The U.S. Army has a history of hallucinogen experiments using a human subject that begun around 1948 to 1975 in the Edgewood Arsenal facility. The U.S. has had an active warfare defense and development program since WWI involving large-scale manufacturing, testing, and stockpiling chemical munitions and agents. By the end of WWII, almost 60,000 U.S. service members were tested. Since then, participants have been concerned about the long term effects of the drugs and even service members undertaking the tests in the 1960s to evaluate ship susceptibility to biological and chemical agents attacks. Initially, the experiments were conducted in secret, but there exists some literature, including the identity of service that was tested. 1 Most of the crucial data concerning the experiments are scanty, and the intentions of the tests were intended for defensive measures such as improve respiratory masks and protective clothing. Others investigated the impact of agent exposure on military personnel operation readiness and whether they were effective in incapacitating and brainwashing, mostly the hallucinogens. In the recent wake of the use of hallucinogens as a therapeutic agent in psychiatry, the paper will analyze the historical timeline of hallucinogens in the military.
In the wake of WWI, more than 400,000 casualties were attributed to mustard gas, and later on, in 1939, Lewisite and mustard gas were used against Poles in 1939. Therefore, the U.S. decided it was necessary to conduct biological and chemical weapons tests on humans. The earliest tests on Lewisite and Mustard gas led to exposures to some of the subjects which the researcher claimed to be severe. By the time WWII came to an end, the U.S. had intensified the production of chemical weapons and had accumulated over 100 tons of nitrogen mustard, 87,000 tons of sulfur mustard, and 20,000 tons of Lewisite. 2 The number of chemical weapons that the U.S. held led to questioning if these amounts of gases were purely for research and defensive purposes. This is because, during this period, the only active combat that the U.S. was involved in was the during the exposure the military during the Bari attacks in Italy on a ship loaded with mustard gas, but in the end, it caused thousands of deaths and injuries to people in the area as well as to the U.S. military. 3 In the Post WWII, military strategists saw the need to test the hallucinogens but on a smaller scale. Whereas the studies had initially concentrated on the lethality of gases, its treatment, and prevention, a new concept of war where the drugs were tested on secret human subjects explored the psychological reactions. The lead researcher Luther Wilson Green called for a search of novel psychoactive compounds that would create incapacitating mental side impacts similar to those of nerves gas but without lethality. 4 That meant that the chemical and biological weapons were considered to be of value and tactical operations by the debilitating enemy into extreme depression, hopelessness, delirium, migraine, hysteria, fear, panic, seizures, or even dizziness. 5 The United States military was targeting to develop nonlethal microbial weapons that could be used for warfare simulations even in civilian areas as well as considered biological weapons that can be used against enemy populations. 6
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By the mid-1950s, psychochemical warfare was added to Edgewood clinical trials with approval granted to recruit soldiers all over the U.S. through the systematic effort regard as the Medical Research Volunteer Program. The military assured the Congress that the chemicals were perfectly safe, and they provided a way of controlling individuals without deaths through earlier plans to manufacture weapons from LSD and Mescaline were considered unpredictable and dangerous. However, it became apparent to what the military test was looking for, which was precisely the opposite of what pharmaceutical firms look for in a chemical, the undesirable side effects. Given the Soviet military might then, the terrified Congressional overseers were ready to lend support. The Soviet Army had a broad chemical warfare program, and evidence suggested they had the interest to manufacture psychic poisons to trigger mental illness. 7 From 1959, the military pursued PCP or phencyclidine, a drug marketed by a pharmaceutical, but later abandoned the drug as the drug had led to delusions and hallucinations among users. PCP is one of the severe hallucinogens and is also an illicit drug. However, at Edgewood, scientists used it against the soldier to see if it could maintain physical security over simulated classified materials. Soldiers who were involved in the tests reported cases expressed maniac reaction and intense hostility. Agents were further reported feelings of unreality and variant mood swings. At higher doses, military officers reported blurred vision, visual disturbance, memory lapse, limb paresthesia, ataxia, and the ability to communicate appropriately. 8 From 1963 to the early 1970s, the military undertook another project named the “Project SHAD.” The project was designed to evaluate the effect of the shipboard (not humans) protective system. The tested military subjects included the use of biological and chemical warfare agents considered less hazardous or simulants. The DoD argued that the subjects, in this case, acted as military staff and were accorded the right protection, and none were affected during the tests. However, despite these assurances, there are perceptions that the agents were exposed to dangerous tests. By the turn of the millennium, the military began declassifying the accessible health information for the experiments, including for the Project SHAD, which had documented the participants. However, there is still no exposure data regarding military tests. 9
Another common hallucinogen is the BZ that was produced more than 50 tons. Such capacity would be enough to incapacitate the population that existed in the world by the 1960s. As the strategy had been, the U.S. military had intended to calm the impact of BZ, but the study found that the drug runs the subjects in raving lunatics. 10 The high level of BZ unpredictability was later attributed to being a result of its ability to affect five subtypes of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, which, according to neuro-scientists, regulates the different functions of the brain. Further, the drug could not work as an incapacitant since it onsets the last eight hours, and the dissemination leads to the visible cloud, reduce surprise as well as have a high lethality rate. For these reasons, the was drug became outdated in the military, and its destruction began in the 1980s. 11 Another hallucinogen drug that was applied by the military on the human subject was the scopolamine. In this project, the military was looking for a drug that could make put people into a suggestible state of mind hence make it easy to manipulate them psychologically. The drug, also known as one of the truth drugs, is an alkaloid drug and is also related to BZ. According to the CIA, scopolamine leads to psychological conditions such as blurred vision, loss of memory, rapid heartbeat, somnolence, disturbed perception, and hallucinations. However, despite it, suitability as a truth drug, the drug was found to possess some inherent psychochemical weapons characteristics since it can act as amnesia and lead to memory loss as its chemical components block the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Another potential impact of the drug is that it makes a victim obedient and submissive to the point that they can follow any sought of command without resistance. The ability of the drug to turn the victims into suggestible zombies has led to its exploitation by criminals all over America as the victims are always open to suggestions and cannot firmly say not. As a potential chemical weapon, the drug leads to hypnotism by disabling the free will and turn people into puppets. 12
To sum up, the U.S. military employees who were involved in the cold war era experiments undertook significant risks in the service of their beloved country. They, therefore, require assistance and respect for the health problems they developed as a result of these tests. Some of these tests potentially caused in advent impacts to retirees health though others may have had minimal exposure, their long-term psychological impacts cannot be determined since there were no follow up activities or existing records concerning the military experiments. It is also essential for the military leadership to understand that the use of chemical weapons is also illegal. However, the incapacitating biological weapons are said to have minimal low lethality rate hence their impact of mass incapacitation instead of mass killing.
