How do truth drugs work?

[Sirotnikov]

I saw a reference to sodium penthanol in another thread, and I began to wonder.


How do truth drugs work actually? What parts of the brain / psychology they affect?


Do they make it "difficult" to lie?

Do they make it "difficult" to keep silence?

Do they make you want to tell the truth cause it's cool?

Why can't you just ignore a question instead of answering it?

[pchang]

Not very well

The real answer is that truth drugs are not that reliable.

[Harry Seldon]

I think they remove inhibitions and make it harder to form cohesive thoughts. But then I've never taken any so I wouldn't know, per se.

[chequita guevara]

The CIA considers them extremely unreliable.

[Solver]

I *think* they make you feel so kind that you'll answer anything you're asked...

[chequita guevara]

They make you drunk-ish. You're extremely suggestable in that state, but you'll pretty much say anything.

[MattH]

From Everything 2:
n 1942, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) began top secret research to develop a speech-inducing drug for use in intelligence interrogations. They felt that a drug would be useful for screening their own agents in order to identify German sympathizers and double-agents. Their "Truth Drug" (TD) was an extremely high concentration of marijuana, and through a process of esterification they obtained a highly concentrated liquid. This product had no color, odor, or taste. They even used TD on themselves, their companions, and many others in hopes to create an effective truth serum but the results varied wildly and the serum was still not effective.

AND

The OSS reported: "TD appears to relax all inhibitions and to deaden the areas of the brain which governs the individual's discretion and caution. It accentuates the senses and makes manifest any strong characteristics of the individual."


I love everything

[MattH]

And then they moved on to LSD:

It was at this time that the CIA turned to LSD-25, a derivative of Lysergic Acid.

[MattH]

And Sodium Pentothal:

Thiopental Sodium is a barbiturate that makes the neural membrane more permeable to chloride ions. In a small dose, its effect is to remove the inhibitions of normal behavioural restraints. It also relieves tension and anxiety, and has been shown to make people talkative. Higher doses result in a stupor and inhibit independent thoughts and actions - and the person becomes more suggestible and less willful. At higher doses it can knock a person unconscious.

[DanielXY]

Hm, no problem to lie under marijuana influence ... but ok your are more open and often speak your mind ... so in high dosages I dont know, but I highly doubt it

[Sirotnikov]

thanks

[mrmitchell]

They're a violation of cognitive liberty.

[Kuciwalker]

wtf is cognitive liberty?

[mrmitchell]

The ability to think on your own without governmental "aid".

[Kuciwalker]

If you are so degenerated into vegetable matter that you need governmental aid to think on your own, I don't think constitutional rights really apply