Truth serum
As truth serums are psychoactive substances and other drugs referred to, which are likely easier to obtain information from a person against their will. Through the use of drugs, for example, the will, the consciousness and the ability to make decisions are to be manipulated in order to obtain certain information. The use of a truth serum is mostly suspected in the secret service environment and is internationally outlawed as a form of torture .
Known chemical substances
Various substances have been tried as truth drugs in the past. In addition to alcohol and plant extracts, barbiturates , hallucinogenic drugs (such as LSD ), 4-hydroxybutanoic acid and opiates have also been used for this purpose.
Known chemical substances that can be used for this purpose include tranquillants or sleeping pills that alter higher cognitive functions, such as ethanol , scopolamine ( Robert Ernest House 1924), 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate , hypnotic benzodiazepines such as midazolam , flunitrazepam , temazepam, and various short-acting barbiturates such as thiopental , fast-acting barbiturates, which as pentothal , sodium pentothal or sodium amytal be referred to, and amobarbital , also known as sodium amytal (engl. Sodium amytal , see figure).
reliability
The way the truth serum works is mostly to impair a person's judgment and ability to concentrate and / or to make them more communicative . As a result, an interrogation specialist can attempt to force the disclosure of the desired information through a clever questioning.
However, it is a common misconception that the use of what is known as a truth serum automatically induces a person to tell the truth. The person under the influence of the drug can lie just as they did before, but they become more prone to suggestion .
Furthermore, there can be a mixture of reality and fiction through drug-induced hallucinations . The substances can also lead to undesirable side effects and death.
Stakes and attempts
In the wake of the Cold War , there were numerous research programs in the field of truth serum and mind control in the USA , for example a program by the CIA called MKULTRA (successor to Operation Artichoke ), which included thousands of human experiments in which unsuspecting test subjects were among hospital patients and prison inmates were selected and placed under hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD . The aim of the project was to find a perfectly functioning truth serum.
Today India is one of the few countries (if not the only one) where courts prohibit the use of Truth Sera in special cases such as: B. after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai 2008 or particularly spectacular murder cases.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ surgeryencyclopedia.com: Barbiturates - blood, tube, pain, time, medication, pregnancy, risk, children, nausea, Definition, Purpose, Description, Recommended dosage, Precautions, Side effects, Interactions , accessed on September 9, 2012th
- ↑ The protocol of a fatal experiment with a mescaline infusion from 1953 by E. Koch, M. Wech: alias Artichoke . Goldmann, 2004, p. 136 .
- ↑ Stranger Than Fiction . In: Chemical Heritage Foundation . June 2, 2016 ( chemheritage.org [accessed April 26, 2017]).