Shooting up : a history of drugs in warfare

"Shooting Up" is a comprehensive and original history of the relationship between fighting men and intoxicants, from Antiquity till the present day. Lukasz Kamienski explores why and how drugs have been issued to soldiers to increase their battlefield performance, boost their courage and alleviate stress and fear - as well as for medical purposes. He also delves into the history of psychoactive substances that combatants "self-prescribe", namely those taken either for self-medication, recreation or to improve fighting capabilities, most notoriously by GIs in the Vietnam War, but also as far back as the Vikings. From hallucinogenic mushrooms to LSD, from opium to opioids, from coca to cocaine, from amphetamines to ecstasy; from Homeric warriors to the first Gulf War, from the Assassins to today’s global insurgents - Kamienski tells how drugs have sustained warriors in the field and how they will determine the wars of the future in unforeseen and remarkable ways. Also discussed is how intoxicants have been used as weapons of warfare, either as a feasible non-lethal psychochemical weapon or as a means of subversion. This remarkable study concludes by delving into the risks of intoxication for fighting power, military discipline and veterans' lives.