mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
The disinhibiting and pain-numbing effects of drugs make them perfect for turning people into killing machines. In fact, criminals on PCP have been reported to withstand multiple shocks with Taser guns, pepper spray, and Mace, and even direct gunshot wounds to the chest, without slowing down. It’s no wonder that so many generals have relied on drugs to bring out the so-called best in unwitting soldiers.
1. Nazi Shock Troops
During World War II, Nazi Germany definitely led the pack in its use of amphetamines, cocaine, and other “performance-enhancing” drugs. In fact, amphetamine pills were included in every German soldier’s first-aid kit, and Nazi researchers developed chewing gum that delivered a dose of cocaine with each piece. But that wasn’t all! According to a book by German author and criminologist Wolf Kemper on the subject, Nazis on Speed, one of the substances tested by the Nazis in 1944, D-IX, was actually a cocaine-based compound that included both amphetamine and a morphine-related chemical to dull pain. The experimental drug was tested on prisoners of war, and
Nazi doctors found the test subjects could march 55 miles without a rest
before they collapsed. The Nazis hoped that the drug could put some fighting spirit into their armies, which were by that time being defeated on all fronts, but luckily the war ended before production could begin.
2. Thai and Burmese Bandit Armies
“The Golden Triangle”—an area straddling Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, where poppy plants grow particularly well—has long been a center of the international drug trade, and for centuries national armies, revolutionaries, and criminal gangs have waged war for control of the income it generates. Recently, however, bandits and rebels from all three countries have begun recruiting children, feeding them opium, hashish, amphetamines, and tranquilizers to give them courage, then sending them out on “human wave” attacks. The disturbing phenomenon leaves a huge proportion of the children dead. One adult soldier from Burma who had to fight these poor child soldiers recalled, “There were a lot of boys rushing into the field, screaming like banshees. It seemed like they were immortal, or impervious, or something, because we shot at them but they just kept coming.”
3. U.S. Army “Go Pills”
Though amphetamines are essentially off-limits for the civilian population of the United States, American armed forces have long made use of them to enhance the fighting abilities of pilots, soldiers, and sailors, and to keep them awake for long periods of time. Interest peaked in World War II, when all the major combatants on both sides conducted extensive research and distributed large amounts of stimulants to their soldiers. Surprisingly enough, America’s armed forces continue the practice to this very day. The amphetamine most often dispensed to American servicemen and women is Dexedrine, short for dextroamphetamine sulfate, also referred to as “go pills.” In one April 2002 incident in Afghanistan, pilots from the Illinois Air National Guard accidentally dropped bombs on a Canadian unit, killing four and wounding eight. In the inquiry that followed, the pilots claimed that they were disoriented because they had been forced to take Dexedrine “go pills” by their superiors and would have been declared unfit for combat if they had not.
4. West African Child Soldiers
In the brutal civil wars that have bedeviled West Africa over the last two decades, much of the fighting is done by children who are teenagers or younger. Armed with automatic weapons, the children are rewarded with sex, candy, tobacco, or alcohol—anything that encourages them to fight. However, sometimes the temptation isn’t great enough, so their adult commanders often find it helps to ply them with more powerful drugs that inhibit their judgment. In Sierra Leone, Western observers met children between the ages of 9 and 16 who had been given amphetamines, while children of similar age in the militias of Liberian president Charles Taylor were routinely given cocaine, opium, marijuana, and palm wine to encourage their killer instincts. Often dressed in outlandish costumes out of a belief that strange clothing would protect them in combat—a wedding dress with fright wig was a favorite—these children were described by the journalists who met them as borderline psychotic.
Note: The original name of this post was ‘5 Armies Hopped Up on Drugs.’ We’ve removed one of the five aforementioned hopped-up Armies for further fact-checking. So if you read the pre-edited version and emailed it to your friend with a subject like ‘Check out these five crazy Armies hopped up on drugs!’ and received an email questioning your counting skills, we apologize.
Previously on mental_floss:
• Manly Ways to Prepare Turkey
• 7 Insane Food Competitions
• 9 Prolific Serial Killers
• Bobby Kennedy: Bar Fighter? (And 13 More Stories You Might Not Know About RFK)
• The First Time News Was Fit To Print: Early NYT stories about Woody Allen, the Beastie Boys and more
• 7 Pampered Celebs and Their Ridiculous Pre-show Demands
• Nintendo History Quiz: The Sequel
Comments (32)
Comment
I am surprised that the name of Sierra Leone is left out of this historical achievements.Sierra Leone also had an official army and a renegade army.Their drugs budget was higher than the nation’s budget.
posted by John on 11-18-2007 at 3:18 am
And, of course, kamikaze pilots had their courage encouraged through amphetamines. You would think that the red-white-and-blue would be better than that.
