A reader writes:
Scopolamine (licensed by the FDA and sold by Novartis as "Transderm Scop" sea-sickness patches) is the world's scariest drug? I learn something new every day.
Another writes:
Scopolamine is not new at all. It was the drug of choice for labor in the '50s and '60s, into the early '70s. Mom had it when she had me. When she woke up, she had no idea if I was alive or dead. You have no control over your behavior and no recollection of what has happened when you take scopolamine. I cared for patients who received it in a private hospital during medical school. It was terrifying to see nice, intelligent ladies turned into raving lunatics.
It seemed like the obstetricians enjoyed being able to do that to women. They claimed they did us a favor. Women revolted, and the drug eventually went out of favor. It is now used for induction of anesthesia, in tiny doses for certain eye problems and for motion-sickness via patch. It is indeed a very, very scary drug to be in the hands of criminals.
Another:
Scopolamine was the drug that transformed James Dean Michael Landon into a werewolf in I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957). Sometimes it is truly perplexing why we retain certain bits of information.
Or not.
The Dish 