WAR AND DRUGS – a short history

This is not about the war on drugs, this is about war with drugs. As much as drugs have always played an important part in all societies throughout history, during wars, as times of extremes, they have played an even more extreme role. To show you, the various points of connections between drug-(ab)use and war-mongering, I’ll give a few hints taken from various points in history.

THE VIKINGS

Let’s start with the early years of Western civilization. At about 800 b.c. the Vikings fought and explored the in North of Europe. They were well known as fighters, explorers and conquerors, their path bringing them to Africa as well as Greenland and America. The most feared and most vicious fighters among the Vikings called themselves “berserks”. They lived outside the normal Viking-tribes and whenever there was a fight at hand, they’d get themselves into a wild frenzy, partly by self-hypnosis and partly by ingesting wild berries and other toxicological plants. They’d run right at the front of the war-mobs, only dressed in a few loose pieces of fur, besmeared with dirt and blood, sometimes donning animal-masks. And they were for sure a frightening sight to any soldier standing on the other side of the warline. If you wondered, this is where the word “berserk” originates from.

Hassan-I-Sabbah

THE "ASSASINS"

No less feared, but maybe more stylish and sleek were the fighters of infamous, Arabic leader Hassan-I-Sabbah, a schiit leader from about 1.100 bc. He was also called “the old man from the mountain”, because he lived in the legendary fortress of Alamut, located in what is today the north of Iran. From there he sent his men to kill lords and pilgrims. He allegedly gave his man hashish to smoke, promising them the paradise they saw during their hash-trip, as forever theirs, if they were successful in executing his commands. His troops were called “Hashashins” because of this fact, which over the course of the years was formed into the French and English “assassins”.

FRENCH-GERMAN WAR

Talking about French and English – the next big wars to use drugs were those leading towards the first world war. (It has been proven that tobacco was spread through Europe during the 30 year war – but since tobacco is a legal drug I won’t go any deeper into that.) It was during the French-German-wars around 1870 that ether, which was used as a means to anaesthetize soldiers on the battlefield, became a fashionable drug. Also the development of the intravenous syringe was a big step, because now military medics started to use morphium, not knowing a lot about its addictive character, spreading morphium addiction through all European nations. Doctors also tried to find a way to produce “uppers” from coca, after hearing all sorts of fabulous stories about the coca-leaves from Bolivia and its Indian consumers. The Germans even produced a “coca-wine” to enhance its strength. “One sip from the battle” adverts said “and all feelings of hunger are gone”.

WW1

In the first world war, drug abuse was already common, some soldiers still suffering from addictions started during earlier wars. Cocaine was common amongst pilots, a completely new kind of weaponry, which up to our days has strong connections to drugs (but read on and you’ll see). The end of the war brought an enormous surplus of cocaine, which had been produced industrially for the war and was still regarded as just as harmless as tobacco. The “roaring twenties” wouldn’t have happened without it.

WW2

In 1933 a new regime took over power in Germany, one that was on the outside completely opposed to drug abuse. Drug addicts were transported into concentration camps and often destroyed as “weak and unwanted lives”. On the other hand, the Temmler-factories in Berlin produced the “upper” Pervitin, which became standard for army-members from 1938 onwards. Especially the last years of the war saw excessive drug abuse, both on the side of the average soldier, who was supplied with synthetic drugs from the industry, as well as on the side of their leaders. This abuse contrasted sharply with the official policy of national socialism. While soldiers were provided with alcohol and Pervitin, cocaine- and opium-consumers could be incarcerated or worse. Pervitin started its success-story with bomber-pilots and the crews of submarines, then went on to lazarettos and into the headquarters of the NS-forces. Even though doctors started to realize the addictive nature and ever-growing doses of Pervatin and other drugs, they were still used more and more.

THE MAIN NS-JUNKIES

But don’t think that only the Germans used drugs or “uppers”. The Japanese had amphetamines, the English and US-american forces used Benzedrine. But of course the distance between official policy and behaviour of leaders was especially big within the NS-regime. Chief propaganda-minister Joseph Goebbels was a morphium-addict. His hypochondriac condition combined with a paranoid fear of cancer, he suffered from severe pain-attacks, from which only morphium could give him some cure. He was provided by Professor Morell, the specialist doctor in the NS-headquarter down to the last days of the regime. Morell was also in very close connection to reichsmarschall Herman Göring, a cocaine-junkie from his days in the airforce-squad in the first world war. In 1923 he was hurt during an attack on Adolf Hitler, treated with morphium and became addicted very quickly. When he was caught in America after the war he had with him two suitcases containing 2000 phials of Morphium.

hypochondriac and morphium-junkie: Joseph Goebbels

THE MAIN NS-JUNKIE OF ALL

It is an easy guess to say that Professor Morell himself was a junkie, but what about the big man himself? What about the vegetarian, teetotaller, non-smoker Adolf Hitler. To him Professor Morell was extremely important. He provided him with big amounts of Pervitin, cocaine, eukodal, strychnine, belladonna, the sexual hormone Testoviron, diverse caffeine-mixtures and the cardiological medicines Cardizo and Coramin. In the headquarter of the NS-forces, the Führerhauptquartier, allegedly one of the most often used sentences was: “Where’s this Morell with his syringe?”.

US-soldiers in Vietnam

US-WARS IN THE LAST CENTURY

After the second world war, during the Fifties and Sixties, the American GI’s did their part in spreading Hashish and LSD in Europe. After that there was the Vietnam-war, which some historians call “the big rock’n’roll”-war, due to the enormous amounts of drugs, whores and whiskey consumed by the soldiers. It is estimated that about 20 % of Vietnam-soldiers returning from the war had become heroin-addicts.

 

THE GULF-WARS

Modern wars are quite different, but they are far from wanting to lose drugs. During the first gulf-war, there were no drugs and no prostitutes (which maybe explains why it was over so fast…). Nowadays drugs are administered by specially trained doctors, under medical supervision and in calculated amounts. Almost like doping among top-sports-champions, the factor of excesses, so commonly associated with drugs, has been taken out of the picture almost completely. Which is obvious, regarding the technical standards and complexity of modern war machines, such as fighter jets, bombers and so on. Still the human factor is only almost taken out of the calculation. When an American bomber-pilot killed four Canadian soldiers last year “by mistake”, because he assumed they were shooting at him, his defendants in court attributed guilt to the drugs. The pilot had been taking the “upper” Dexedrine during the flight – by order of his commander. It became known that fighter-pilots use these wake-up-pills regularly, calling them “speed”. Who doesn’t take them, doesn’t go on a plane.

IT'S ALL OFFICIAL AND UNDER CONTROL

The US airforce doesn’t deny that its pilots are taking Dexedrine, but they point out that the usage is left to the free will of the pilot. But the difference makes no sense anyway. Aside from the peer-pressure, the flights take up to 24hours, no human being could stay concentrated for such a long time without chemical help. Finally, when the pilots come home, they are so “turned up”, that they have to take downers, calling them “no go-pills”. Experts warn that alternating usage of uppers and downers over a longer period of time can lead to incalculable behaviour and even paranoia.

THE FUTURE?

But maybe all the chemicals will be unnecessary in the future. In US-laboratories, scientists are working on TMS, Transcrenial Magnetic Stimulation. Whenever the fighter pilot feels tired he presses a button and a magnetic impulse goes straight into his brain, reviving neurones and he feels fresh and awake. All in the name of being able to kill without a pause.

Georg Cracked , May 2003