Militaries worldwide have used or are using various psychoactive drugs to improve performance of soldiers by suppressing hunger, increasing the ability to sustain effort without food, increasing and lengthening wakefulness and concentration, suppressing fear, reducing empathy, and improving reflexes and memory-recall, amongst other things.[1][2]
For drugs that recently were or currently are being used by militaries.
Administration tends to include strict medical supervision and prior briefing of the medical risks.[citation needed]
Caffeine, diet pills, painkillers and alcohol are not included on the list. Non-administrated, illegally used drugs are also not included.
| Substance | Description | United States | PRC | India | Germany | UK | France |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amphetamine (and close derivatives) |
US Air Force and potentially other branches prescribed it to pilots for long endurance flights or for critical missions. | Until 2017[3][1][4][5][6][7] | Unknown | Unknown | Until 1970s/1988(East)[5][8][9] | Unknown | Unknown |
| Fenethylline | Used by ISIS in combat and smuggled for financing activities.[10][11][12][13][14] Responsible for the biggest methamphetamine related seizure in history when $1B worth of fenethylline was intercepted at an Italian port in 2020.[15] | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| Modafinil | Militaries of several countries are known to have expressed interest in modafinil as an alternative to amphetamine – the drug traditionally employed in combat situations where troops face sleep deprivation, such as during lengthy missions. The French government indicated that the Foreign Legion used modafinil during certain covert operations.[citation needed] The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence commissioned research into modafinil[16] from QinetiQ and spent £300,000 on one investigation.[17] In 2011, the Indian Air Force announced that modafinil was included in contingency plans.[18] In the United States military, modafinil has been approved for use on certain Air Force missions, and it is being investigated for other uses.[19] As of November 2012, modafinil is the only drug approved by the Air Force as a "go pill" for fatigue management.[20] The use of dextroamphetamine (a.k.a., Dexedrine) is no longer approved.[20] |
Yes[19][21][22] | Confirmed testing[6] | Yes[18][21][23][24] | Unknown | Yes[21][25] | Yes[6][21][26][27] |
| Sleeping pills (generally) |
See no-go pills[4] | Unknown | Yes[24] | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |