Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism: TICs & TIMs

Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism
Training Support Package
Participant Guide
Slide 38
Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism:
TICs & TIMs
Anticholinergic Hallucinogens
Atropine, Scopolamine and Hyoscyamine
Module Two - The Clinical Neurotoxicology of Chemical Terrorism
38
Anticholinergic drugs can also cause hallucinations. At low doses they have beneficial
therapeutic uses. At higher doses they may cause hallucinations. Cruise ship
passengers often use scopolamine, an anticholinergic drug, in the form of a transdermal
patch, to prevent sea sickness. Occasionally, passengers, who excessively absorb the
scopolamine through their skin, begin to hallucinate.
Teenagers may read on the Internet about a “free, natural, and safe” high that can be
obtained if they brew a tea, or sometimes smoke seeds from the Thornapple or
Jimsonweed plant (shown to the right). These plants have scopolamine and atropine
(another anticholinergic agent) as their main ingredients and exposure to these
chemicals may result in potent anticholinergic hallucinations –that may last for days.
Anticholinergics chemicals are found in a wide range of drugs and plants. These include
not only the plants mentioned above, but also a number of pharmaceutical agents
including many antihistamines such as diphenhydramine.
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