The problem of quickly obtaining truthful information from captured enemies appeared at the dawn of military history and remains relevant to this day. For many millennia, the art of war developed and improved, but the means for extracting information remained the same: rack, tongs, red-hot iron, etc., etc. In the humane and enlightened 20th century, the arsenal of inquisitors was supplemented by electric current. Despite the seeming technical news, the principle remained the same: to break the personality of the interrogated with pain until he goes to forced cooperation.
A real novelty based on a completely different principle is the so-called. "truth serum". This expression combines psychoactive substances that are forcibly injected into the interrogated in order to obtain the necessary information from them.
Strictly speaking, a "truth serum" is not a serum. In a general biological sense, whey is a dispersed mixture of curdled proteins, something like cottage cheese, highly diluted with water. Serum in the narrow medical, hematological sense is the liquid part of the blood (blood plasma) from which the protein (fibrinogen) responsible for its clotting has been removed. The wounded in the field of pain are injected with tetanus toxoid (PSS) without fail. From there the name "serum" migrated to psychoactive substances, which are also injected by force, although the drugs themselves are not serum.
The history of the "truth serum" began in 1913 in the US state of Texas. Obstetrician Dr. Robert House delivered at home and administered to the woman in labor scopolaminewhich was then widely used as a pain reliever. The obstetrician asked the father to bring a home scale to determine the child's weight. The husband searched for them for a long time, but could not find them. When he shouted in irritation: "Where is this damn scales?", The intoxicated woman answered clearly: "They are in the kitchen, on a nail behind the picture." Dr. House was amazed. The woman in labor was intoxicated, she still did not understand that she had already had a baby, but nevertheless she understood the question and gave a clear, truthful answer.
This is somewhat strange for an obstetrician, but Robert House was inspired by the idea of using scopolamine in justice (of course, without the consent of the suspects). The first person to be interviewed under anesthesia was W. S. Scrivener, who was being held in the Dallas County Jail on charges of robbing a pharmacy. In his publication in the Texas Journal of Medicine, Dr. House described Scrivener as "a very intelligent white man." The second subject was a dark-skinned prisoner of "average intelligence". Scopolamine gave excellent results, and the masses started talking about it, although the legally educated part of society denied all options for its use.
Chemical structure of scopolamine
To understand the action of the "truth serum", you need to know how the human nervous system normally works. It is the highest unifying and controlling system in the body. It is based on reflexes that regulate heartbeat, breathing, digestion and other functions of internal organs - this is the so-called. "Autonomic nervous system, ANS". At the next level is control over the balance, position and movement of the body in space - this is the somatic nervous system, SNS. At the very top is the higher nervous activity that distinguishes us from animals. This is consciousness. In a rough approximation, it consists of two layers - deep (self-awareness, CO) and superficial (self-expression, CB). SV is the result of interaction of CO with the environment and has as its goal the best adaptation of the individual to it. Thus, CO never fully discloses CO, but only some of its aspects that best match the state of the environment at a particular place and time. To fully disclose CO, it is necessary to completely exclude the influence of the environment, i.e. it is necessary that a person is left alone with only his thoughts. Even the lightest and most tender presence of the environment, in the form of a beloved woman, a confessor or a psychologist, inevitably introduces some distortion in the manifestation of CO. All the more, it is impossible to get to the bottom of the CO if the person is preliminarily tuned in to active counteraction - silence and deception of the interrogator.
It has long been noted: "What's on the mind of a sober, then a drunk on the tongue." The phenomenon of "drunken frankness" consists in selective inhibition of the upper layers of self-expression, while the activity of the lower layers of self-awareness remains active. Having freed itself from the “prohibitive” situational control of the SV nerve centers, the CO begins to issue “pure initial information”, not corrected by place and time. Loss of mind control during drug or alcohol intoxication, as well as during normal falling asleep, always goes from the higher sections of nervous activity to the lower ones. Recovery (waking up) takes place in the reverse order.
The problem of practical control over consciousness is that the diagram autonomic nervous system - somatic nervous system - higher nervous activity (self-awareness - self-expression) corresponds to reality no more than a 1: 100000 map sheet corresponds to the terrain drawn on it. It is possible to get some general idea, but the reality is an order of magnitude more complex and varied. In fact, there are no clear boundaries between the layers of the nervous system, they intersect with each other like intertwined fingers. And there are many more layers, psychologists and psychiatrists have been studying them for many years.
At the present stage of the development of pharmacology and medicine, selective "shutdown" of certain zones and areas of the cerebral cortex, where higher nervous activity and consciousness are concentrated, is impossible. Alcohol, drugs and medications turn off the entire bark at once. It is impossible to predict in advance how exactly the “shutdown” process will take place. Some areas maintain amazing mind control. In others, all higher nervous activity completely "collapses", and involuntary somatic reactions begin - balance and coordination of movements are disturbed, the visual image doubles and "floats", a person loses orientation in space, etc.
