Healthy Skepticism Library item: 10184

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Kmietowicz Z.
Doctors condemn use of drugs as weapons
BMJ 2007 May 26; 334:(7603):1073
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/334/7603/1073-a

Abstract:

Drugs can never be used safely to enforce the law, say doctors in a report published this week by the BMA.

The report highlights the increasing interest among some governments in the use of “tactical pharmacology” or “non-lethal” drugs as weapons. Doctors need to be aware that using medical knowledge for hostile purposes puts human lives at risk and aware of the ethical implications of taking part in developing drugs for non-medical purposes, as well as antidotes and treatments for victims of chemical law enforcement, it says.

The report concludes, “The agent whereby people could be incapacitated without risk of death in a tactical situation does not exist and is unlikely to in the foreseeable future.”

The authors recount events of the Moscow theatre siege of October 2002 when 800 people were taken hostage by a group of Chechen men and women. After two and a half days Russian authorities . . .