Weaponized ketamine!

A Czechoslovakian lab has reported success testing new mixes of sedatives and ketamine, an illicit "dance party" drug, to pacify hostile rhesus monkeys, and proposed the cocktail could be used as a behavioral weapon in combat....

The idea to use drugs against aggression in combat is not new, but the Czech study is notable for its findings and its public disclosure, Dumiak reported. "While Russian, Chinese and American scientists may have similar lines of study, the Czechs are brazen enough to go on scientific record," he wrote, adding, "more than one American researcher connected with the military thinks [the] presentation is compelling."

It gets better:

The Czech researchers, who compare the global spread of aggression today to epidemics of infectious disease in the Middle Ages, were most impressed with the effect of a naphtylmedetomidine-ketamine mix to induce calming, non-violent behavior in their subjects.

"We achieved complete manipulability of the animal, with low motoric sedation," said Jitka Schreiberova, one of the study leaders. In addition to the pharmacological results, their report also addressed weapon delivery system options such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) laced paintball-like projectiles.

And so, we see the future unfolding: DMSO paintballs splattering sedatives and ketamine all over battlefields, to achieve "complete manipulability" of enemy soldiers. There's a Pete Doherty joke in here somewhere, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. At any rate, psychedelic history is littered with apparent efforts to weaponize various substances, with little degree of success by most accounts. However, it's not entirely surprising to imagine ketamine in this kind of context. But it does make me wonder if "K hole" training will become de rigeur as a method for surviving an attack like this...