The history of drugs and war
Stavanger, Norway, 2 February 2017
By Lukasz Kamienski
Reports of Daesh fighters, terrorists, and insurgents fueled by drugs on their murderous
rampages have generated outrage. The vision of intoxicated jihadists adds an almost
unthinkable level of fright, but perhaps it should not. There is nothing exceptional in Daesh
fighters popping pills. For drugs and warfare have always gone hand in hand – from Homeric
warriors to Wehrmacht troops, and more recently to American pilots during Operation Iraqi
Freedom and Ukrainian combatants in the ongoing conflict with Russia. The use of
intoxicants by non-Western irregulars is often portrayed as unique and shocking, but the fact
is that Western soldiers have been fighting while high on plenty of occasions for much of
history.
For Daesh the substance of choice is Captagon, a powerful stimulant known as fenethylline
metabolized in the body to form amphetamine and theophylline. Invented in 1961, it has
become a major recreational drug in the Middle East but also a favoured stimulant in the
Syrian civil war. It makes for a good combat drug that numbs fear, induces bravado, enhances
strength, promotes alertness, alleviates pain and perhaps also increases aggression when
overdosed, which has probably often been the case. Jihadists have been reported to consume it
pervasively, while also taking powerful opioid painkillers, hashish and perhaps cocaine and
heroin, too. Intoxicants transform them into highly stimulated, ferocious and seemingly
crazed fighters.
Intoxication, although contrary to Islam, is not seen as immoral, but sacred. When fighters
ingest drugs to meet religiously inspired goals, they are filled with not only courage but also a
sense of righteousness. In short, many jihadist fighters and terrorists are very often high on
two powerful intoxicants: jihad and psychostimulants.
Adversaries often compare intoxicated jihadists to zombies. In this way, they’re made to seem
inhuman, an obvious mistake, but one that helps soldiers and witnesses to digest their
incredible brutality. A Muslim Brotherhood militant in Syria recalls: “Some people take so
much, if you shoot them, they won’t drop.” Fueled by Captagon, jihadists continue fighting
even when gravely wounded, similar to the virulent and instinct-driven walking dead. This
was precisely what U.S. Marines experienced in November 2004 in the battle of Fallujah – the
insurgents they engaged with were so heavily doped up on amphetamines and cocaine that
they continued fighting despite severe injury. When the standard firing procedure to aim at the
body failed, the Marines were ordered to refocus on head shots. Incidentally, this same tactic
is suggested in Max Brooks’ famous Zombie Survival Guide.
But the experience of fighting with irregular, fierce, odd enemy pumped up on drugs is hardly
new. When the British decided to subdue the Zulus in 1879, they did not expect to encounter
the extremely determined resistance they did. The Zulus fought with fanaticism and fury. And
they seemed immune to the enemy rifle fire. What made them truly fearless warriors was not
only their traditional belligerence but also Zulu pharmacopoeia. The warriors were provided
by their shamans with various herbs to eat, drink or inhale. These were intelezi – a traditional
plant taken in purifying rites to boost morale, medicated beer, dagga – the South African
variety of cannabis which had a stimulating effect, probably also toadstool – Amanita
1
muscaria known as fly agaric, and a potent painkiller and hallucinogen produced from the
“Bushman Poison Bulb”. Had the British been familiar with the idea of zombie, they could
probably have used it to describe the Zulus.
But back to the present non-Western irregulars. Intoxicants seem to have become inherent to
contemporary terrorism. Take two further examples. The Chechens who in September 2004
seized a Russian school in Bieslan were heavy heroin and morphine addicts. During the threeday siege they ran out of supplies and, suffering from withdrawal symptoms, turned extremely
ruthless and massacred almost 200 children at the end. Separately, the Pakistani Lashar-eTaiba terrorists, who perpetrated a series of ferocious attacks in Mumbai in November 2008,
enhanced their performance with cocaine and steroids, enabling them to hold out against
Indian Special Forces for nearly 60 hours.
