Truth serum

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For the Tove Lo EP, see Truth Serum (EP).
Sodium thiopental, marketed as Pentothal.

"Truth serum" is a colloquial name for any of a range of psychoactive drugs used in an effort to obtain information from subjects who are unable or unwilling to provide it otherwise. These include ethanol, scopolamine, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, midazolam, flunitrazepam, sodium thiopental, and amobarbital, among others.

Although a variety of such substances have been tested, serious issues have been raised about their use scientifically, ethically and legally. There is currently no drug proven to cause consistent or predictable enhancement of truth-telling.[1] Subjects questioned under the influence of such substances have been found to be suggestible and their memories subject to reconstruction and fabrication. When such drugs have been used in the course of investigating civil and criminal cases, they have not been accepted by Western legal systems and legal experts as genuine investigative tools.[2] It has been suggested that their use is a potential violation of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (the right to remain silent).[3][4] Concerns have also been raised internationally through the European Court of Human Rights arguing that use of a truth serum could be considered a violation of a human right to be free from degrading treatment,[5] or could be considered a form of torture.[6] It has been noted to be a violation of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture.[7]

"Truth serum" was abused against psychotic patients as part of old, discredited practices of psychiatry and is no longer used.[8] In a therapeutic context, the controlled administration of intravenous hypnotic medications is called "narcosynthesis" or "narcoanalysis". Such application was first documented by Dr. William Bleckwenn. Reliability and suggestibility of patients are concerns, and the practice of chemically inducing an involuntary mental state is now widely considered to be a form of torture.[9][10]

Active chemical substances[edit]

Amobarbital, one of the chemical compounds that can be used as a truth serum.

Sedatives or hypnotics that alter higher cognitive function include ethanol, scopolamine, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, potent short or intermediate acting hypnotic benzodiazepines such as midazolam, flunitrazepam, and various short and ultra-short acting barbiturates, including sodium thiopental (commonly known by the brand name Sodium Pentothal) and amobarbital (formerly known as sodium amytal).[11][2][12]

Reliability[edit]

While there have been many clinical studies of the efficacy of narcoanalysis in interrogation or lie detection, there is dispute whether any of them qualify as a randomized, controlled study, that would meet scientific standards for determining effectiveness.[13][14][unreliable source?][15][16][better source needed]

Use by country[edit]

North Korea[edit]

North Korea is alleged by retired US Army intelligence officer LTC Tony Shaffer to have used Sodium Pentothal on Otto Warmbier. Shaffer believes Warmbier's mental degradation was consistent with overdose of the compound. However, the North Koreans attribute Warmbier's death to sleeping pills and botulism.[17]

India[edit]

India's Central Bureau of Investigation has used intravenous barbiturates for interrogation, often in high-profile cases.[2] One such case was the interrogation of Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist captured alive by police in the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India.[18][19] Kasab was a Pakistani[20][21] militant and a member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group.[22][23] On 3 May 2010, Kasab was found guilty of 80 offences, including murder, waging war against India, possessing explosives, and other charges.[24] On 6 May 2010, the same trial court sentenced him to death on four counts and to a life sentence on five counts.[25]

The Central Bureau of Investigation also conducted this test on Krishna, a key witness (also suspect) in the high-profile 2008 Aarushi-Hemraj Murder Case to seek more information from Krishna and also determine his credibility as a witness with key information, yet not known to the investigating authorities. Per unverified various media sources, Krishna had purported to have deemed Hemraj (prime suspect) as not guilty of Aarushi's murder, claiming he [Hemraj] "treat Aarushi like his own daughter".

