'Go pills' firestorm -- Pilot drug linked to friendly-fire deaths: ABC

Canadian Press via Toronto Sun ^ | December 21, 2002

[Clive]

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[LadyDoc]

Amphetemines were used a lot in the 1960s to stay awake. Students used them, and so did truckdrivers. They were not considered "narcotics".

What changed things is the problems: If you take too many or too long, you can "crash" afterward. And if you go without sleep too long, your judgement goes, then you can hallucinate. After a few horrendous truck crashes, they made them Class II narcotics, which are harder to obtain

[buffyt]

Pilots taking uppers to stay awake on long missions.... I heard last night that the military is studying the possiblity of soldiers staying awake for seven days at a time, the story was that dolphins do this. They use part of their brain while the other part sleeps. They want to see if human soldiers can do this. I hope they are considering the possible bad side effects of staying awake too long. The brain can start playing tricks on you. Just like when they gave me sleeping pills in the hospital. The first night is was OK. By the third night I was hallucinating all night. That was my brain playing tricks on me. It didn't like the lack of sleep or the drug.

[Clive]

"After a few horrendous truck crashes, they made them Class II narcotics, which are harder to obtain."

So the military then feeds them to pilots who have been trained to a high level of aggressiveness, so as to enable them to continue to sortie well beyond normal fatigue limits.

Then when there is a fratricide incident they charge the pilots with involuntary manslaughter and assault.

I have always held that the pilots deserved, at most, administrative discipline and a severe reprimand.

A fortiori where they were encouraged to take speed.

[rastus macgill]

The drugs are pefectly safe millions of school children are administered them every day.

[rastus macgill]

Today amphetamines and other stimulants are prescribed for children to improve their behavior and school performance.

[txhurl]

Their parents jack their kid's scripts, as they get adults high rather than calming them down.

[Clive]

Yes, and that is a whole other issue.

Better learning through chemistry.

[rastus macgill]

The effects of the drugs(dex,ritalin etc) are largely the same in children and adults.Hence the boom in diagnosis of ADHD in adults.

[Clive]

The kids are not flying high performance aircraft loaded with death dealing ordnance.

[rastus macgill]

"This is speed," said Dr. Robert DuPont, former White House drug czar. "This is where we got the phrase, speed kills."



I find the issue to be the same.How can speed be safe for children as young as three yet a dangerous drug in our military pilots.It is the same drug.

[txhurl]

Same reason we stuff 'breakfast cereal' down our kids' throats every morning.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

The Canadian board of inquiry said "go pills" have been used for more than 30 years.

Actually, they have been used for more than 60 years by military pilots. My father was a WWII bomber pilot in the South Pacific. They regularly flew missions lasting more than twelve hours and "speed" was commonly used. The crews tried to sleep on their cots in tents in the jungle heat and humidity between missions. The missions were obviously very dangerous. Men were keyed up and could not get proper rest. When they had to go again, they were trying to fly without proper rest so pills were a way to stay alert to get the job done. It was a vicious spiral.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Ditto the 60 years.
The Luftwaffe had a benzedrine laced cocoa the pilots drank.

[heckler]

Two Pilots made an honest mistake, they were told not to fire but honestly thought they were under attack and fired despite their orders. The victims of their mistake were Canadians. Our relations with the Canadian govt. are somewhat strained so the pilots are being dealt with somewhat more severely than they normally would be. The pilots feel that they are getting the shaft so they hire a P.R. agent who cooks up an excuse...The U.S. govt. is jacking their pilots up with something a little stronger than coffee...and shops it around the network news organizations. 20/20 bites because it likes taking backhanded slaps at the military especially when it's being run by a bunch of Republicans.

Am I nuts, or do you all need another cup of joe this morning?

[LadyDoc]

Today amphetamines and other stimulants are prescribed for children to improve their behavior and school performance.

Yup. IT's easier to treat the kids than change the schools so hyperactive boys can learn without sitting for hours on end.

However, in a small percentage of children, there is such a thing as ADD, and these stimulents help. I have seen many children with Fetal Alcohol syndrome where a small dose of stimulents calmed them enough to stay in regular classes, and that calmed them enough that their elderly grandmothers or aunts could care for them (usually kids taken from mom who was an alcoholic) rather than putting them in a non realted foster home.

There is a difference between use (which help severe problems to cope) and misuse (where drugs manipulate normal people to be perfect).

Use of stimulants in war is a borderline case. But there is a rumor that they were using both "uppies" and "downies" to allow the bombing of Afghanistan. This is dangerous.

[Kevin Curry]

No difference? How many Ritalin children do you know have dropped 250 pound bombs from F-16s on other people?

The pro-druggies are getting excited because they believe they see a crack in the dike. Just a little longer and George Soro's socialist pro-dope society will be a reality: take all the drugs you want and let other people clean up the carange and mess after you.

Pro-druggies aren't stupid. Just duplicitous.

[OldPossum]

No one has mentioned it but I think that the amphetamines were at one time (maybe still) prescribed for narcolepsy, a rare disorder. Sufferers from narcolepsy can be talking to you and then suddenly fall asleep...no one is that boring.

Also, if I recall correctly, they were at one time used as weight-reducing pills since one of the side effects is complete elimination of the appetite. At one time some physicians became "fat doctors" who specialized in handing out these pills.

None of this, of course, is applicable to the issue at hand, just thought someone may find it of interest.