me it can be put on the keypad of teller machines and when you put in your Clave you get the drug. It took me some while for the full effect to take place so what they like to do is follow you to your house or for a while and then rob you. You lose control of your motor functions or other things can happen to you. There are many different symptoms to this. For me I was standing in the rain when my amiga came. I could not move. It is not a good feeling and right now I am having trouble typing but doing pretty well with a lot of consintration but unlocking doors or different tasks are very hard for me. I recomend you wipe off the keypad on the teller machines before you use it and be leary of anyone touching you in the street. Just keep a distance from people. Hard to do but it is OK to be a flaming asshole to people when they approach you on the street and get too close

Another message:

The other thing to this drug that I did not mention is that it is often in a spray bottle. So what happens and I think what happened to me was that it was a band of people working together. I came up to the teller and there was a couple guys in line. OK so they went in and the last one sprayed the keypad down with this La Roche and then wnet and waited for me on the corner. Oh and please this is well known here and is what the police and the Docortor said if you have any doubts about it call the Toxicol at 217-9552 and ask them if it can be absorbed through the skin. Anyway so there you are in line and don't realize that the person in front of you is part of the banda and you go in and touch this kepad wet with the drug and there ya go. I was a little bit upset with the two guys across the street who laughed at me when I left the teller. At the time I was not but it was strange, later I thougt they new what happened and thought it funny, I realize now they were part of the banda. A woman came up she looked like a drug addict and said something to the guy in line behind me who I assume was also part of the banda. So they operate in groups, 4 or five people. I thought this lady very strange but I will admit my guard was down. Not sure if my guard was up I would have caught this trap honestly. Complacency is your worst enemy here. But anyway it woudl have been anyone coming along at the time since it was not set up just for the gringo but for the next person showing up. It happened to be me.

There is no cure for this all you can do is drink lot's of water and flush it out of your system, it takes about 5 days. be informed, be aware and be careful everyone."

My friends have guarded me away in my house. I guess I am some target on the street the way I am. I can't walk very well and what not so anyway here I am bored shitless. Taker easy!

Note that the well-known knockout drug Rohypnol (flunitrazepam) is made by Roche, and he calls this drug "La Roche". Rohypnol is a benzodiazepine. This guy says "La Roche" is derived from "Penotiazetinas". No match in Google for that term, but he might be trying to write the Spanish translation of benzodiazepine?

I have heard of liquid carriers which can cause drugs to be absorbed through skin, whereas they normally would not be absorbed. Taken orally, the onset of Rohypnol is fast - about 15 minutes. If it can be made to be absorbed through the skin then the onset could be even faster. A couple of milligrams could be enough to affect someone.

But SWIM has taken Rohypnol a long time ago, and the effects described here do not sound to him like Rohypnol. It does not cause paralysis. It just puts you to sleep.

So what do you think, is this for real, or is someone just trying to get some attention here? I am leaning toward the latter explanation. If there were a drug that could paralyze someone within minutes simply by them touching it then we'd have heard about it...seems unlikely that such a drug would have found its way into use by common street criminals in Colombia without us hearing about it elsewhere.

[Panthers007]

"Penotiazetinas" must be a corruption of Phenothiazines. These are major tranquilizers used to control psychotics - and sometimes prisoners in jails. The classic first phenothiazine to be marketed was Thorazine (clorpromazine). From there a whole, large family of related drugs were developed - including haloperidol (Haldol), Mellaril, Prolixin, et al.

The effects of these drugs is utterly unlike a benzodiazepine. If one could relate their mind to being like a TV set, with images and ideas zipping across the screen, these drugs are like the TV after someone yanks the cord out of the wall: A little white dot receding, receding,...receding......<poit!> - Gone.

I have no idea if these could be used in the manner described.

Reputation Comments on this post:

You are an encyclopedia of knowledge

[RaverHippie]

My parents have scopolamine prescribed in transdermal patches so it must be readily absorbed through the skin in different preparations.

[Panthers007]

Scopolamine, along with atropine and hyocsine, are alkaoids of the tropine family. They are found in many species - including Datura. This was a component of the "Flying Ointment" used by the so-called Witches. They would apply a salve made with this (and other plants such as Monkshood - Aconitum Nappellus) to an object, such as a broomstick, and insert it into an orifice or two. From this they would trip out.

This is where we get the image of the Witch riding a broomstick. Remember this next Halloween.

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amusing info

[Expat98]

Originally Posted by RaverHippie

My parents have scopolamine prescribed in transdermal patches so it must be readily absorbed through the skin in different preparations.

Note that the person mentions scopolamine but talks about this "La Roche" drug as being something different. Scopolamine is well known to be used by criminals in Colombia and other places. There are plenty of stories floating around about people wandering the streets in a daze, and they come to and find that they've got a kidney missing or something.

BTW, I've travelled in Colombia, and I love it there. I don't want to create an overblown negative image of the country because the media has already done a nice job of that. Still, there are risks involved in many areas of the country.

Expat98 added 33 Minutes and 45 Seconds later...

The Spanish translation of phenothiazines is "fenotiazina" and that sounds pretty close to what the guy wrote (penotiazetinas). This also makes more sense in terms of the effects that he described.

However, I read a little about clorpromazine and a couple of other phenothiazines, and they appear to be active at dose levels in the hundreds of milligrams, so they couldn't be absorbed through the skin in the manner described unless there is another one in the family that is much more potent.

Haloperidol is said to be 50 times more potent than clorpromazine though, so I guess it's possible that there is a potent related drug. Hmmm...so the jury's still out on this.

[Eldorhan]

Technically, any anesthetic (wether direct or "DMSO'ed") applied to the back of the head will cause unconsciousness in minutes, depending on the ferocity of the substance.

There's also Curare, which causes instant paralysis with a few drops depending on body weight and instant (well, 3-5 secs) knockout with a few more drops.

Botulinum and LSD are the only 2 known substances active enough to do damage to the body if absorbed by hand contact (that is, just touching it and getting a ridiculous amount on your fingers, not leaving it sit there for an hour).

Even a massive concentration of carcyfentanyl, if touched, wouldn't do better than just disorient someone for a given set of time, not even close to causing "instant knockdown".

[Panthers007]

Please provide your sources for this information.

[Alfa]

Interesting. As panthers says; please be so to back up your claims. This will be interesting reads.

[Expat98]

I assume you are referring to Eldorhan's claims? I believe the only claims I've made in this thread are about scopolamine. I can provide plenty of info about the criminal use of that drug in another thread if you think it's worthwhile to do so...