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I’ve heard of a number of off-label uses for antidepressants, but turning them into non-lethal weapons for crowd control is a new one for me. The Soft-Kill Solution in the March Harper’s describes research on the use of “calmatives” or central nervous system depressants for just this purpose.

The article describes the history of the use of non-lethal methods by both the military and civilian law enforcement. The following quote refers to a research report that was published online in 2002 by the Sunshine Project.

As [the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate] research director Susan Levine told a reporter in 1999, “We need something besides tear gas, like calmatives, anesthetic agents, that would put people to sleep or in a good mood.”

[Academic researchers reported in 2000] that “the development and use of non-lethal calmative techniques is both achievable and desirable,” and identified a large number of promising drug candidates, including benzodiazepines like Valium, serotonin-reuptake inhibitors like Prozac, and opiate derivatives like morphine, fentanyl, and carfentanyl …

The report cited in the article is The Advantages and Limitations of Calmatives for Use as a Non-Lethal Technique, prepared by the Applied Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University. Here’s one of its key conclusions.

The use of pharmacological agents to produce a calm behavioral state, particularly as relevant to management of individuals and/or groups that are agitated, aggressive and/or violent, is a topic with high relevance to achieving the mission of law enforcement and military communities. … pharmacological agents can effectively act on central nervous system tissues and produce a less anxious, less aggressive, more tranquil like behavior and, ultimately, an easier to manage individual.

So it seems that all those agitated people thinking they’re out in the street protesting injustice or demonstrating for human rights are really seeking mass treatment for their anxieties, phobias, depression and impulse control disorders. Crowd-level dosage promises fast action with no permanent damage, though the experience may be a little rough. It turns out that potentially harmful side effects may be included during “administration of the technique” (otherwise known as “gassing”). As the report says:

…perhaps hundreds, if not thousands, of compounds are discarded or shelved by the pharmaceutical industry. Often an unwanted side effect, such as gastrointestinal distress, will terminate the development of a promising new pharmaceutical compound. However, in the variety of situations in which non-lethal techniques [techniques = weapons] are used, there may be less need to be concerned with unattractive side effects; indeed, perhaps a calmative may be designed that incorporates a less than desirable side-effect (e.g. headache, nausea) as part of the drug profile. Furthermore, it may be appropriate to develop a working relationship with the pharmaceutical industry to better incorporate their knowledge and expertise in developing a non-lethal calmative technique. Perhaps, the ideal calmative has already been synthesized and is awaiting renewed interest from its manufacturer.

No doubt there is a lot to be learned by emptying the trash cans of the pharmaceutical companies. It’s a bit like rescuing the ugly duckling from those raucous, unappreciative ducks and finding it a new home among swans where its beauty can be appreciated. The perfect “technique” for turning the agitated and the unruly into tranquil, manageable citizens may already be out there!

The Harper’s article also says that after this research report appeared online, the Pentagon denied that it had any plan to use these drugs as non-lethal weapons. Since 2002, information about such research has been withheld altogether or heavily censored, but the National Research Council put out a report on non-lethal weapons in 2003 that urged further research into incapacitating chemical agents, including the so-called calmatives.

The Bradford Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project, a university center in the UK, published a history of recent research in this field in 2007 which indicated that work was continuing in several countries, including the US. But…”Given the controversial nature of research in this area, especially with regard to military involvement, little information is available … .”

Let’s see if the Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative will let us have a peak inside the research labs.

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1.

I walk around with a crowd inside – so many selves wanting to go in different directions. Too many voices are talking all at once, and it’s hard to pick out the one I need to listen to right now. Here’s the intuitive talker, waking up with the big picture and the ideas for what I’ll get done on my blogs today – he’s the one I want. Then that anxious kid, unready for the day, prickly at every detail, tries to noise the others out with TV static.

But here’s my writing, creative buddy, who pours peacefulness into a cleared space he holds open for me. But that physical guy is pushing me out the door to stretch all those muscles and finish the undone, hard work in gardens and fields. Always, of course, the damn depressive self, is trying to get back on top and sit with invisible weight on all the others, telling me I’ll never get anything done – so why try?

I am struggling to push aside the intruders shouldering into this moment and sit with the intuitive, creative me in my study. Right now they’re pushing me to get this blog post into shape, and it’s getting easier to hear what they’re saying. Of course, a worrying, list-maker keeps dragging my thoughts to the other 25 things I need to start doing. I tear up the latest scrap of paper he’s pushing in front of the computer screen.

However unruly and full of fight these competing selves may be, they have to stay together, and a gathering mind, always insisting that I’m just one man after all, manages to keep them in the right formation. They’re like flights of birds in migration – either they fly together behind this binding me, or, one by one, they fall by the wayside and are lost.

2.

Paul Bloom, a psychologist, wrote in a recent Atlantic article about research that reinforces the idea that we consist of different selves. This could be much more than a metaphor for inner conflict. Instead of a single self that tries to fight desires pulling in different directions, he sees something closer to what I feel goes on within me: multiple selves in tension with each other:

The view I’m interested in … is conservative in that it accepts that brains give rise to selves that last over time, plan for the future, and so on. But it is radical in that it gives up the idea that there is just one self per head. The idea is that instead, within each brain, different selves are continually popping in and out of existence. They have different desires, and they fight for control—bargaining with, deceiving, and plotting against one another.

These selves aren’t really popping in and out of existence. They’re all familiar companions who compete for my attention, but I’ve known them well for a long time. I’m always working to keep the positive ones foremost and push the negative ones aside. That’s one way I’ve come to think of recovery – I’ve learned how to deny power to a depressive or anxious or addictive me and fill with energy the creative, spiritual and loving beings.

This may sound like a dissociative personality disorder, but it’s not. These different selves are not compartmentalized and out of touch with each other. They’re interacting all the time. They tell stories, some grim, some hopeful and become parts of the living narrative I put together to form the single sense of who I am. It may not be the most consistent narrative, since, as the lead character, I’ve often changed direction and spoken with many voices. But I learn how to live – and find meaning in what I go through – by working hard to put each self into the order that will keep me sane and functioning.

When I’m well, this happens without much thinking, almost effortlessly. Even when I’m well, though, the dialogue, the arguments, the pushing and shoving for control among them still go on, however muted they might become. I have to remain mindful at all times, especially about the quiet moves that depression is making. He’s the most artful one of all, as well as the most dangerous.

Mindfulness for this purpose has a special meaning. It is not so much the detached observation of thoughts racing through my awareness until they are all still and a different consciousness is achieved.

More commonly, the flow I’m listening to consists of coherent voices pushing me in one direction or another. The peace and harmony I achieve comes when I can listen calmly to them all and detach myself from their tension. Then suddenly they are in the places where they need to be, their struggle is a sideshow, and I am filled with a sense of life and openness that is more than the sum of all those parts.

You could say I’m in the lead again, working hard in this endless flight, heading toward a home that’s still out of view.

Have you thought of an inner battle in this way? How does the struggle feel to you?