We know that Daesh has also drugged children – commonly with anti-anxiety medications –
to turn them into hardened fighters. Again, this is hardly new. Horrible as it may seem, the
practice of drugging children to turn them into better combatants is commonplace, an almost
inherent feature of the child soldiering phenomenon. From Sierra Leone and Liberia to
Afghanistan, from Somalia to Iraq, from East Timor to Mexico and Brazil young fighters and
drug cartel hit-boys have been issued narcotics to facilitate recruitment and training, improve
morale and courage, increase cruelty as well as reward good performance. These are mostly
cocaine, heroin or their mix with bullet-powder which allows for the consumption of greater
amounts of cocaine or heroin at once. Other popular substances are marijuana, hashish,
amphetamines, and psychotropic medicines.
But if junkie jihadists, including juveniles, are described as erratic how then should we
account for the behavior of Achilles, an archetypal Western warrior? Homer portrays him as a
frenzied warrior experiencing extreme mood swings, losing control over his emotions, and
wreaking astonishing slaughter. What would the neurochemical brain analysis tell us about
the foundational Western hero? Well, Achilles certainly seems high most of the time. If I am
allowed, I would speculate that he might have taken opium which was well-known and
common in ancient Greece where it came from Egypt – and nearly certainly he drank wine
heavily. After all, Victor Davis Hanson, a prominent scholar of the Greek way of war, tells us
that it is almost certain that the Greek hoplite marched into battle drank. Whatever the issue,
Achilles was for sure high on violent emotions. Biochemical neuroscience reveals that the
feeling of intense and violent anger is, in fact, the result of a specific chain reaction of
hormones activating specific parts of the brain. Achilles is, in a word, high on hormones and
today, he could be called an “adrenalin junkie”.
By any measure, Homeric heroes are few and far between. It is mere men who must be roused
to arms. For a combatant to overcome survival instincts, cope with borderline stress and fears,
and be ready for a sacrifice he often needs extra motivation. A British military historian John
Keegan answered the question of “why soldiers fight” by listing three factors: “inducement,
coercion, and narcosis.” Apart from a “positive motivation”, such as socialization to military
life, primary group bonds, or a deeper sense of purpose, and a “negative motivation”, that
includes training, discipline, obedience to authority, sanctions, or punishments soldiers
frequently need an additional, chemical motivator. And this helps us understand why the use
of drugs has been part of much of the history of war and violence.
For, imagine yourself as a soldier just about to go to battle. You may be a Russian
infantryman facing the Japanese in 1905, you may be Tommy, the proverbial British soldier,
in the Western Front in 1916, you may be a Wehrmacht soldier far in the east in 1942, or you
2
may be American G.I. in the dense Vietnam jungle. You’ve been dragged by extreme fatigue
for days now, with very little sleep, small ration of food, you are cold and dirty. You’ve been
sick a few times already. You no longer want to be where you are. You may feel how
ridiculous it is to risk your life in a war that appear to have no sense to you. You feel
hopeless. You want to escape from the brutish reality. But this is not an option. You must face
the enemy. You may well get shot and die. You may be seriously injured. You may lose a
limb. You’ve seen lots of killing and death, many maimed bodies. You may lose your best
comrades. And how about your honour – you fear that you may not pass the test of battle and
let your brothers in arms down. This is, in fact, what you may fear the most. In a word, you
are an exhausted, stressed and anxious man. And you are demanded to go over all these
essentially human emotions. A bit of chemical moderation may have a blessing effect. Call it
a chemical courage or a liquid relief.
Drug taking was frequently unofficial, a form of self-medication, but quite often it was a
deliberate policy implemented by the military hierarchy. Intoxicants were both self-prescribed
by soldiers and prescribed by their commanders. At times this two went hand in hand.
Napoleon’s famous dictum about armies marching on their stomachs needs to be developed
further – for soldiers must also knock the butterflies from their stomach. It was early
discovered that if men at arms are expected to put a lot of “tears, blood and sweat” they need
to be provided with some kind of chemical encouragement. In Napoleon’s times the substance
of choice was alcohol – cognac and wine. But during the Egyptian campaign (1798–1801) in
the absence of alcohol in the Muslim country. Napoleon’s forces quickly developed a taste for
hashish. This new habit began to undermine French forces’ effectiveness in the region to such
a point that Napoleon put a total ban on hashish and the army commissioned the development
of an alcohol made of dates hoping of seducing soldiers away from hashish. Unsuccessfully,
for Napoleon’s soldiers brought the habit back home spreading the use of hashish to the
Parisian bohemians. Soon hashish overflowed to other European countries.
