Psychoactive Substances 1922 – From Truth Serum to an Instrument of Torture

Substances that act on the central nervous system, alter brain function and cause changes in sensation, consciousness, behaviour and psychological state are called psychoactive substances.

Pharmacological torture, or punitive medicine, became popular in countries such as the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s. For example, Soviet doctors resorted to insulin shock treatments and drugs such as haloperidol to cause restlessness, promazine to sedate, and sulfazine to cause high fevers or extreme pain at the injection site. According to author Darius M. Rejali, Soviet doctors also administered drug cocktails containing mixtures of amobarbital sodium, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or mescaline in an attempt to induce loss of inhibition (control of feelings).

In 1922, psychoactive compounds began to be used by US police, and American obstetrician Robert E. House tested scopolamine (an alkaloid with powerful hypnotic properties that has a deeply sleep-inducing effect at high doses) on prisoners. After observing that scopolamine reduced labour pains in his patients, House thought it might be a way to prevent criminals from lying. Although many confessions were made under the drug's influence, it also produced unreliable confessions involving impossible scenarios and hallucinations. Should the drug have been viewed as an instrument of torture because it could make some recipients ill? Scopolamine's effects were investigated during CIA interrogations in the 1950s, and no drug was found to produce consistently truthful statements. 

Scopolamine is found in the Solanaceae plant family and is obtained from the Latin American Datura plant. Scopolamine is an anticholinergic substance. It has been used in medicine for its antispasmodic and various other effects, such as preventing nausea. Scopolamine works by suppressing receptors for acetylcholine, a naturally occurring chemical involved in nerve, gland and muscle function. Other well-known truth serums include sodium amytal and sodium thiopental, which are barbiturates and general anaesthetics.

Description of the article image: All Datura plants contain alkaloids such as scopolamine and atropine in their flowers and seeds. Datura has been used throughout history as a poison and hallucinogen.

Historical figures mentioned in the article: Robert Ernest House (1875–1930) 

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