Drugs

The military has a habit of giving its people many different medications in the form of shots. I remember when I was in the army, we had to line up for our shots. A new device had just been introduced which used air to inject the medicine. It was so new the people giving the shots didn’t seem to know the proper adjustments. I know this because we all had blood running down our arms and had received shots in both arms at once. At the time it was said we had received eleven different medications.

There was one class action lawsuit against the government which stated active duty U.S. soldiers were treated like guinea pigs and the program was top secret. The lawsuit stated the program went on for over 20 years and the soldiers knew nothing about what was being injected into them. It is said the program operated from 1955 to 1975 at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland. Rumor states the soldiers were told if they would volunteer for testing, they would get weekends off but were never told what was going on. I know I would never have volunteered for medical testing, but be that as it may, the group was said to have been told they would be testing equipment like gas masks. The suit alleges instead of what they were told, they were being exposed to biological and chemical agents. Some of the drugs they were exposed to or given were nerve gases, LSD, and BZ. After exposure they would be watched. About 7,000 soldiers were involved in the test and were exposed to more than 250 different chemicals.

There was a claim the military used certain drugs during the Vietnam War on its servicemen such as speed, steroids and painkillers to help with extended combat. Some have called the Vietnam war, a pharmacological war.

During wartime, some countries have looked for ways to use drugs to make their troops more effective. Some believe it started with alcohol. It was felt if rations of alcohol were given to the troops, it would give them false courage to fight. Different nations used different types of alcohol. The British were famous for using rum. The French used wine and the Germans used beer, and the Russians vodka. These were not the only countries issuing alcohol rations. Even the Americans started with rum, but changed to whiskey during the Civil War.

Somewhere along the time line, military scientists began to try out drugs which they believed might improve performance and could possibly create an advantage on the battlefield by creating a sort of super soldier.

This is not a new idea and some tribes would give their warriors drugs in the form of berries and such given to them by their medicine men or shamans, transforming them into very fierce fighters. Some would use mushrooms which had psychoactive properties. It seems the idea drugs could enhance the strength and purpose of a warrior and create a fearless fighter is an old one.

Some of the soldiers used cocaine in World War One. The drug had been around since the 1860s and had become popular with German and French pilots. They were using it as a stimulant. Even the British army had a medicine they called Forced March made from cola nuts and cocaine. One of the problems of the soldiers in that war was trench warfare. The morale must have been very low, because the troops knew they were more or less machine gun and cannon fodder when they were ordered to get out of the trench and attack the enemy. One has to feel sorry for their situation.

The soldiers in World War Two were no strangers to drugs. The Nazis wanted to find a drug which would allow a soldier to continue to fight while wounded without feeling pain, allow them to stay awake for days at a time, and give them extra strength. They had something named an attack pill. The Germans believed this pill made their forces more efficient when they did attack. The pill contained Pervitin, considered by the Nazis to be a wonder drug. It would allow troops be able to stay awake for days. It also seemed to allowed them to march or walk much further without getting tired, and feel no pain or hunger. When we figured out what the drug was, we were surprised to find out it is what we call methamphetamine or crystal meth. When the allies found out what was going on with the Germans, they began to use amphetamine tablets. The British soldiers used 72 million tablets which we call speed today. There was much less usage in the American forces, but still some.

Some say we should include the use of tobacco on the list of drugs given to our military. It is true sometimes cigarettes were given to the troops and you could buy them for a very cheap price in commissaries. Smoking was everywhere in the service when I was in. It is true it sometimes had a calming effect in a stressful situation. I don’t know if it had anything to do with the tobacco or just the fact of taking a break to smoke.

The search for a wonder drug to increase the fierceness of the troops and allow for almost super powers probably is still going on. Human nature being what it is and the military mindset, the search for a better enhancing drug to give to the troops will never stop. There are probably many people who are upset to find our troops and others over the course of time have been given all sorts of things, some with their permission but mostly without. When I was in the military I had no idea what was in the shots I was getting and no medical personnel, if they knew, ever mentioned the contents of the shots. The time is overdue when we should know what is going on in this area. There should be no more secret tests by the military.