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, suppressing fear, reducing empathy, and improving reflexes and memory-recall, amongst other things.
Contemporary
For drugs that recently were or currently are being used by militaries.Administration tends to include strict medical supervision and prior briefing of the medical risks. Caffeine, diet pills, painkillers, nicotine, and alcohol are not included on the list. Non-administrated, illegally used drugs are also not included.
Historic
Alcohol has a long association of military use, and has been called "liquid courage" for its role in preparing troops for battle, anaesthetize injured soldiers, and celebrate military victories. It has also served as a coping mechanism for combat stress reactions and a means of decompression from combat to everyday life. However, this reliance on alcohol can have negative consequences for physical and mental health. Military and veteran populations face significant challenges in addressing the co-occurrence of PTSD and alcohol use disorder. Benzedrine was claimed to have been administered by Allied forces during WWII, esp. by the US Germany and Japan used methamphetamine. Fenethylline (trade name Captagon) has played a role in the Syrian civil war. The production and sale of fenethylline generates large revenues which are likely used to fund the purchase of weapons, and fenethylline is used as a stimulant by combatants. Poverty and international sanctions that limit legal exports are contributing factors. Since the fall of the Assad regime the new Syrian transitional government has ordered the cessation of the drug trade, and production has reportedly been reduced by 90%. Methamphetamine ("Panzerschokolade", "Pervitin") during WWII by Nazi Germany Panzerschokolade was the eponymous name that the Luftwaffe are claimed to have used. D-IX was a combination of Methamphetamine, Oxycodone, and Cocaine that was produced in 1944 but could not be mass produced before the war ended. It was part of a future generation of "pep pills" for the German military and was tested on concentration camp prisoners.
See also Academy of Military Medical Sciences History and culture of substituted amphetamines § Military use MKUltra Chemical warfare Chemical weapon List of chemical warfare agents List of highly toxic gases Psychochemical warfare Military medicine Neuroenhancement Nootropic Supersoldier Use of drugs in warfare
References
External links Sample, Ian (7 November 2016). "US military successfully tests electrical brain stimulation to enhance staff skills". The Guardian. Saletan, William (29 May 2013). "The War on Sleep". Slate. Glain, Stephen J. (28 September 1998). "Israeli Biotech Firm Develops DrugThat May Limit Effects of Nerve Gas". Wall Street Journal. Presentation of the "Night Eagle" drug on China Central Television