I enjoyed the VBS piece on the colombian devils breath, and I have some new information to add. Did you know that the scopolamine containing plant is also found in California? I swear to fucking god. I found a huge patch of it growing on Santa Cruz Island, off the coast of Ventura. The indians who lived on the island called it sacred datura (Or something along those lines.) None of us had the balls to try some at the time. But it’s there to be found, just a fifty dollar ferry ride from the Ventura Harbor.

That’s it, say goodbye to Vice, it’s gonna be available at Hot Topic soon.

this sounds like the movie, The Serpent and the Rainbow

granted all you did was fly to bogota and meet a crazy guy who bought you drugs, I remember watching that piece and thinking “this is pretty good… too bad the ‘real’ news never has the balls to try something like this.”

what’s funny though, is to see CNN pick it up and really sensationalize it.

it’s a sad day when i have to admit that vice keeps it more “real” in their stories than CNN does.

ALSO… i like how they call Ryan Duffy by his first name like he is just some youtuber who got bored and did this on his own for shits and giggles and not a guy who works for a magazine.

congratulations. I loved the piece, and had high hopes for the VBS as a news media, and seeing some attention paid to your work is a good first step.

that is remarkable….one of the most intriguing pieces of journalism I have seen in quite some time…congrats.

I give you the utmost respect.

But seriously: Was that Gavin with a Ryan Duffy voice-over?

the drug is found everywhere in the southwest US. its called datura inoxia or datura stramonium (depending on plant strain). it’s legal to buy, sell, have, grow, take, whatever; there are absolutely no laws governing datura or its use in the US. also, alot of people do use it recreationally, taken as a tea usually. there are some interesting accounts of it on erowid.org experience vaults.

this powder requires an experienced shaman/witch doctor to make it. there are more than just one ingredient.

Excellent. Some day David Beckles will be a correspondent on 60 Minutes.

hahah yeah he did have a hardon! he was like omgggg!!

i love the vbs tv articles but on this one i did get the impression that you were being bullshitted a little bit. i dont doubt for a second that colombia can be a very dangerous place, but in the hotel room you were handling that powdered datura like it was nuclear waste…

You guys definitely made up for the “asses of the carribean” piece with this one and the street kids piece, I just don’t get why the media always show’s Colombia like it’s one big dirty farm.

My mother always used that word Burundanga, and i never knew the origin of it until i saw this piece.

keep up the good work.

I saw this on CNN and didn’t get what the big deal was. This shit grows in Indiana where it is called jimson weed or locoweed. People in college would extract the scopolamine from the seeds in a kool-aid mixture. The drug is also available from Datura. A few people die from it every year. I remember a few kids in high school that spent a week in the hospital because of it.

I’m not getting why VBS had to go to Colombia to get it, or why this rural Midwestern drug is so fascinating. Did people in NYC just hear of it? Am I missing something?

Datura grows all over the place in central Texas, and is rampant in the hills and fields around my house. I could half fill the bed of my pickup with thornapples if I was so inclined.