On May 5, 2010 the Supreme Court Judge Balasubramaniam in the case "Smt. Selvi vs. State of Karnataka" held that narcoanalysis, polygraph and brain mapping tests were to be allowed after consent of accused. The judge stated: "We are of the considered opinion that no individual can be forced and subjected to such techniques involuntarily, and by doing so it amounts to unwarranted intrusion of personal liberty."[26]

In Gujrat, Madhya Pradesh High Court permitted narcoanalysis in the investigation of a killing of a tiger that occurred in May 2010. The Jhurjhura Tigress at Bandhavgarh National Park, a mother of three cubs, was found dead as a result of being hit by a vehicle. A Special Task Force requested the narcoanalysis testing of four persons, only three of whom gave their consent.[27]

Russia[edit]

A defector from the biological weapons Department 12 of the KGB "illegals" (S) directorate (e.g., presently a part of Russian SVR service) claimed a serum code-named SP-117[28] was highly effective, and has been widely used. According to him, "The 'remedy which loosens the tongue' has no taste, no smell, no color, and no immediate side effects. Most importantly, a person had no recollection having had the 'heart-to-heart talk'," and felt afterward as though they'd suddenly fallen asleep. Officers of S Directorate primarily used the drug to verify fidelity and trustworthiness of their agents who operated overseas, such as Vitaly Yurchenko.[29] According to Alexander Litvinenko, Russian presidential candidate Ivan Rybkin was drugged with the same substance by FSB agents during his kidnapping.[30]

United States[edit]

Scopolamine was promoted by obstetrician Robert Ernest House as an advance that would prevent false convictions, beginning in 1922. He had noted that women in childbirth who were given scopolamine could answer questions accurately even while in a state of twilight sleep, and were oftentimes "exceedingly candid" in their remarks. House proposed that scopolamine could be used when interrogating suspected criminals. He even arranged to administer scopolamine to prisoners in Dallas county jail. Both men were believed to be guilty, both denied guilt under scopolamine, and both were eventually acquitted.[16][31] In 1926, the use of scopolamine was rejected in a court case, by Judge Robert Walker Franklin, who questioned both its scientific origin, and the uncertainty of its effect.[12][2]

The United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) experimented with the use of mescaline, scopolamine, and marijuana as possible truth drugs during World War II. They concluded that the effects were not much different from those of alcohol: subjects became more talkative but that did not mean they were more truthful. Like hypnosis, there were also issues of suggestibility and interviewer influence. Cases involving scopolamine resulted in a mixture of testimonies both for and against those suspected, at times directly contradicting each other.[2][32]

LSD was also considered as a possible truth serum, but found unreliable.[2] During the 1950s and 1960s, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) carried out a number of investigations including Project MKUltra[33] and Project MKDELTA, which involved illegal use of truth drugs including LSD.[34][32][35] A CIA report from 1961, released in 1993, concludes:

"The salient points that emerge from this discussion are the following. No such magic brew as the popular notion of truth serum exists. The barbiturates, by disrupting defensive patterns, may sometimes be helpful in interrogation, but even under the best conditions they will elicit an output contaminated by deception, fantasy, garbled speech, etc. A major vulnerability they produce in the subject is a tendency to believe he has revealed more than he has. It is possible, however, for both normal individuals and psychopaths to resist drug interrogation; it seems likely that any individual who can withstand ordinary intensive interrogation can hold out in narcosis. The best aid to a defense against narco-interrogation is foreknowledge of the process and its limitations. There is an acute need for controlled experimental studies of drug reaction, not only to depressants but also to stimulants and to combinations of depressants, stimulants, and ataraxics."[31]

In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that confessions produced as a result of ingestion of truth serum were "unconstitutionally coerced" and therefore inadmissible.[36] The viability of forensic evidence produced from truth sera has been addressed in lower courts – judges and expert witnesses have generally agreed that they are not reliable for lie detection.[37]

In 1967, Perry Russo was administered sodium pentothal for interrogation by District Attorney Jim Garrison in the investigation of JFK's assassination.[38]

More recently, a judge approved the use of narcoanalysis in the 2012 Aurora shooting trial to evaluate whether James Eagan Holmes's state of mind was valid for an insanity plea.[39] Judge William Sylvester ruled that prosecutors would be allowed to interrogate Holmes "under the influence of a medical drug designed to loosen him up and get him to talk", such as sodium amytal, if he filed an insanity plea.[3] The hope was that a 'narcoanalytic interview' could confirm whether or not he had been legally insane on 20 July, the date of the shootings.[3] It is not known whether such an examination was carried out.[2]

