Posted by mudil 10/28/2024
Every country has its own favorite drug that fuels war. Back in the day, it was just nicotine via tobacco cigarettes. in WWII it was amphetamine and methamphetamine. In the Vietnam war it was heroin. In Southeast Asia it's meth. In Russia it is vodka. In South America it's coca leaves or cocaine. In Yemen and Somalia, it's khat. In Nigeria it's tramadol.
By your standard, Captagon can be anything and it has no meaning. It can even be caffeine or B12. That would make the article and discussion a whole lot of nothing.
I would differ 'humans trying to cope' and 'mindless robot' drugs.
The military might proactivly want to hand out amphetamine to increase 'stamina' at the cost of soldier health and some increased risk of war crimes.
'Cope drugs' is rather some sort of damage control.
Amphetamines have kind of dubious advantages. The benefits of increased stamina and "courage" are heavily offset by the impact on critical thinking, especially with sustained use. Afaik, the only use by professional militaries is for pilots where the regimen is much easier to monitor and maintain. Russia allegedly used them during the invasion of Ukraine, but I'd be curious if they were given to professional soldiers or conscripts/shock troops.
At the end of WWII, the Germans were messing with a tablet that was a compound of cocaine, methamphetamine and oxycodone. I cannot even imagine what the come down from all that plus a 90 km/day marching speed with 20kg of equipment was like.
WSJ trying to gin up a new boogey man drug for middle class suburbanites to be afraid of, so they avoid the dreaded downtown, with all the captagon dealers, it's a lawless hellscape.