Anticholinergic hallucinogens

Atropine and scopolamine are acetylcholine receptor blocking agents in the brain. Although in low doses they are used for medical purposes, in high doses they have a hallucinogenic effect. They can be found in many plants growing throughout the world, they have a long history of use. A few – centuries BC plants containing scopolamine were used by the ancient Greeks in the process of divination in Delphi. In the Middle Ages, healers cooked their drugs from them. Such plants as belladonna, mandragora, henbane, growing in Europe, as well as representatives of the genus Datura, growing in America, are eaten because of their hallucinogenic properties. Although now these substances are not consumed by healers, they apparently continue to form part of the powder that makes man zombies in Haiti.

Anticholinergic hallucinogens have a multifaceted effect on the body, causing dry mouth, loss of clarity of vision, motor control, increase pulse and body temperature. They can cause death, causing respiratory depression at doses slightly higher than the minimum effective. Psychologically, they can cause a hypnotic trance or stupor. The recipients of these substances seem to be delirious, unconscious, but they are able to describe their feelings if they are asked about it. A distinctive feature of drugs of this class is that after taking them, a person remembers almost nothing, he is not able to recall a single detail in his memory. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that these substances are almost not sold on the street.

Another plant worthy of consideration in this part is the red mushroom. The red fly agaric contains several different chemical compounds with a hallucinogenic effect, one of which is muscarin, which is a cholinergic agonist, and muscimol, a hallucinogen similar to LSD-like drugs. Although it is rarely used now, since it is nothing special, it is the first attempts to use hallucinogens that are associated with it. The red fly agaric is widespread in Europe and Asia, and it is possible that the mysterious drink “Soma”, described in the Indian “Rigveda” more than 2 thousand years ago, was made from it. “Rig Veda” describes a rather extravagant way of resuming the action of this substance by pouring out the urine of a poisoned person. Mustsimol is the only hallucinogen, whose properties do not change when passing through the body and are stored in the urine. Eating red amanita usually causes numbness, lasting several hours, during which a person is visited by visions, and then comes euphoria, a surge of energy, accompanied by visual hallucinations.