# Effects of performance and mood-altering drugs?



## D. E. Forester (Oct 17, 2013)

Part of my story is a group of mercenaries that serve as a test-bed for a new "expendable supersoldier" technology meant to compete on more or less even footing with vampire soldiers, who are stronger, faster, and more durable than regular humans.

One set of villains is a set of prototypes that are essentially weaponized vampires, but the people who made them didn't want to put all their chips on that number and came up with the idea of using performance and mood-altering drugs to make the ideal soldiers.

The drugs are (roughly) supposed to make them stronger and faster (mostly by causing the body to ignore it's own muscular inhibitors), more immune to pain, and also supposed to focus or eliminate various emotions (like alleviating fear and heightening aggressive actions). In short, sort like the Batman comics concept of "Venom" (the stuff that powers Bane, though my story would have the effect be much less dramatic).

*Suffice it to say, this would require a certain cocktail of chemicals.
*
_What I need to know is_ 1) what sorts of drugs would fit that bill, and 2) how long a human being could reasonably be expected to live under the influences of such a cocktail (they ARE ultimately expendable, mind you).

This is a pretty minor point in the overall story; I could just as easily get by being vague or nonspecific, but I would like to be able to elaborate on some specifics just because I as the author like those details.


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## tabasco5 (Oct 17, 2013)

You could always just make one up and give it the characteristics your story needs.


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## D. E. Forester (Oct 18, 2013)

I could, but I'm doing my best to keep the story somewhat grounded in reality; there are vampires and werewolves, but the change is less dramatic and less supernatural-- i.e, vampires who avoid the sun because they always sunburn and never tan and have no blatant supernatural powers, werewolves who don't properly "phase" into a wolf creature, etc.

I have some fake drugs invented as a last resort, but I'd rather come up with something less fantastic and more real to ground the novel world a little better.


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## The Tourist (Oct 18, 2013)

D.E.F., look into the military's experimentation with LSD during the 1950s and 60s.  I've even seen films about the soldiers running barricades.

As for health risks, you can google numerous sites on how American soldiers and sailors were deliberately exposed to radiation and fall-out.

http://www.dtra.mil/SpecialFocus/NTPR/NTPRFactSheet.aspx

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-05-army-experiments_n.htm


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## tabasco5 (Oct 19, 2013)

LSD is a pretty poor choice for enhancing any type of performance outside of the arts and certain other spiritual activities.  I would say to look into uppers, legal and otherwise, for short-term performance.  Choices there could be amphetamines, coke, crack, caffeine, etc.  As for long-term performance, you could just look into what professional athletes use.


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## The Tourist (Oct 19, 2013)

fenbields5 said:


> LSD is a pretty poor choice for enhancing any type of performance outside.



Sure, now you show up.  Where were you when the army was spending millions...

You have to consider the times.  Movies like "The Manchurian Candidate" came out after stories of brainwashing in Asian land wars.  Our own army wanted to build soldiers who did what they were told despite any physical pain or moral reservations.  LSD was just one of the many bizarre cocktails they fed these boys.

We even sent entire battleships into radioactive zones minutes after nuclear devices were detonated just to see how our soldiers and sailors would react to landing on a "hot" enemy beachhead.

Frankly, if you wanted to create a true monster in fiction you could pen a military leader who wins by killing as many of his own troops as he does the enemy's just to achieve a personal pyrrhic victory.


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## ppsage (Oct 19, 2013)

> Of course, the Zulu might never have vanquished the British at Isandlwana without the help of traditional Zulu medicines. Some scholars have suggested that Zulu pharmacopoeia provided more of a psychological boost than any real physiological effect. But recent scientific studies show that the medicines contained some very potent drugs. For example, warriors were given a cannabis (marijuana)-based snuff to take during battle. Analysis of the snuff has revealed that it contained extremely high levels of THC, a powerful hallucinogen, and yet no detectable levels of the chemicals that cause the sedative effects of marijuana.
> 
> Also in the Zulu war medicine chest: the bulb of a flower in the Amaryllis family, called Boophane disticha, or the Bushman Poison Bulb. Studies have shown that the bulb -- which was also used by southern Africans to help mummify bodies -- contains buphanidrine, an alkaloid, like codeine and morphine (although it is not related to them) with hallucinogenic and pain-killing properties. According to botanist Ben-Erik van Wyk of Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg, South Africa, the dosage of buphanidrine necessary to reduce pain is very close to the toxic dose, "but in a very experienced traditional healer's hands it should be safe. They usually assess the strength of a bulb by testing it on themselves."



http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/previous_seasons/case_zulu/clues.html


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## DarkScribe (Jan 19, 2014)

The Waffen SS used contemporary lab quality meth (Pervitin) in an attempt to keep them operational for days with limited rest. The affects of steady use of meth can include paranoia and a whole lot of carelessness, often with weapons and while operating vehicles. If you can imagine already jumpy troops, suffering from the effects of meth induced paranoia, and armed with everything from what they called 'machine pistols' (submachineguns), bolt action rifles, general purpose machineguns, artillery and armored vehicles sporting high velocity weapons would do to even harmless people they believe are threats, you'd have a good idea fo what such a unit may leave in it's wake.


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