Speed in wartime

Stimulants are frequently abused (one big problem here in the Philippines is use of Shabu, i.e. meth, by drivers and farmers to stay awake, but also leading to abuse and violence in some users, especially when used to get high).

StrategyPage has a long article on the use of drugs in the War, including new treatments for post traumatic stress, but also how soldiers cope in stressful combat situations using stimulents so people don't fall asleep in times of battle (and sometimes sleeping pills to counteract these pills to fall asleep).

This is not just by Americans: The ISIS type crazies like it too.

While Islamic terrorists found heroin, cocaine and prescription drugs useful, the most widely used Islamic terrorist chemical enhancer was that old World War II era standby amphetamines ("speed") pills. When shipments of Islamic terrorist weapons and ammo were seized there were often quantities of amphetamines as well guns, ammo and sometimes medical supplies.

this is nothing new: A recent book showed how the Nazis pushed this on not just soldiers in combat (which was also how the Yanks used it) but in civilians.

from the UKGuardian:

The book in question is The Total Rush – or, to use its superior English title, Blitzed – which reveals the astonishing and hitherto largely untold story of the Third Reich’s relationship with drugs, including cocaine, heroin, morphine and, above all, methamphetamines (aka crystal meth), and of their effect not only on Hitler’s final days – the Führer, by Ohler’s account, was an absolute junkie with ruined veins by the time he retreated to the last of his bunkers – but on the Wehrmacht’s successful invasion of France in 1940. Published in Germany last year, where it became a bestseller, it has since been translated into 18 language

of course, the traditional drug has always been alcohol.

my take? I agree with StrategyPage: It's the lesser of two evils,

Prolonged use of these drugs is not healthy. But neither is being drowsy during combat. It's better to get some sleep when you can, even if you have to take more medications to help make that happen. Troops exposed to prolonged combat find the stimulants lifesavers and consider them as essential as ammunition. Thus Islamic terrorists consider a weapons and ammo shipment incomplete if some Captagon was not included.

but I do wonder if the drug use in combat contributes to the high rate of suicide.

long discussion here (and note how traumatic brain injury also might be one reason for the high rate of psychiatric problems)