[Peace-discuss] U.S. Research on Sedatives in Combat Sets Off Alarms (fwd)

[Margaret E. Kosal]

The US is both a signatory and a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention. 
The CWC specifically prohibits use of riot control agents against other 
states (whereas it is permissible under the CWC to use such agents against 
a state's own citizens.)
_____________________________
 From _Science_ Volume 297, Number 5582, Issue of 2 Aug 2002, p. 764.

CHEMICAL WEAPONS:

U.S. Research on Sedatives in Combat Sets Off Alarms
Alexander Stone*

U.S.-funded studies on how to turn such drugs as Valium or Prozac into 
weapons undermine a treaty against chemical weapons, critics say

Drugs such as Valium and Prozac might seem like the antithesis of modern 
weapons, but not to the U.S. government, which is sponsoring research into 
the feasibility of combat use of sedatives and other drugs that inhibit the 
function of the central nervous system (CNS). The work, described in 
documents obtained by Science, is part of a broader effort to create an 
arsenal of nonlethal weapons for soldiers and police. But critics say that 
turning such drugs into tools to subdue hostile forces would run counter to 
an international treaty that bans the use of chemical weapons.

Although the United States ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention in 
1997, it maintains the right to use nonlethal riot-control agents in law 
enforcement and certain combat situations, despite objections from other 
countries. Indeed, the government's interest in nonlethal weapons has grown 
significantly over the past decade as U.S. forces have been deployed in 
such urban settings as Somalia, Kosovo, and Bosnia, says a spokesperson for 
the U.S. Marine Corps, which oversees the Department of Defense's (DOD's) 
Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program (JNLWP). Funding for studies of nonlethal 
weapons has jumped from $14 million in 1997 to $36 million in 2001. A 
domestic program aimed at giving law enforcement officials better ways to 
resolve a variety of situations, from dispersing rioters to rescuing 
hostages, is also under way.

Work on the use of drugs as nonlethal agents is being conducted at the 
Institute for Emerging Defense Technologies of Pennsylvania State 
University, University Park. Created in 1997 to research nonlethal weapons 
for the Marine Corps, the institute is supported in part by a contract 
worth up to $42 million from the Corps to the university, and its director, 
engineer and retired Col. Andrew Mazzara, was formerly head of JNLWP.

Mazzara and engineer John Kenny are currently carrying out a study that 
tries to gauge the effects on humans of breathing in an aerosolized mixture 
of calmatives (substances that depress or inhibit CNS function and produce 
tranquil or calm behavior) and pepper spray--a commonly used crowd-control 
agent. The study, funded by the National Institute for Justice (NIJ), uses 
high-tech dummies to monitor absorption rates, concentration, and flow of 
the mixture into the bloodstream and various organs. Mazzara says that NIJ, 
the research branch of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and a member of 
JNLWP, asked him to do the study "because they see violent reactions to OC 
[pepper] spray." The study, due to be completed this year, hopes to 
identify the optimal dosages needed to temporarily subdue targets.

The research builds on a 2000 review paper by Kenny and two colleagues at 
the institute that urged the Marine Corps to give "immediate consideration" 
to weaponizing sedatives such as diazepam (Valium) and selective serotonin 
reuptake inhibitors such as fluoxetine (Prozac) and sertraline (Zoloft). 
The scientists also proposed research into the possible weaponization of 
"drugs of abuse" and convulsants such as those commonly found in rat 
poison. Kenny, who leads JNLWP's human effects advisory panel, says the 
Corps did not request the 49-page paper, but a Corps spokesperson 
acknowledges receiving it.

Several scholars who track the convention say such activities undermine--if 
not openly violate--the chemical
weapons treaty, which prohibits the development and use of chemical agents 
that cause "temporary incapacitation or permanent harm to humans or 
animals." "This is definitely pushing the envelope, if not crossing the 
line, of what is covered in the treaty," says Jonathan Tucker, who follows 
chemical and biological weapons for the Monterey Institute of International 
Studies' Washington, D.C., office. Tucker says the list of proscribed 
agents, which include nerve gas, mustard gas, and weapons containing 
commercial chemicals such as hydrogen cyanide and phosgene, is open-ended 
and based on the agents' ability to injure a target population.

The U.S. efforts also raise a red flag for Julian Perry-Robinson, a 
professor of science policy at the
University of Sussex, U.K. Any work on such weapons, he says, "is 
historically troubling because it ties in to an older U.S. program" that 
disappeared from view during the Cold War. "It's worrying to see it coming 
up again." New studies on nonlethal chemical agents, he adds, also send a 
message to other countries that it's all right to pursue research on more 
toxic agents.

U.S. military officials discussed nonlethal weapons at a joint U.S.-U.K. 
seminar held November 2000 at the Ministry of Defence in London. Pentagon 
officials there suggested that some of the military's research be funded by 
civilian agencies. According to an official report of the seminar, U.S. 
officials declared that "if there are promising technologies that the DOD 
is prohibited from pursuing," the military should "set up MOA [memoranda of 
agreement] with DOJ and DOE [the Department of Energy]."

Some experts see the funding of Mazzara's work through DOJ as an example of 
this approach. "It's a pretty clear intent to violate the treaty," says 
Tucker, "if the intent is to use these weapons in international military 
conflict."

The National Academy of Sciences has just completed a review of the 
military's nonlethal weapons program, and Kenny's study was included in 
background material that the Marine Corps provided the panel. Negotiations 
over which portions of the report might be militarily sensitive have 
delayed its release, according to a spokesperson at the academy.

The Sunshine Project, a government watchdog group based in Austin, Texas, 
has publicized Kenny's study. And its director, Edward Hammond, is not 
waiting for the academy's verdict on the quality of the research: "It's 
shocking and disturbing that this kind of weapon would be contemplated at 
all," he says.