The Future of Drugs in War
Posted April 19, 2020
Gareth Rice
Drugs have a long history in war. In fact, drugs and war may have always existed together in some form, leading Wes O’Donnell to declare that “Wars are rarely fought totally sober.†From the Trojan War, to the campaigns of Alexander the Great, drugs have been widely used for pain management and performance enhancement. Closer to the present, amphetamines were used extensively in WWII, in the Vietnam War and even by ISIS in the dying days of their siege in Raqqa. But while Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) have a clear history in war, should we necessarily assume that they have a future?
The 2015 August Cole and Peter Singer novel Ghost Fleet describes a future conflict where the use of stimulant drugs are widespread. Indeed, during any discussion on human performance in the present or the future, it is difficult to escape the question of PEDs. In times of war, they are a proven and simple way to boost cognitive and physical performance where failure is not an option. Similarly, their continued prevalence in all forms of competitive sport point to their obvious potential to create the elusive ‘fitter, faster and stronger’ human.
https://groundedcuriosity.com/the-future-of-drugs-in-war/#.Xp0BKJl7kuU