William Shepherd, chair of the criminal justice section of the American Bar Association, stated, with respect to the Holmes case, that use of a 'truth drug' as proposed, "to ascertain the veracity of a defendant's plea of insanity... would provoke intense legal argument relating to Holmes's right to remain silent under the fifth amendment of the US constitution."[3] Discussing possible effectiveness of such an examination, psychiatrist August Piper stated that "amytal’s inhibition-lowering effects in no way prompt the subject to offer up true statements or memories."[40] Psychology Today’s Scott Linfield noted, as per Piper, that "there’s good reason to believe that truth serums merely lower the threshold for reporting virtually all information, both true and false."[40]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Brown, David (20 November 2006). "Some Believe 'Truth Serums' Will Come Back". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 January 2017. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Rinde, Meir (2015). "Stranger than fiction". Distillations. 1 (4): 16–23. Retrieved 22 March 2018. 
  3. ^ a b c d Pilkington, Ed (12 March 2013). "Judge approves use of 'truth serum' on accused Aurora shooter James Holmes". The Guardian. 
  4. ^ "Annotation 9 - Fifth Amendment". Find.Law. Retrieved 4 January 2017. 
  5. ^ Sadoff, David A. (2016). Bringing International Fugitives to Justice Extradition and its Alternatives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 296–297. ISBN 9781107129283. Retrieved 3 January 2017. 
  6. ^ Keller, Linda M. (2005). "Is Truth Serum Torture?". Ame rican University International Law Review. 20 (3): 521–612. Retrieved 3 January 2017. 
  7. ^ "The Legal Prohibition Against Torture". Human Rights Watch. June 1, 2004. 
  8. ^ Naples M, Hackett TP: The amytal interview: history and current uses. Psychosomatics01 1978; 19: 98–105.
  9. ^ Tollefson GD: The amobarbital interview in the differential diagnosis of catatonia. Psychosomatics 1982; 23: 437–438.
  10. ^ Bleckwenn WJ: Production of sleep and rest in psychotic cases. Arch Neurol Psychiatry 1930; 24: 365–375.
  11. ^ "Barbiturates". Encyclopedia of Surgery. Retrieved 4 January 2017. 
  12. ^ a b Winter, Alison (2012). Memory fragments of a modern history. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 33–. ISBN 9780226902609. 
  13. ^ There is some controversy to this point; see IJME debate in Jesani, Amar (Oct–Dec 2006). "Medical professionals and interrogation: lies about finding the 'truth'". Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (Editorial). Mumbai. 3 (4): 116. Archived from the original on 2009-06-11. A PubMed search found 26 references from 1997 to 2001 (or 5.2 publications per year), but in less than five years (2002 to July 2006) the number has more than tripled to 83 or 16.6 publications per year. Many of these are randomised controlled trials.  and Jesani, Amar (Jan–Mar 2007). "Misconceptions about narco analysis". Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (Editorial reply). Mumbai. 4 (1): 7. Archived from the original on 2013-07-30. It is true that the number of research publications on lie detection has tripled during 2002-2006. But no material has been produced that can be described as randomised controlled trials. 
  14. ^ A simple search: Misquitta, Neville (28 Feb 2011). "Narcoanalysis - spies, lies and truth serum". Psychiatry and Society in Pune (blog). Retrieved 12 Mar 2013. A PubMed search using the MeSH term ‘narcotherapy’ gives just two articles in the last ten years. There are no randomised control studies - the scientific standard - to demonstrate the reproducibility of results obtained by narcoanalysis for information gathering, abreaction, or lie detection. 