So, soldiers were at times pioneers in experimenting with psychoactive drugs, introducing
new practices that then spread to their societies and further. The historical sociologist Charles
Tilly famously wrote that “war made the state and the state made war”. Echoing him, I would
say: “Drugs shaped warfare, while warfare shaped the society, often by spreading
intoxicants.”
The oldest and most popular was, of course, alcohol. For centuries, governmental rations
inspired “Dutch courage” propelling troops into battle. Different nations had different drinks
of choice – for the British it was rum, for the Russians/Soviets it was vodka, it was wine for
the ancient Greeks, Romans, Chinese and modern French, it was beer for the Germans, for the
Americans first it was rum and then – since the Civil War – whiskey. So on and so forth. Until
the end of the Second World War wars were rarely fought sober.
The First World War brought cocaine to the frontline. The drug was used, for example, by
German and French pilots, and Canadian infantrymen. The British army used a medicine
containing cocaine and an extract from cola nuts known as “Forced March” or “Tabloid”,
which had been successfully used during long and exhausting polar expeditions. It was said to
encourage fearlessness and to offset combat fatigue. Self-prescribed consumption was also
widespread as cocaine proved an effective aid in the trenches and London pharmacists sold
mail-ordered medical kits containing cocaine and heroin, advertising them as “useful presents
for friends at the Front”. So, girls happily sent them to their boys, fiancés, and husbands in the
trenches.
3
And what about the Second World War? The stimulant of choice was amphetamines. The
Nazis pioneered the whole-scale and systematic doping. The pill known as Pervitin was an
early version of crystal meth, which energized the body, increases alertness, combats fatigue,
creates a sense of well-being and strong feelings of confidence, as well as hyperactivity. In his
book Art of War, the ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu writes that “Speed is the essence of
war”. This could not be more accurate a remark to describe the speedy war of Blitzkrieg, for
which German forces were primed by chemical speed. Between April and December 1939,
the Temmler-Werke company supplied the German military with 29 million Pervitin “attack”
pills, many of which were used experimentally during the campaign against Poland in
September 1939. As the drug proved very useful, at the peak of the Blitzkrieg in the spring of
1940, troops were issued some 35 million tablets. The Wehrmacht’s amazingly rapid
advances appear less incredible given that in some units many soldiers took up to four
Pervitin pills a day for weeks on end.
Thus, blitzkrieg was significantly fuelled by meth which gave soldiers nearly superhuman
ability. How could one otherwise explain tank units moving for 2 or 3 days non-stop or
infantry men making 160 km a day? German army on methamphetamine could fight longer
and with little rest. Overall, it is estimated that from 1939 to 1945 the German military
consumed some 200 million meth pills. The extensive use of drugs in the Third Reich,
including Adolf Hitler, is the subject of Norman Ohler’s fascinating book Blitzed: Drugs in
Nazi Germany published in English in 2016 and now also available in the Norwegian
translation as Hitlers Rus published by Spartacus.
The German military was the first to introduce deliberate military doping, but soon Britain,
the USA and Japan followed, also administering amphetamines to their troops. It is estimated
that British soldiers consumed some 72 million Benzedrine amphetamine tablets. The drug
was issued largely to pilots, but also to infantrymen. For example, on 23 October 1942
General Bernard Montgomery gave away some 100,000 pills to his 8th Army before the 2nd
battle of El Alamein. The British high on speed managed to win over the Germans high on
meth. The role of uppers in the outcome of this battle remains, however, unknown.
During the war American soldiers used at least 250 million Benzedrine pills popularly known
as “bennies”, yet the total number might be as high as 500 million. This huge range in
estimates results from the fact that we know the value of government contracts with Smith,
Kline & French pharmaceutical company, the producer of Benzedrine (877,000 dollars), but
what we do not know is the government procurement price for the drug, which was certainly
much lower than the market price.
