I thought that was a European and North American thing, but it happened to me in Santiago, Chile (and not with a hooker!!). Very friendly guy invited me to a (I talked to him for more than an hour), I left the table for a few minutes and then I woke up in the morning, without money and credit card. And no memory at all of what happened between the and waking up. I'm not saying don't talk to strangers, but keep in mind that in countries like Chile criminals can be quite sophisticated. A Chilean friend told me afterwards that these things do happen occasionally there.
At least I didn't lose a kidney or got raped...
Peer

PS The Chilean police may not be corrupt, but they still don't care much about these things.

Hi, look up burrunndanga in a search engine, I'm not suggesting it was your tonic but it's interesting to know about--get some, use it in Europe and retire? Linzi.

grr that sucks, has me worried too because soon I am off to Chile and my no.1 weakness is alcohol

It's scopolomine isn't it? The old 1940's truth serum, makes the victim doppy and willing to cooperate at just about anything?

Sorry to hear about your experience Peer. Glad it was only cash related.

I'm afraid that when drinking with strangers (clubs and the like) i've now resorted to buying my own where possible, drinking out of the bottle where socially acceptable (harder to drop anything down the neck), I never put a drink down, I take my drink with me or finish it off before answering a call of nature and anything that tastes remotely funny gets lost or spilt. When entertaining on business in Europe we've had a couple of cases in something like the last ten years, so it isn't that common. It's hard to tell if these were just idiots trying to get people to make fools of themselves or something more sinister. The one that struck me as really nasty was a club in Sheffield where I think E was put in a girls drink. That was almost definately a stupid prank, but I was glad there was someone with us who knew what the stuff does.

We have of course had twice the number of cases where people who should know better go off with nice friendly women they meet in hotel bars and come back without their credit cards a short while later. The stories they tell their bosses and wives are usually intertesting!

I'd say go enjoy yourselves and just be aware that these things happen.

Andy

Yep yes indeed. Vey pure scopolamine is produced in Ecuador for commercial use--it's the active agent in travel sickness pills. Their side effects are those of a low dose of Burrundanga. It is smuggled to Colombia where its use is fairly common. I read that 25% of toxicity intakes to Bogota hospital's accident and emergency are Burrundanga attacks. Colombia is a safe, wonderful, very welcoming country but gangs use this drug, so, take care.
Scopolamine was experimented with by CIA and UK agencies as a truth serum but it's unreliable--People say yes to everything under it! The cuddly Gestapo also used it in addition to iron bars etc etc. Joking aside Burrundanga attacks are sickening in their details. I read of one Colombian woman who had been brought into A and E drugged and nacked. When she woke she asked for her baby, shrieked for her baby, screaming for her baby. What baby? asked the staff. Under the drug she would have freely given up her child, consented to anything at all and forgotten it all. I was lost for emotion or words when I read of that. Chins up and have fun folks, Linzi.