The modern fascination with truth-eliciting drugs began in 1916 when an obstetrician named Robert House, practicing in a town outside Dallas named Ferris, saw a strange event during a home delivery.

The woman in labor was in a state of "twilight sleep" induced by scopolamine, a compound derived from the henbane plant that blocks the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. House had asked her husband for a scale to weigh the newborn. The man looked for it and returned to the bedroom saying he could not find it, whereupon his wife, still under the anesthetic, told him exactly where it was.

House became convinced that scopolamine could make anyone answer a question truthfully, and he went on to promote its forensic use.

As a young lawyer, I was always intrigued with scopalamine because it had the same chemical formula as cocaine -- C17 H21 NO4. In the 70's, defense lawyers would argue that cocaine was mis-classified as a narcotic drug. Only one isomer of cocaine, the l isomer, was illegal. It's mirror image, the d isomer, we would argue, had no psychotropic properties, did not get you high and was not illegal.

But for one state case in Massachussetts, I don't know that any lawyer had success with the argument in the 70's. But scopalamine has fascinated me ever since. In 2003, it was thought to produce a date-rape drug effectt

So. Is scopalamine a truth serum? Interestingly, the Times reports the debate now has moved on to the hormone oxytocin.