In Japan the Emperor’s Army handed out tablets known as Nekomo-Jo (“cat’s eyes”).
Kamikaze departing for their final mission were not only given a shot of sake but also
Tokkou-Jo – methamphetamine mixed with powdered green tea. Remember that generally
kamikaze were not volunteers. So imagine yourself torn with doubts and fears departing for a
one-way mission. Wouldn’t you rather go a bit pill-popped? I would.
In short, the Second World War was to a great extent fought on speed and armed forces were
the greatest consumers of amphetamines.
The Americans continued to boost their troops with amphetamines well after the Second
World War. In the Korean War the administration of dextroamphetamine became
commonplace. But it was the Vietnam War when the consumption of psychoactive substances
by servicemen both prescribed and self-prescribed assumed alarming proportions. Authorised
4
speed-popping was rampant. In 1971 a Congressional report revealed that in 1966–1969
Armed Forces used 225 million amphetamine tablets, mostly Dexedrine. The war saw
American servicemen stationed in Korea and Japan concocting the speed ball – an injectable
mixture of amphetamine and heroin. Thus soldiers discovered how to increase the effect of
self-prescribed speed. According to the Pentagon, while in 1968 some 50% of American
soldiers in Vietnam took drugs, in 1973, the year of the U.S. withdrawal, this jumped to 70%.
Half of the soldiers doing drugs smoked marihuana, and nearly 30% took heroin and opium.
More to recent times. During the Gulf War (1990–1991) some 58 percent of American pilots
participating in Operation Desert Storm enjoyed dextroamphetamine support and 17 percent
regularly flew on “go pills” – as legal uppers are commonly referred to by the pilots
themselves. As for the present-day, jet and bomber plane pilots embarking on missions longer
than 8 hours (one-manned flights) or exceeding 12 hours (two-pension crews) can each time,
if all required procedures are met, obtain 10-milligram pills of Dexedrine. Beginning in 2003
amphetamine go pills have been slowly replaced by a new generation psychostimulant, an
eugoric called modafinil, apparently colloquially referred to as a “zombie pill”. Go pills are
seen as a tool of fatigue management – they are taken under strict control regimen and not
abused.
Today, officially the US military is the only armed force that allows for controlled
pharmacology-assisted combat and it is limited to pilots only. However, the Chinese army is
reported to introduce its own smart drug, anti-sleep pill referred to in the West as “Night
Eagle”. It is said to turn Chinese soldiers into night owls able to say awake for up to 72 hours.
And how about the Russians? At Russian pharmacies, there are plenty easily available
medicines which in the West are called nootropics and are banned in sports as doping. Some
of these performance enhancers, developed originally for astronauts, were used by the Red
Army in the Afghan War (1979–1989). The effects of drugs such as Phenotropil, Metraprote,
or Mildronate are similar to those of dextroamphetamine and methamphetamine but without
the same serotonin or dopamine side effects. Metraprote is probably still given to special
forces or rapid response units in emergency situations.
All these few random examples I hope illustrate that intoxicants have been an important part
of the war experience. Throughout history they have been used in the battlefield, for five
basic, often interrelated purposes.
First, stimulants were effective in keeping personnel awake and alert and hence alive, they
combated fatigue and allowed men to go on with little sleep and rest. In a word, uppers helped
to enhance combat performance.
Second, drugs inspired courage and provided relief from the stress of battle, in other words,
intoxicants assisted in transforming man into warrior. In his famous book The Anatomy of
Courage (1945) Lord Moran, Winston Churchill’s, physician argues that every soldier has a
certain unique supply of courage. “A man’s courage is his capital and he is always spending”,
writes Moran. No man has an unlimited stock of courage but it is possible for soldiers to
replenish it. Applying Moran’s metaphor, drugs can be read as a means of feeding individual
accounts of courage with special supplies. Yet, the problem with chemical courage is that the
asset cannot be saved for later use. It is but for short-term spending. Recharging must be
repeated, which can be, and often was, habit-forming.