posted by Chuck Hill on 11-18-2007 at 8:38 am
To Chuck. the red white and blue does as many low life actions as any other power has through out history. Nationalism has been called patriotism gone wild. When one believes one is right and the other guy is wrong anything is possible.
posted by gus on 11-18-2007 at 10:08 am
John @ 1: Sierra Leone’s armies are in fact mentioned in the entry on West African child soldiers.
posted by M on 11-18-2007 at 12:52 pm
In case anyone wonders if they seen the origin of the term “assassin”, then they must have heard about Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed, which revolves around one of Hasan-i Sabbah’s assassin “cults”, so to speak.
posted by Marcus on 11-18-2007 at 7:56 pm
Norse warriors known as Berserkers were thought to be under the influence of the Amanita muscaria mushroom when they went into battle. Both the U.S. and Great Britain tested LSD as a possible substance for use in combat.
posted by Mark on 11-18-2007 at 9:42 pm
Isn’t this how the magnum pistol was invented? I remember something from history class about America’s war in the Philippines, drugged suicide soldiers forced Americans to make a caliber with more stopping power.
posted by Jim on 11-18-2007 at 9:42 pm
Yeah it was the .45 that was created. What happened was the Moro tribe would wear leather/sappling armor and take narcotics which would turn them into killing machines. The .38 we had was too small of a caliber so it wouldn’t do much, and the rifles we had were too high of a velocity so they would go clean through the person and they person would keep going. The Browning 1911 45 was introduced because it had the fire power to knock someone off their feet if they were hit.
Or so says my grandpa.
posted by matt on 11-18-2007 at 10:47 pm
You left out two of the best-known examples from history. The scots who painted themselves woad, and the assassins (hashisheen), who got stoned on hashish.
posted by Some Guy on 11-19-2007 at 2:19 am
How could they forget the KISS Army???
posted by Dirk on 11-19-2007 at 2:27 am
all warshave been used something what give you more gourage, staminaand anger agaist enemy. exampe when we finnis fight agaist massive russian army.soldiers had own amphetamine so they gan guard without sleeping many days.and that they get other reasons too.morphine was very good stuff, no pain, no feeling cold and if you were guard or recon morphine keeps your flu and all litle disease in hide exsample it was wery important to keep quiet,with guard you cough you propablyhave been killed in finnis forest but they is still us, it is true that one finnis soldier is same that 10 russian soldiers!!!!
posted by comaCola on 11-19-2007 at 2:35 am
killing/war/murder = Monkey
Monkey on drugs = unconditional monkey
posted by peebrain on 11-19-2007 at 2:51 am
“were routinely given cocaine, opium, marijuana, and palm wine to encourage their killer instincts”
Yeh…. I often hear that marijuana brings out the killer instinct in people…..
posted by Bingo Tonight on 11-19-2007 at 2:56 am
What about the very first drug-induced fighting force in history…the one that gave us a name for killers…the Hashishin?
posted by Dragon on 11-19-2007 at 3:28 am
anyone remember that episode of star trek TNG where Q went on to say that during WW3 the soldiers were all doped up…?
posted by Q on 11-19-2007 at 4:58 am
I remember reading about child soliders in sierra lione bieng given brownbrown - a mixture of cocaine and gunpowder…
posted by fotoflo on 11-19-2007 at 5:32 am
Opium and hashish as battle enhancing drugs? Soldiers on any of those would rather lay on the grass and watch the clouds than go on a killing spree. Amphetamines and cocaine? now that’s more like it.
posted by beto on 11-19-2007 at 6:01 am
Don’t forget Shaka Zulu’s shock troops who went into battle with in a THC induced haze. There was a nice Discovery Chanel piece on thier methodology.
posted by Q who on 11-19-2007 at 6:17 am
So, drugs are bad unless they are politically useful? Tut tut americans et al. It does seem stupid to condemn people to a concrete hole for life for taking/selling what you use for your own damnable troops.
As for Hashishin not all of them were high and TBH, you’d need to be cold sober to be alert enough to handle some of the stuff they did.
posted by Mr. E on 11-19-2007 at 6:39 am
Why do you so naively believe the written word?
All writers have an agenda. A believable lie has threads of truth, but it’s still a LIE.
posted by Fafa on 11-19-2007 at 6:50 am
fafa:
Naively believe the written word?
I don’t think there is much of a debate about any of this stuff. Even the less believable stuff here, such as use my US Armed Forces, is pretty well documented in the press and through publicly available sources.
The Nazi were also really great at record keeping, so it’s not exactly hard to believe either.
Record keeping isn’t quite as advanced in the various ethic and tribal conflicts in third world nations, but none of the claims here seem too far those made by the ex-child solders, the press and groups like amnesty international.
