We in the West take lots of drugs for all sorts of reasons. Some of that drug use produces desirable outcomes, some doesn’t. Why should Ukraine be any different?
Blackrock + some other big American corporations are all signed up to move in and restore the infrastructure. Won’t Babushka have a surprise when they fix her roof but she gets home to find it’s now a 50 storey steel and glass tower block.
Yes. If you search for Grozny you’ll see before and after pictures (images) of the city. Russia destroyed part of it but now there are modern high rise apartment buildings.
No, not the use of ketamine assisted psychotherapy. From personal experience, it is a very effective therapy, and I can imagine it is a lifeline for soldiers suffering from PTSD.
No, the idea that drugs must be taken with therapeutic guidance within a conceptual framework which gives them purpose is a good insight. The alternative is hedonistic drug culture, within an individualistic framework, which might have disturbing results.
‘Therapeutic guidance’ is the key to this kind of usage. People with experience should learn the effects of different dosages. Also verbal guidance is needed to make the experience pleasant and not cause a bummer or a bum trip as people used to say in the 60’s. Dosage is the biggest problem in street use. Too much hurts.
No. These natural drugs have been proven to be effective for many years. I listen to scientists and look at the actual evidence on these issues – you’re not a scientist and have obviously based your opinion on prejudices.
Rum? Huh!
Back in the really old days, according to historian Barry Strauss, the Celtic women had their own method of instilling courage into their male warriors. They would form an armed line at the rear ready to slaughter any man seen running away from the enemy.
The Celts Barry Strauss referred to in particular were the European Celts who formed a large part of Spartacus’ rebel army. The Romans beat them too – also after a poor start.
While the Celtic warriors preferred a heroic battle, each man proving his courage even unto death – the ladies just love that! – the romans preferred machine like efficiency – just what you’d expect from a nation of engineers and builders.
I read ‘Blitzed’ by Norman Ohler about the mass use of drugs in the Third Reich despite the official condemnation of them as stimulants for the general population.
I think the main one was called Pervitin; a methamphetamine which allowed the troops to stay alert, focused and calm for days without any ill-effects. That’s how they managed to reach the Channel and almost surround the British before Dunkerque.
Hitler in the latter stages of the war was just a shell propped up with massive injections of all sorts of ‘therapeutic substances’ provided by his special physician.
It wasn’t Pervitin that got the Wehrmacht to the Channel coast, but far better leadership combined with superlative tactics.
‘We’ were lucky that they let us “run away”!!!
Agreed Charles, but the Pervitin enabled them to carry on without a break or any sleep for 72 hours. After it was over, the Wehrmacht was photographed crashed out on their equipment like zombies (or indeed like today’s youngsters after a weekend long rave).
All the German forces were allocated Pervitin as part of their kit and required to take it before all major offensives. It helped them steady any nerves and gave them a feeling of euphoria and invincibility.
I’m not denying the benefits of Pervitin but it can and HAS been done without it.
It is not to be advised if flying a Stuka or Messerschmitt, driving a Tank, firing a mortar of even a Spandau- 36, but for the basic ‘grunt’ business it certainly helps one keep going!!
Closer.
In fact it is St Valery-en-Caux, the 12th June 1940. The surrender of the the 51st Highland Division, commanded by the somewhat unfortunately named Major General Victor FORTUNE to Major General Erwin Rommel, commanding the 7th Panzer Division.
Perhaps the most humiliating day in Sc*tch military history since the catastrophe at Magersfontein some forty odd years before.
Doctors that examined some hostages who were released say that some were given anti-depressants similar to valium to keep the more frightened ones quiet. Also a couple of Israeli security officials told USA Today some of the terrorists were high on Captagon that works like methamphetamines during the attack.
After the Battle of Ir Drang large amounts of syringes and heroin were found on the North Vietnamese casualties.
And we have the case of the Pakistani terrorists who attacked Mumbai: they injected themselves with meth and cocaine prior to the attack. Killing machines indeed.
Ummmm, one’s fellow soldiers, and civilians one meets, can die in a war.
Causing sadness.
Has anyone here ever taken ketamine when they were sad?
If you have, you’ll know instantly why this is not a good idea.
Alex Lekas
3 months ago
Good lord. It’s not enough to have a half-million dead Ukrainians and counting, plus the millions more who’ve fled never to return, the plan is to drug those remaining?
Nick Wade
3 months ago
“ not only would psychedelics stop depression spreading through the trenches, but it could also help frontline soldiers overcome their paralysing fear of death…”
Aren’t people supposed to be afraid of death? It’s kind of where survival instinct comes from.
People generally are afraid of death, but it is unhelpful for soldiers to be so. The best aren’t.
Philip May
3 months ago
Nothing new here.
Pervitin was used by Nazis during WW11 and the Allies used something as well.
Welcome to modernity.
UnHerd Reader
3 months ago
I think it’s disgusting! Instead of medicating people go be ok about dying horribly, how about just not going to war? Or if it becomes necessary, then only long enough to agree a monitored cease fire.
I find this article morally abhorrent. Getting people to collude in their own death by feeding them drugs is appalling.
As for “curing or avoiding” PTSD, well of course it will, as it will completely override the brains system for recognising and avoiding life threatening situations.
John Lennon used to protest against war but he may have been on acid at the time.
jane baker
3 months ago
Oh God. Are they drugging them up. Hey,watch Pavlo from Ukraine on his you tube channel. He ain’t in uniform. He’s a sly b*****d with his OnlyFans girlfriend/partner/wife/business partner.
William Brand
2 months ago
In time of war, every soldier is a dead man walking. The war veterans are the kids that were enlisted on the last 6 months of the war and mostly never saw combat plus a few cripples from the earlier years of fighting. The start and middle of the war soldiers will never go home except in wheelchairs or coffins. They need to be drugged up to enable them to forget that their lives will be over within a few months at best.
Anyone else find this disturbing?
Yes. It is a bit Brave New World…
We in the West take lots of drugs for all sorts of reasons. Some of that drug use produces desirable outcomes, some doesn’t. Why should Ukraine be any different?
Yes. Very.
No.
I hope the war will end soon. Then we will need both rebuild the country but also heal deeply traumatised society for them to fully join Europe.
I’m disturbed what nothing like this will be available in Russia and they will only go deeper into intergenerational trauma.
Blackrock + some other big American corporations are all signed up to move in and restore the infrastructure. Won’t Babushka have a surprise when they fix her roof but she gets home to find it’s now a 50 storey steel and glass tower block.
Yes. If you search for Grozny you’ll see before and after pictures (images) of the city. Russia destroyed part of it but now there are modern high rise apartment buildings.
Good point, but I for my part have difficulty feeling sorry for the Russians.
No, not the use of ketamine assisted psychotherapy. From personal experience, it is a very effective therapy, and I can imagine it is a lifeline for soldiers suffering from PTSD.
No, not really I must confess.
If it improves morale so much the better.
Remember what the Corsican pygmy* said:-
“The moral is to the physical as three is to one”
(*Napoleon Bonaparte.)
No, the idea that drugs must be taken with therapeutic guidance within a conceptual framework which gives them purpose is a good insight. The alternative is hedonistic drug culture, within an individualistic framework, which might have disturbing results.
The alternative is hedonistic drug culture, within an individualistic framework.
You say that as if it’s a bad thing.
‘Therapeutic guidance’ is the key to this kind of usage. People with experience should learn the effects of different dosages. Also verbal guidance is needed to make the experience pleasant and not cause a bummer or a bum trip as people used to say in the 60’s. Dosage is the biggest problem in street use. Too much hurts.
No. These natural drugs have been proven to be effective for many years. I listen to scientists and look at the actual evidence on these issues – you’re not a scientist and have obviously based your opinion on prejudices.
Ketamine isn’t a “natural drug”.
Not really. All wars for centuries, well forever really, have seen soldiers use mind-altering drugs and ‘performance enhancing’ drugs.
I don’t know about all wars but it sure is different from the rum ration and an occasional bottle of french wine in World War I.
I thought it was well known that most of the Russian army are high as kites most of the time.
And their drug of choice being vodka, I suspect.
In the ‘good old days’ it was Rum that normally
did the trick.
The UK (really England) managed to conquer nearly 25% of the Globe with it.
Rum? Huh!
Back in the really old days, according to historian Barry Strauss, the Celtic women had their own method of instilling courage into their male warriors. They would form an armed line at the rear ready to slaughter any man seen running away from the enemy.
The Romans saw off Boadicea/Boudicca without much trouble, although after a poor start it must be granted.
The Celts Barry Strauss referred to in particular were the European Celts who formed a large part of Spartacus’ rebel army. The Romans beat them too – also after a poor start.
While the Celtic warriors preferred a heroic battle, each man proving his courage even unto death – the ladies just love that! – the romans preferred machine like efficiency – just what you’d expect from a nation of engineers and builders.
