Psychochemical weaponry are devices intended to incapacitate an enemy through psychopharmacological agents.[1][2]
History[]
Ancient psycho-chemical use[]
The use of chemicals to induce altered states of mind dates to antiquity and includes the use of plants such as thornapple (Datura stramonium) that contain combinations of anticholinergic alkaloids. In 184 B.C., Hannibal's army used belladonnaplants to induce disorientation.[citation needed] In 1881, members of a railway surveying expedition crossing Tuareg territory in North Africa ate dried dates that tribesmen had apparently deliberately contaminated with Hyoscyamus falezlez.
Military research[]
In the 1950s, the CIA investigated LSD as part of its project MK Ultra and some in the US Military speculated about its possible use to disable sentries or incapacitate concentrated masses of troops or enemy populations. [3] Britain was also investigating the possible weaponization of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and BZ (3-quinuclidinyl benzilate) as nonlethal battlefield drug-weapons.[1] 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 were considered unreliable given the apparent absence of documentation in state archives.[4] Hungarian researcher Lajos Rosza wrote that records of Hungary's State Defense Council meetings from 1962 to 1978 suggest that the Warsaw Pact forum had considered a psychochemical agent such as Methylamphetamine as a possible weapon.[2][5] The United States eventually weaponized the chemical BZ for delivery in the M43 BZ cluster bomb until stocks were destroyed in 1989.
See also[]
- Incapacitating agent
- Biological weapon
- Chemical weapon
- Edgewood Arsenal experiments
Video links[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Dando M, Furmanski M 2006. Mid-spectrum incapacitant programs. In: Wheelis M et al. (eds). Deadly cultures: the history of biological weapons since 1945. Cambridge, US: Harvard University Press.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lee, Martin (May 1982). Mad, Mad War. 18–. http://books.google.com/books?id=seYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
- ↑ Roberts, Andy (May 2010). "Reservoir Drugs". http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/3421/reservoir_drugs.html. Retrieved 2013-03-17.
- ↑ Douglass JD 1999 Red cocaine – the drugging of America and the west. London and New York: Edward Harle Limited.
- ↑ Rózsa L 2009 A psychochemical weapon considered by the Warsaw Pact: a research note. Substance Use & Misuse, 44, 172-178. accessed: 30-03-2009.
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