I’m not exactly sure what you are implying is a lie, but I don’t think there is actually any basis for the implication.
posted by redx on 11-19-2007 at 7:17 am
Dunno about how my killer instinct could be augmented by pot - all I want to kill are twinkies, doritos, bean dip, and ding-dongs.
Re: amphetamines. Yes, when I was in SE Asia if we needed something to get us through a patrol we’d go to the medic and get a handful of amphetamines. You could buy them on the street, but why, when you could get them for free? Easier to get go-pills than beer, but the two together could be *interesting*. I never let the guys in my squad mix them tho - we had to be on our toes. I’d much rather have somebody on speed than on alcohol when the shit hits the fan. And smoking Thai sticks was strictly verboten - not only does it make you slow and stupid, you can smell it miles away.
I’ve heard the story about why Mr. Browning invented the ACP, but according to most folks is was because the Germans and other hostiles-to-be had developed the Mauser broom-handle autoloaders and we were still carrying those pitiful .38 long Smiths. In the Phillipine insurrection (which was in the late 90s and early 00s, before the invention of the 1911 ACP), US soldiers used to carve a cross in the soft nose of their ammunition, causing it to break up on impact and inflict more damage. These were called “dum-dum” bullets, tho I don’t know the etiology of the phrase.
posted by Doc on 11-19-2007 at 10:29 am
I too have heard the story of the .45 gun. However, my history professor (a very interesting man) said part of the reason was that the warriors would also tie their testicles and penises up cutting off circulation. This intense pain would put them in a different state of consciounsness and make them more impervious to pain. Sort of like how accident victims in states of shock can tolerate (to an extent) their chest being cracked open.
Doc,
My Dad’s Ranger CO in SEA wouldn’t let them smoke American cigs because he thought the enemy could smell them. I asked my Dad what he did as he was a three pack a day smoker then (probably more concerned with bullets than lung cancer), he said he just smoked Vietnamese cigs.
posted by Dusty on 11-19-2007 at 12:24 pm
The Gaesatae were Gallic warriors who fought the Romans hopped up on pain killing chemicals. They were also naked.
posted by Mike on 11-19-2007 at 12:40 pm
The adults using war-enhancing drugs is one thing.
That adults use children on war-enhancing drugs is despicable and disgusting. So, so sad.
posted by mrs.djs on 11-19-2007 at 1:06 pm
This post has inspired me to go rent “Jacob’s Ladder”.
posted by Carrie on 11-19-2007 at 1:28 pm
Please, people! Let’s everyone of you go on Oprah and conduct a mass cry-in.
posted by Ed on 11-20-2007 at 4:50 am
Dusty,
When we were off-duty we’d smoke those nasty Vietnamese cigarettes too (but no smoking when on patrol), and on-duty or off we’d mostly eat local food (that of it that we could choke down) because what you eat is how you smell. Japanese say Yanks smell like rotten milk because of all the cheese in our diet, and that Koreans smell of garlic - in fact, the Japanese pejorative for Koreans translates “garlic eaters”.
Your dad was a Ranger? Me too - C CO, 75th. Tell him I said Hi!
Actually, I was originally asigned as a LRRP with the 7th Air Cav, then transferred to the 75th after I returned to the States. Taught cartography at Fort Benning until my enlistment was up.
posted by Doc on 11-21-2007 at 10:58 am
Oh, almost forgot. Re: original topic.
THe CIA and US Army tested LSD on “volunteers” as a CBW. That’s where Ken Kesey, author of “One Flew Over the Cucoo’s Nest”, first encountered it (read “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test”)
Also, thousands of US servicemen were exposed to hard radiation when they”observed” open-air nuclear tests.
Also, I seem to recall reading somewhere on the Web and in other, more reliable sources, that somebody was trying to develop an aerosal drug that would make soldiers gay. Pretty amusing - I can just see spraying that over the SF Castro District on a Saturday night when all the frat guys and lookie-loos are checking out the leather scene…
posted by Doc on 11-21-2007 at 11:05 am
Has anyone here heard that PCP can be good for you? Recent scientific studies have shown that PCP can actually lessen the effects of numrous afflictions such as cancer, AIDS, and diseases caused by PCP use.
Wait… Never mind.
posted by I Smoke PCP` on 12-4-2007 at 7:21 am
#30, lol.
#26, I instantly thought of Jacob’s ladder, too. Weird movie.
posted by Sarah on 12-28-2007 at 3:01 pm
tried em all… take Dexedrine now “go pills”.. eat em cut up.. no need for a powder though..
had these all my life for being hyper…
it makes me real Gung-Ho at work!!!
posted by asdf on 8-5-2008 at 6:27 pm