The Romans had a ‘system’; It helps!
I read ‘Blitzed’ by Norman Ohler about the mass use of drugs in the Third Reich despite the official condemnation of them as stimulants for the general population.
I think the main one was called Pervitin; a methamphetamine which allowed the troops to stay alert, focused and calm for days without any ill-effects. That’s how they managed to reach the Channel and almost surround the British before Dunkerque.
Hitler in the latter stages of the war was just a shell propped up with massive injections of all sorts of ‘therapeutic substances’ provided by his special physician.
It wasn’t Pervitin that got the Wehrmacht to the Channel coast, but far better leadership combined with superlative tactics.
‘We’ were lucky that they let us “run away”!!!
Any guesses for what is going on here then?
Agreed Charles, but the Pervitin enabled them to carry on without a break or any sleep for 72 hours. After it was over, the Wehrmacht was photographed crashed out on their equipment like zombies (or indeed like today’s youngsters after a weekend long rave).
All the German forces were allocated Pervitin as part of their kit and required to take it before all major offensives. It helped them steady any nerves and gave them a feeling of euphoria and invincibility.
I’m not denying the benefits of Pervitin but it can and HAS been done without it.
It is not to be advised if flying a Stuka or Messerschmitt, driving a Tank, firing a mortar of even a Spandau- 36, but for the basic ‘grunt’ business it certainly helps one keep going!!
ps. Any guess on the photo?
It looks like a scene of surrender on the French / Belgian coast?
Boulogne 1940?
But it might be photoshopped.
Closer.
In fact it is St Valery-en-Caux, the 12th June 1940. The surrender of the the 51st Highland Division, commanded by the somewhat unfortunately named Major General Victor FORTUNE to Major General Erwin Rommel, commanding the 7th Panzer Division.
Perhaps the most humiliating day in Sc*tch military history since the catastrophe at Magersfontein some forty odd years before.
Near.
There have been a few articles about Hamas’ use of drugs in its Oct 7 raid on Israel….
Hasheesh surely?
Doctors that examined some hostages who were released say that some were given anti-depressants similar to valium to keep the more frightened ones quiet. Also a couple of Israeli security officials told USA Today some of the terrorists were high on Captagon that works like methamphetamines during the attack.
After the Battle of Ir Drang large amounts of syringes and heroin were found on the North Vietnamese casualties.
And we have the case of the Pakistani terrorists who attacked Mumbai: they injected themselves with meth and cocaine prior to the attack. Killing machines indeed.
Weren’t the US troops in Vietnam ‘off their tits’ (in the current parlance) on all sorts of illegal substances ?
They were, and as a result ‘fragged’/ killed about 1,000 of their own officers.
Not a good report.
Heroin is an odd thing to take before a battle….
Ummmm, one’s fellow soldiers, and civilians one meets, can die in a war.
Causing sadness.
Has anyone here ever taken ketamine when they were sad?
If you have, you’ll know instantly why this is not a good idea.
Good lord. It’s not enough to have a half-million dead Ukrainians and counting, plus the millions more who’ve fled never to return, the plan is to drug those remaining?
“ not only would psychedelics stop depression spreading through the trenches, but it could also help frontline soldiers overcome their paralysing fear of death…”
Aren’t people supposed to be afraid of death? It’s kind of where survival instinct comes from.
People generally are afraid of death, but it is unhelpful for soldiers to be so. The best aren’t.
Nothing new here.
Pervitin was used by Nazis during WW11 and the Allies used something as well.
Welcome to modernity.
I think it’s disgusting! Instead of medicating people go be ok about dying horribly, how about just not going to war? Or if it becomes necessary, then only long enough to agree a monitored cease fire.
I find this article morally abhorrent. Getting people to collude in their own death by feeding them drugs is appalling.
As for “curing or avoiding” PTSD, well of course it will, as it will completely override the brains system for recognising and avoiding life threatening situations.
John Lennon used to protest against war but he may have been on acid at the time.
Oh God. Are they drugging them up. Hey,watch Pavlo from Ukraine on his you tube channel. He ain’t in uniform. He’s a sly b*****d with his OnlyFans girlfriend/partner/wife/business partner.
In time of war, every soldier is a dead man walking. The war veterans are the kids that were enlisted on the last 6 months of the war and mostly never saw combat plus a few cripples from the earlier years of fighting. The start and middle of the war soldiers will never go home except in wheelchairs or coffins. They need to be drugged up to enable them to forget that their lives will be over within a few months at best.