The United States government has found a new way of recruiting soldiers for the Iraq war: It's offering them ecstasy. The trick is, the soldiers only ...
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,342290,00.htmlEcstasy on the Battlefield
Ecstasy is the drug of choice for the Pentagon. Soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are to be given the drug as a therapy aid. Also, instead of video games based on war, the US may soon be fighting wars based on video games with robot soldiers. And, the Vikings are at the gates of the German government.
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Look what Uncle Sam is offering now!
The United States government has found a new way of recruiting soldiers for the Iraq war: It's offering them ecstasy. The trick is, the soldiers only get the free drugs after they have seen enough fighting to be experiencing flashbacks, recurring nightmares and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The usually tough-to-please US Food and Drug Administration has given the experimental treatments an initial go ahead and scientists in South Carolina have quickly gotten to work. The idea is to take advantage of the touchy-feely effect ecstasy (the "happiness drug") has on people to get soldiers to open up about the trauma they have faced. In other news, the US government spends $20 billion a year on the drug war.
Chemically, ecstasy is known as MDMA and in the trials soldiers are given either the drug or a placebo and then undergo eight-hour therapy sessions during which music is played and they are encouraged to talk about their horrifying experiences. Although still in its early phase, scientists insist the results are quite positive. The team's leader is Dr. Michael Mithoefer, a South Carolina psychiatrist and longtime campaigner for the use of ecstasy in science. Mithoefer has already given ecstasy to patients who were the victims of violent crimes, including rape, and insists on the drug's positive effects in helping them to talk about and come to terms with what happened to them. There is, he says, even some evidence that ecstasy can reduce tremors in Parkinson's patients. Possibly a whole new take on the 1972 David Peel song "The Pope Smokes Dope." (2:35 p.m. CET)
SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Society | Ecstasy trials for combat stress
... in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free ...US administration has given the go-ahead for the soldiers to be included in an ...
www.society.guardian.co.uk/drugsandalcohol/story/0,8150,1416150,00.html
Sensible Election | Ecstasy trials for combat stress
in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free them ...
Culturally soldiers, and certain ethnic backgrounds have resistance to talk ...
http://sensibleelection.com/entry.php/1549UNITED STATES: Traumatised soldiers to be given ecstasy
... who have served in Iraq, to test if MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy,... In the trial, soldiers take the equivalent of an ecstasy tablet at the ...
www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/616/616p18h.htm