  15. ^ Lakshman, Sriram (May 2007). "Narcoanalysis and some hard facts". Frontline. 24 (9). Archived from the original on 2013-03-13. Retrieved 12 Mar 2013. Given the nature of narcoanalysis, it is not possible to get volunteers to facilitate controlled studies. 
  16. ^ a b Bimmerle, George. "Truth" Drugs in Interrogation. Center for the Study of Intelligence (Technical report). 5. CIA. Retrieved 12 March 2013. The almost total absence of controlled experimental studies of "truth" drugs and the spotty and anecdotal nature of psychiatric and police evidence require that extrapolations to intelligence operations be made with care. 
  17. ^ "Retired Army colonel says North Korea probably used drugs to torture American student Otto Warmbier". americanmilitarynews.com. 22 June 2017. 
  18. ^ "Mumbai attacks: Militant kept in underwear to prevent suicide". The Daily Telegraph. 8 December 2008. 
  19. ^ "Exclusive: The Kasab Confession Part - 1". 
  20. ^ The government of Pakistan initially denied that Kasab was a Pakistani citizen, but, in January 2009, it confirmed his citizenship. "Ajmal's Nationality Confirmed". Dawn (Pakistani Newspaper). 8 January 2009. Retrieved 31 January 2012. 
  21. ^ "CRIMINAL APPEAL NOS.1899-1900 OF 2011" (PDF). Supreme Court of India. 29 August 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 January 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013. 
  22. ^ "Planned 9/11 at Taj: Caught Terrorist". Zee News. 29 November 2008. Archived from the original on 25 December 2008. 
  23. ^ "Please give me saline". Bangalore Mirror. 29 November 2008. 
  24. ^ "Bombay HC upholds Kasab's death sentence". IBN Live. 
  25. ^ "Kasab waged war against India: court". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 22 February 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2011. 
  26. ^ "No narcoanalysis test without consent, says SC". The Times Of India. May 5, 2010. Retrieved May 18, 2012. 
  27. ^ Saxena, Manu (July 16, 2015). "Striking A Balance: Efficient Investigation And Individual Rights". Legal Service India. Retrieved 4 January 2017. 
  28. ^ РЫБКИНУ ДАЛИ СП-117? Rubkin got SP-117
  29. ^ Alexander Kouzminov Biological Espionage: Special Operations of the Soviet and Russian Foreign Intelligence Services in the West, Greenhill Books, 2006, ISBN 1-85367-646-2 [1].
  30. ^ Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB. New York: Free Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4165-5165-2.
  31. ^ a b Bimmerle, George. "Truth" Drugs in Interrogation. Center for the Study of Intelligence (Technical report). 5. CIA. 
  32. ^ a b Lee, Martin A.; Shlain, Bruce (1992). Acid dreams : the complete social history of LSD : the CIA, the sixties, and beyond (PDF) (Rev. Evergreen ed.). New York: Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-3062-4. 
  33. ^ "One of the Most Shocking CIA Programs of All Time: Project MKUltra". 2013-09-23. Retrieved 2016-08-18. 
  34. ^ "Final report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, United States Senate : together with additional, supplemental, and separate views". Archive.org. Retrieved 2014-07-17. 
  35. ^ Brown, David (20 November 2006). "Some Believe 'Truth Serums Will Come Back". The Washington Post. A08. Retrieved 4 January 2017. 
  36. ^ Townsend v. Sain, Sheriff, et al., 372 U.S. 293, 307-308
  37. ^ See for example State v. Pitts, 116 N.J. 580 (The Supreme Court of New Jersey 1989) (“Three experts ... agreed that sodium-amytal-induced interviews are not considered scientifically reliable for the purpose of ascertaining "truth."”).
  38. ^ https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32136896.pdf
  39. ^ P. Solomon Banda; Dan Elliott (11 Mar 2013). "Judge OKs medication for Colorado shooting suspect". Yahoo! News. AP. 
  40. ^ a b Lennard, Natasha (March 13, 2013). "James Holmes and the ethics of "truth serum"". Salon. Retrieved 4 January 2017. 

External links[edit]

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