Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfare (2008) - The Black Vault

Incapacitating Agentsdrugged wine, Maharbal returned, and either tookthem prisoners or slaughtered them while they laystretched out as if dead. 3His review continues, “Another example of theuse of atropinic plants for military purposes occurredduring the reign of Duncan, the 84th king of Scotland(1034–1040 c e), who used wine dosed with ‘sleepynightshade’ against the troops of Sweno, king ofNorway.” 4–6 Goodman also reports:During his assault in 1672 on the city of Groningen,the Bishop of Muenster tried to use grenades andprojectiles containing belladonna against the defenders.Unfortunately, capricious winds often blew thesmoke back, creating effects opposite to those intended.As a result of this and other incidents in whichchemicals were used in battle, a treaty was signed in1675 between the French and the Germans, outlawingfurther use of chemical warfare. 5Goodman adds another incident, “In 1813 the inhabitantsof an area being invaded by French troopsreceived fortuitous help from local flora. A company ofstarving French soldiers was rendered helpless whenthey impulsively consumed wild berries containingbelladonna alkaloids.” 7 Finally, in reference to morerecent use:Ironically, the first recorded 20th century use of solanaceaein a military situation occurred in Hanoi,French Indo-China (later known as North Vietnam)on 27 June 1908. On that day, two hundred Frenchsoldiers were poisoned by datura in their eveningmeal. One of the intoxicated soldiers saw ants on hisbed, a second fled to a tree to escape from a hallucinatedtiger and a third took aim at birds in the sky.The delirious troops were soon discovered and allrecovered after medical attention. Two indigenousnon-commissioned officers and an artilleryman werelater convicted by courts-martial of plotting with exriverpirates who had been influenced by “Chinesereformer agitators.” 8,9The international community, particularly in thelatter half of the 20th century, has repeatedly tried tofind ways to make warfare more humane. Remorseand indignation were widely expressed following theuse during World War I of such weapons as chlorine,mustard, and phosgene, which killed or injured hundredsof thousands of soldiers in European trenches.One consequence of these outcries was an internationalban on chemical weapons adopted by the GenevaConvention in 1925. 10 The United States, although nota signatory to this document until 1975, strongly supportedits purpose.Although no chemical weapons were used duringWorld War II, the German military had developedand stockpiled several lethal organophosphatenerve agents, which were never deployed. The Allieslearned later that Hitler had a morbid fear of poisonouschemicals, having been temporarily blinded bya British gas shell in World War I; furthermore, theNazis erroneously assumed that the Allies were inpossession of the same lethal compounds and wouldretaliate in kind. 11Agents of lower lethality were used against terroristsin the 2002 Moscow theater incident (see furtherdiscussion below), reducing the potential number ofdeaths by more than 80%. Claims that BZ (or a relatedincapacitating agent) was used against defenselesscivilians fleeing the Serbian genocidal purge in 1999are difficult to confirm but considered to be true.Widespread reports of hallucinations implicate anagent related to BZ. A less credible claim by AlistairHay, 12 although supported by the testimony of manywitnesses and casualties, mentioned features uncharacteristicof BZ.Another unsubstantiated assertion is the claim byDr Wouter Basson, a South African political figure witha reputation for falsehoods, to having proof that BZwas used in Iraq during the Persian Gulf War. 13 His descriptionof victims as “wide-eyed and drooling” is incongruentwith the marked dryness of the mouth producedby BZ and other anticholinergic agents—proofof popular misperceptions about the pharmacologicalqualities of BZ and its chemical relatives.A seemingly novel concept—using psychochemicalsto produce temporary ineffectiveness—was unintentionallygiven credibility by Albert Hofmann’s reportthat lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), one of a series ofergot derivatives he had synthesized in 1938, possessedincredibly potent mind-altering effects. Hofmann realizedthis when he accidentally ingested an undetectableamount in 1943, while replicating the synthesisof some of his 1938 compounds. He then deliberatelyingested a presumably subthreshold amount of thecontents of bottle number 25 (hence, “LSD-25”) andexperienced a bizarre and at times terrifying “trip.” 14LSD-25 arrived in the United States in 1949, whenpsychiatrist Max Rinkel brought a sample from SandozPharmaceuticals in Switzerland and began work withDr Paul Hoch at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital. DrHarold Abramson, a New York chemist, allergist, andpsychotherapist, began studying the clinical characterizationof the fascinating new drug. 15 Over the next2 decades Abramson published numerous reportsdescribing LSD’s unique effects on perception, mood,and cognitive activity. His dose/response approachquickly stimulated wider testing. Soon LSD became a413