All so-called truth drugs make people more chatty, but not necessarily more truthful.

Most of them are depressents, producing a "drunken" state, though a depressent followed immediately by a strong stimulant has been used, producing an addled wakeful state, somewhat like talking to a sleep-talker.

People with strong wills, strong psychological training, or psychopathologies inhibiting their abilities to either know reality or tell the truth will be more resistent to truth drugs. People who are very suggestible, or guilt-ridden because of grief or neurosis, are likely to confess to things they didn't do. Pathological liars, on the other hand, are resistent.

</block>The reliability of truth drugs is hard to determine. The countries thought to use them do so in secret, and the U.S. hasn’t been known to conduct truth drug experiments since the Cold War, when the government dismissed them as unreliable.

Doctors who’ve conducted truth drug interviews have also said it’s not a magical elixir that forces the truth to just come out when a subject’s inhibitions are lowered. They say you'll sometimes get bits of the truth, mixed with fantasy or even lies.</block>
"Truth Serum: A Possible Weapon". 60 Minutes II. cbsnews.com April 24, 2003.

<block>Talk to former CIA agent Bob Baer, author of See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism, about [former CIA Director] Webster's suggestion [that truth drugs be administered to captives at Guantanamo]. . . .

Phoenix, AZ: Is it true that "truth serums" like sodium pentothal can have severe side effects like brain damage?

Robert Baer: We've been told it doesn't, but on the other hand we don't feel they're very effective, which is why the CIA didn't use it, primarily because the results are unreliable.

Salt Lake City, UT: It is my understanding that the U.S. Government has experimented with multiple drugs as "true serums," MDMA (the club drug ecstasy) in the 1950's, and some testing with the drugs Peyote and mescaline, to what extent were any of these tests effective and how do the responses to these drugs compare with the those achieved with Sodium Pentothal?

Robert Baer: My understanding is that those drugs were experimented with and found to be marginally effective, but when the experiments were leaked to the press they were stopped. Keep in mind that all those experiments happened during the Cold War when we thought our survival was at stake, and as the Cold War wound down I understand they stopped altogether.

Comment from Robert Baer: With drugs like these, had they been effective we would have heard about it. If any country in the world had found an effective way to use a truth serum we would have known. They bring down your inhibitions as alcohol will, but alcohol induced debriefings or confessions are also not effective.</block>
"The use of 'truth serum' in interrogations: Robert Baer." Talk Today. usatoday.com 29 April 2002.

Torture? Well, it doesn't leave a mark. That you can see.

If the police are authorized to administer "truth serum" on suspicion -- even grave suspicion -- there are a lot of lawyers who will be carrying bottled water for their clients.

Regards--
Mary Anne