Things on my mind...: 12 Drugs Used For Torture

When humans are not human enough...

“Narco-analysis” was published in 1943, pouring from the pen of J. Steven Horsley. On its heels came the pitch-black idea of drug-supplemented torture and interrogation. We’re talking pure wickedness here; instead of just harming the body interrogators began attacking the mind. Want examples? Here’s a few of the most depraved “torture brews” known to man.

1. Sodium Amytal

Sodium Amytal lowers inhibitions, giving the user mental clarity and the impulse to talk while offering the interviewer an unobstructed view of the subjects psyche. World War II was its debut, when interviewers begin using it to work with soldiers whom refused to talk on account of psychological trauma. Sodium Amytal, a barbiturate, would force the soldier to relive their wartime experiences and talk about them with the interviewer.

2. Mescaline

The peyote cactus can be processed into Mescaline, a hallucinogen with effects similar to those of LSD. The Nazis were first to use it during their mind control experiments, and later on the U.S. Navy gave it a go as a sort of truth serum. Both experiments failed. The Navy found that information gained from a psychotic (even when drug-induced) is unreliable. The Nazis found it impossible to control minds, even with the help of Mescaline.

3. Scopolamine

Scopolamine is most commonly known as the “truth serum”, having a remarkable track record of making criminals sing like canaries. However, not too many know the dirtier underbelly of scopolamine. It’s also a “zombie drug”, able to rob users of all free will, leaving them helpless to the wishes of the inducer. That is, if the miniscule amount needed doesn’t kill the victim beforehand.

4. Lysergic Acid (LSD)

LSD began making its rounds in the torture/interrogation community in the 1950’s during the CIA’s fittingly titled “Operation Artichoke”. How LSD is used by interrogators is completely opposite to what you might expect, though. Instead of relying on the psychosis the drug induces to get answers, LSD is used as a threat… as in, “spill the beans or we pump you full of this stuff”.

5. Amphetamine

Amphetamine and methamphetamine turns users into a literal chatterbox … with obvious torture-related benefits. When injected, victims experience an irresistible “push” to talk as their memories and emotions flood the brain. It’s been theorized that amphetamines would be perfect for pulling the truth out of subjects that are feigning amnesia or intentionally lying.

6. Pipradrol

Pipradrol works like amphetamine without all the nasty side effects (i.e. cardiovascular damage). With pipradrol, an internal flood of emotion gives users an amplified desire to talk and to move around. The value of loose lips doesn’t have to be underscored.

7. Ritalin

Ritalin (or phenidylate) is known for its anti-depression abilities. What isn’t widely known is its ability to “grease the chatter box”, which is an obvious plus for interrogators. Simultaneously, the experience an “arousal of mood” which is science-talk meaning that it makes them feel good.

8. TD – Strong Cannabis

TD, or truth drug, is extracted from the cannabis plant and injected into food or cigarettes. As the name suggests, it muffles any sense of prudence so that users talk without caution. And just like its marijuana sister, interviewees sink into a state of mirth and are so happy they’re willing to talk on just about anything.

9. Chlorpromazine (thorazine)

Phenothiazine derivates (such as chlorpromazine) could find in combination with an agitator or intimidating drug, like LSD. Either interviewees cooperate during the interrogation, or the drug is not administered –if they talk they get some piece of mind as they are pumped up with tranquilisers.

10. Twilight Zone

Imagine being stuck in that moment of half-dream/ half-reality you feel right as you wake up and right as you fall asleep. Now imagine the use somebody like the CIA could get from trapping you in that state. This is known as “the twilight zone” technique, and interrogators pump one arm full of a barbiturate (such as thiopental) and the other full of a stimulant (such as amphetamine), locking one’s psyche into a brain-breaking cycle of waking dreams.

11. Sodium pentothal

Sodium Pentothal is a barbiturate which, when not being used as a sedative during prison executions, can be used in lighter doses as a “truth serum”. It doesn’t, however, force one into honest; it only erases discretion and makes truth telling more likely.

12. Versed

Versed is particularly diabolical and slightly frightening. Subjects under the influence feel pain and discomfort fully. But when the drug wears off, all memory of the pain and the torture session itself is purged from the mind. The diabolical a heart might see the potential in using versed along with non-marking torture techniques.
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