Psychochemical warfare — or "drug weapons" — involves the use of
psychopharmacological
Psychopharmacology (from Ancient Greek, Greek grc, wiktionary:ψῡχή, ψῡχή, psȳkhē, breath, life, soul, label=none; grc, wiktionary:φάρμακον, φάρμακον, pharmakon, drug, label=none; and grc, wiktionary:-λογία, - ...
agents (
mind-altering drugs or chemicals) with the intention of incapacitating an adversary through the temporary induction of
hallucination
A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinatio ...
s or
delirium
Delirium (also known as acute confusional state) is an organically caused decline from a previous baseline of mental function that develops over a short period of time, typically hours to days. Delirium is a syndrome encompassing disturbances in ...
.
[Dando M, Furmanski M 2006. Mid-spectrum incapacitant programs. In: Wheelis M et al. (eds). ''Deadly cultures: biological weapons since 1945''. Cambridge, US: Harvard University Press.] These agents have generally been considered
chemical weapons
A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized Ammunition, munition that uses chemicals chemical engineering, formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be an ...
and, more narrowly, constitute a specific type of
incapacitating agent
The term incapacitating agent is defined by the United States Department of Defense as:
:"An agent that produces temporary physiological or mental effects, or both, which will render individuals incapable of concerted effort in the performance o ...
. Although never developed into an effective weapons system, psychochemical warfare theory and research—along with overlapping
mind control
Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashin ...
drug research—was secretly pursued in the mid-20th century by the
US military
The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six Military branch, service branches: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States N ...
and
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
(CIA) in the context of the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
. These research programs were ended when they came to light and generated controversy in the 1970s. The degree to which the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
developed or deployed similar agents during the same period remains largely unknown.
History
Ancient psycho-chemical use
The use of chemicals to induce altered states of mind dates back to antiquity and includes the use of plants such as thornapple (''
Datura stramonium
''Datura stramonium'', known by the common names thorn apple, jimsonweed (jimson weed), devil's snare, or devil's trumpet, is a poisonous flowering plant of the nightshade family Solanaceae. It is a species belonging to the ''Datura'' genus a ...
'') that contain combinations of
anticholinergic alkaloid
Anticholinergics (anticholinergic agents) are substances that block the action of the neurotransmitter called acetylcholine (ACh) at synapses in the central and peripheral nervous system.
These agents inhibit the parasympathetic nervous system ...
s. In 184 B.C.,
Hannibal
Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Puni ...
's army used
belladonna plants to induce disorientation.
Use by indigenous peoples
Records indicate that in 1611, in the British
Jamestown Colony
The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement
''English Settlement'' is the fifth studio album and first double album by the English rock band XTC, released 12 February 1982 on Virgin Reco ...
of Virginia, an unidentified, but toxic and hallucinogenic, drug derived from local plants was deployed with some success against the white settlers by
Chief Powhatan
Powhatan ( c. 1547 – c. 1618), whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh (alternately spelled Wahunsenacah, Wahunsunacock or Wahunsonacock), was the leader of the Powhatan, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans living in Tsenacommaca ...
.
[ Price, David A. (2003), ''Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Heart of a New Nation'', New York: ]Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...
, pg 204.
In 1881, members of a French railway surveying expedition crossing
Tuareg
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern A ...
territory in North Africa ate dried dates that tribesmen had apparently deliberately contaminated with Egyptian henbane (''
Hyoscyamus muticus
''Hyoscyamus muticus'', the Egyptian henbane, is a shrub in the family of Solanaceae that is native to desert areas of North Africa. It contains alkaloids that are useful in pharmaceuticals. It is used locally as a painkiller and a recreational d ...
'', or ''H. falezlez''), to devastating effect.
Modern military research
In the 1950s, the CIA investigated
LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) as part of its
Project MKUltra
Project MKUltra (or MK-Ultra) was an illegal human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), intended to develop procedures and identify drugs that could be used in interrogations to weak ...
. In the same period, the
US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
undertook the secret
Edgewood Arsenal human experiments
From 1948 to 1975, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps conducted classified human subject research at the Edgewood Arsenal facility in Maryland. The purpose was to evaluate the impact of low-dose chemical warfare agents on military personnel and to te ...
which grew out of the
U.S. chemical warfare program and involved studies of several hundred volunteer test subjects.
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
was also investigating the possible use of LSD and the chemical BZ (
3-quinuclidinyl benzilate
3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate (QNB) (IUPAC name 1-azabicyclo .2.2ctan-3-yl hydroxy(diphenyl)acetate; US Army code EA-2277; NATO code BZ; Soviet code Substance 78) is an odorless and bitter-tasting military incapacitating agent.QNB: Incapacitating Age ...
) as nonlethal battlefield drug-weapons.
[ The United States eventually weaponized BZ for delivery in the ]M43 BZ cluster bomb
The M43 BZ cluster bomb, or simply M43 cluster bomb, was a U.S. chemical cluster bomb intended to deliver the incapacitating agent known as BZ. The weapon was produced in the early 1960s and all stocks of U.S. BZ were destroyed by 1989.
History
...
until stocks were destroyed in 1989. Both the US and Britain concluded that the desired effects of drug weapons were unpredictable under battlefield conditions and gave up experimentation.
Reports of drug weapons associated with the Soviet bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
have been considered unreliable given the apparent absence of documentation in state archives.[Douglass JD 1999 ''Red cocaine – the drugging of America and the west''. London and New York: Edward Harle Limited.] Hungarian researcher Lajos Rosza wrote that records of Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
's State Defense Council meetings from 1962 to 1978 suggest that the Warsaw Pact forum had considered a psychochemical agent such as methamphetamine
Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug and less commonly as a second-line treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obesity. Methamph ...
as a possible weapon.[Rózsa L 2009 A psychochemical weapon considered by the Warsaw Pact: a research note. ''Substance Use & Misuse'', 44, 172-178.]
accessed: 30-03-2009.
See also
* Biological weapon
A biological agent (also called bio-agent, biological threat agent, biological warfare agent, biological weapon, or bioweapon) is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, fungus, or toxin that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterroris ...
* Chemical weapon
A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as a ...
* "Gay bomb
The "gay bomb" and "halitosis bomb" are informal names for two non-lethal psychochemical weapons that a United States Air Force research laboratory speculated about producing. The theories involve discharging sex pheromones over enemy forces ...
"
* List of drugs used by militaries
Militaries worldwide have used or are using various psychoactive drugs to improve performance of soldiers by suppressing hunger, increasing the ability to sustain effort without food, increasing and lengthening wakefulness and concentration, suppr ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
;Video
British military LSD test
Czechoslovak military LSD test
American military LSD test
Chemical warfare
Bioethics
Non-lethal weapons
Incapacitating agents
Mind control
Psychological warfare