So at the level of mind control, the effect of a "patchwork quilt" is obtained. There are breakdowns in the mind control system, but not everywhere and not even selectively, but chaotically. It is possible to extract some specific information from open gaps, but it is very difficult. You can get confirmation or denial by asking direct questions like "Did you do this?" or "Is there something there?" However, it is almost impossible to achieve a detailed, logically coherent explanation of any action or indication of location. Turning off mind control completely won't work either. This will entail the loss of a large amount of valuable information, and in addition, some basic autonomic functions will be disabled - control over respiration and blood pressure in the vessels. Alcoholics and drug addicts often die of suffocation, which occurs as a result of inhibition of the center of respiration.
These features severely limit the use of the "truth serum" in jurisprudence. But even the ancient Romans noticed that “sapienti sat” - one word is enough for an intelligent person. Intelligence agencies around the world operate outside the ethical categories "good" - "bad", and none of them is shy about using drug analysis - interrogation under the influence of psychoactive substances, when it considers it necessary. The arsenal of interrogating psychologists includes:
Scopolamine. An alkaloid contained together with atropine in plants of the nightshade family (scopolia, belladonna, henbane, dope and some others). Colorless transparent crystals or white crystalline powder. Let's easily dissolve in water (1: 3), we will dissolve in alcohol (1:17). In order to stabilize solutions for injections, a solution of hydrochloric acid is added to pH 2, 8-3, 0. Chemically, scopolamine is close to atropine: it is an ester of scopin and tropic acid. Close to atropine in its effect on peripheral cholinergic systems. Like atropine, it causes dilated pupils, accommodation paralysis, increased heart rate, relaxation of smooth muscles, decreased secretion of the digestive and sweat glands. It also has a central anticholinergic effect. Usually causes sedation: reduces physical activity, can have a hypnotic effect. A characteristic property of scopolamine is the amnesia it causes. Scopolamine is sometimes used in psychiatric practice as a sedative, in neurological - for the treatment of parkinsonism, in surgical practice, together with analgesics (morphine, promedol) - to prepare for anesthesia, sometimes as an antiemetic and sedative for sea and air sickness.
Pentotal is an injection drug based on sodium thiopental
Sodium thiopental. A mixture of sodium thiobarbituric acid with anhydrous sodium carbonate. It slows down the closure time of GABA-dependent channels on the postsynaptic membrane of neurons in the brain, lengthens the time of entry of chlorine ions into the neuron and causes hyperpolarization of its membrane. Suppresses the excitatory effect of amino acids (aspartic and glutamic). In large doses, directly activating GABA receptors, it has a GABA-stimulating effect. It has anticonvulsant activity, increasing the threshold of neuronal excitability and blocking the conduction and propagation of convulsive impulses in the brain. Promotes muscle relaxation by suppressing polysynaptic reflexes and slowing down conduction along the interneurons of the spinal cord. Reduces the intensity of metabolic processes in the brain, the utilization of glucose and oxygen by the brain. It has a hypnotic effect, which manifests itself in the form of accelerating the process of falling asleep and changing the structure of sleep. Oppresses (dose-dependently) the respiratory center and reduces its sensitivity to carbon dioxide. It has a (dose-dependent) cardiodepressant effect.
Amital sodium. Ethyl ester of isoamylbarbituric acid. Acts in the same way as sodium thiopental, but more "mild". The effect of the app comes on more slowly and lasts longer.
It was very popular in the USA in the 40s mescaline - a drug from the Mexican peyote cactus, on which Carlos Castaneda made a name for himself. It was taken seriously by Secret Service and the US Bureau of Strategic Services (OSS, the predecessor of the CIA). Intelligence agencies became interested in the effect that mescaline had on the Indians of Mexico, who used it in rituals of repentance. The ethnographer Weston la Barr wrote in his monograph The Cult of Peyote (1938): “At the call of the leader, the members of the tribe stood up and publicly confessed the wrongdoing and wrongs inflicted on others … Tears, by no means ritual, flowed down the faces of sincerely confessing and completely repentant. They all asked the leader to guide them on the right path. Scientific experiments have shown that during the action of mescaline will is significantly suppressed. The experiments were carried out not in laboratories, but in concentration camps. The drug was administered discreetly to unsuspecting prisoners.
There are reports that in 1942 G. Mairanovsky, the head of the secret laboratory of the NKVD of the USSR, while experimenting with poisons on those sentenced to death, discovered that under the influence of certain doses of the drug, the subject begins to speak extremely frankly. After that, with the approval of the management, he tackled the "problem of candor" during interrogations. Such experiments were carried out for two years. It is reliably known that in 1983 the KGB used special drugs SP-26, SP-36 and SP-108 to investigate sabotage at the Vilnius machine-tool plant "Zalgiris", with the approval of the first deputy chairman of the KGB Tsinev. Also widely known is the case of the use of "truth serum" by the Indian special services against the accused of participation in the terrorist attack in Mumbai in 2008.