5
Third, drinking and drugging rituals helped soldiers bond thus creating trust and primary
group relations – the Shakespearean bond of brothers, if you like. And it was crucial for group
cohesion, morale, motivation and good performance.
Fourth, intoxicants enabled warriors to cope with the traumas of war. drug-use was simply a
response to the hardships and horrors of combat. When the battle ended, mind-altering
downers provided a healing benefit. Remember that preventing or delaying mental
breakdowns have always been high at the commanders’ priority list, so has been fast recovery
aimed at the prompt return to combat.
And finally, drugs were often taken to kill boredom and monotony. Soldiers reached for
intoxicants because they simply had not much else to do. Boredom, in fact, became one of the
characteristics of modern war which was particularly vivid in Vietnam. In his outstanding war
memoir A Rumor of War Philip Caputo confirms that “nine-tenths of war is waiting around
for the remaining one-tenth to happen.”
When in The Gay Science Friedrich Nietzsche wrote “Who will ever relate the whole history
of narcotica? — It is almost the history of “culture” of our so-called higher culture” he could
have also had military culture in mind. Although largely neglected by the military history
scholarship, intoxicants and various practices of intoxication have been nearly an integral part
of the culture of war. War might be, as a great Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz argues,
an extension of policy, but it is also an extension of culture as famously claimed by John
Keegan, Clausewitz’s prominent critic, yet often it is also an extension of pharmacology.
In the 21st century it may well become an extension of biotechnology as well. Let me mention
just some areas of the ongoing military research and development that may contribute to the
raise of enhanced brave new warriors of the future American military.
The Pentagon quests for yet next generation of smart drugs. One area of research is on
ampakines, the compounds that affect glutamatergic AMPA receptor in the brain selectively
blinding it. Some research proved them promising as performance and alertness promoters. In
pharmaceutical laboratories research is also underway on sleep inducing drugs that would
alert sleep architecture allowing for more effective and regenerating sleep “on demand”. The
idea is a sleeping pill with an inbuilt “alarm clock”, inducing a good quality highly
regenerative sleep for three, four, or six hours as demanded. Another area is the search for
compounds that could prevent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We know that blocking
beta-adrenergic receptors in the brain can suppress the creation of bad emotional memories
and subsequently avoid anxiety disorders. One of the substances intensively investigated for
this purpose has been propranolol. Finally, as pharmacogenetics slowly opens the door to
individualized pharmacology, the future military may well be designing drugs tailored to
individual soldiers – bespoke for their genetic profiles.
Moving away from pharmacology, rapid advances in neuroscience and neurotechnologies
offer new and exciting prospects of military applications. Stimulating particular areas of the
brain allows for various forms of enhancement. Among many effects of transcranial magnetic,
direct or focused ultrasound brain stimulation are: greater alertness and concentration, better
quality of sleep, increased pain resistance, improved short-term memory, reduced stress, and
better decision making. These are of great military potential.
So, imagine a future soldier wearing a helmet with focused ultrasound stimulation option, a
device which could switch on and switch off some of her functions and capabilities. Instead of
6
taking “go pills” she could stimulate her brain and be operationally effective for up to 60–70
hours without sleep. I predict that in 10–20 years neuromodulation will become a standard
element of military training and combat.
Add to this not only brain-computer interface allowing to remotely operate devices with
thought only, but also brain-brain interface enabling direct “silent” communication between
humans, add various chips implantable to soldier’s body like satellite-RFID chips, add
biosensors monitoring physical and psychological conditions of servicemen, add bionic
exoskeletons and intelligent uniforms and welcome to the world of cyborg-soldiers. Welcome
to the Brave New World of the Brave New Warriors. True Blade Runners, Terminators and
Iron Men are no longer science fiction. This is happening. Science fiction turns into military
science reality.
But the nature and consequences of these emerging and future biotech developments are not
the same as with the traditional, centuries-old use of drugs in war. For biotechnology applied
to the military may threaten to take the human agency out of the equation of war. A truly
dystopian vision of totally scientific way of warfare. And this might be extremely risky for as
Thucydides reminds us, the essence of war is that it is a “human thing”.
7