Notes
1 Brown, M., Military chemical warfare agent human, Military Medicine (2009), 1041-1048.
2 Veterans Health Initiative, "Health Effects from Chemical Biological…” (2003), p.5
3 Ross, C.A., "LSD experiments by the United States Army" History of psychiatry 28, no. 4 (2017): 427-442.
4 Stafford, Peter G., and Bonnie H., Golightly. LSD: The problem-solving psychedelic . New York: Award Books, 1967.
5 Khatchadourian, R., "Operation Delirium: Decades after a Risky Cold War Experiment, a Scientist lives with Secrets.
6 Ibid
7 Krishnan, A., Military neuroscience and the coming age of neurowarfare . Routledge, 2016.
8 Munch, James C. "Phencyclidine: pharmacology and toxicology." Bulletin on Narcotics 26, no. 4 (1974): 131-133
9 Crawford, Harriet M., Heather A. Young, and William F. Page. Long-term health effects of participation in Project SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense) . National Academies Press, 2007.
10 Misik Jan. "Military incapacitating agent BZ (3-quinuclidinyl benzilate)—past, present, and future." Military Medical Science Letters 82 (2013): 115-119.
11 Ibid
12 Walton, C. Dale. "Military neuroscience and the coming age of neurowarfare." Comparative Strategy 37, no. 3 (2018): 251-254.
Bibliography
Brown, Mark. "Military chemical warfare agent human subjects testing: part 1—history of six-decades of military experiments with chemical warfare agents." Military medicine 174, no. 10 (2009): 1041-1048.
Crawford, Harriet M., Heather A. Young, and William F. Page. Long-term health effects of participation in Project SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense) . National Academies Press, 2007. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=3Nc54T588jkC&oi=fnd&pg=PT17&dq=Project+SHAD&ots=rHoXTfUvys&sig=QcyhsskNXRDoXqitO-haSdxMzj8&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Project%20SHAD&f=false
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Krishnan, Armin. Military neuroscience and the coming age of neurowarfare . Routledge, 2016. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=8iIlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=BZ+and+US+army+discussions&source=bl&ots=MAo2yW5cx0&sig=ACfU3U0zNjF3vHjuI1jokUs7tFGtkzByHQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiV9-G89v7mAhXDh1wKHQ1hDOYQ6AEwEHoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=BZ%20and%20US%20army%20discussions&f=false
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Stafford, Peter G., and Bonnie Helen Golightly. LSD: The problem-solving psychedelic . New York: Award Books, 1967.
Veterans Health Initiative. "Health Effects from Chemical Biological and Radiological Weapons." Department of Veterans Affairs 11 (2003).
Walton, C. Dale. "Military neuroscience and the coming age of neurowarfare." Comparative Strategy 37, no. 3 (2018): 251-254. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/C_Walton/publication/329199770_Military_neuroscience_and_the_coming_age_of_neurowarfare_by_Armin_Krishnan_London_UK_Routledge_2017_270_pp/links/5c1a9dec458515a4c7eb0196/Military-neuroscience-and-the-coming-age-of-neurowarfare-by-Armin-Krishnan-London-UK-Routledge-2017-270-pp.pdf
1 Brown, Mark. "Military chemical warfare agent human subjects testing: part 1—history of six decades of military experiments with chemical warfare agents." Military medicine 174, no. 10 (2009): 1041-1048.
2 Veterans Health Initiative. "Health Effects from Chemical Biological and Radiological Weapons." Department of Veterans Affairs 11 (2003).p.5
3 Ross, Colin A. "LSD experiments by the United States Army." History of psychiatry 28, no. 4 (2017): 427-442.
4 Stafford, Peter G., and Bonnie Helen Golightly. LSD: The problem-solving psychedelic . New York: Award Books, 1967.
5 Khatchadourian, Raffi. "Operation Delirium: Decades after a Risky Cold War Experiment, a Scientist lives with Secrets.
6 Ibid
7 Krishnan, Armin. Military neuroscience and the coming age of neurowarfare . Routledge, 2016.
8 Munch, James C. "Phencyclidine: pharmacology and toxicology." Bulletin on Narcotics 26, no. 4 (1974): 131-133.
9 Crawford, Harriet M., Heather A. Young, and William F. Page. Long-term health effects of participation in Project SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense) . National Academies Press, 2007.
10 Misik, Jan. "Military incapacitating agent BZ (3-quinuclidinyl benzilate)—past, present and future." Military Medical Science Letters 82 (2013): 115-119.
11 Ibid
12 Walton, C. Dale. "Military neuroscience and the coming age of neurowarfare." Comparative Strategy 37, no. 3 (2018): 251-254.
