Question for the pilots here...

[Polynikes0321]

I have found myself in a conversation with a military hater concerning pilots taking uppers. I was in the Marine Corps and of course, I was never given anything like that...

Do pilots still use uppers? I know that in the old days when the government was experimenting with caffeine, etc., these sorts of things were common. I am just wondering about it now.

I know that some pilots still use them (case in point the fratricide of the Canadians in 2003), but how do they get them? The pilots in that incident have claimed that the military administered them uppers.

Well, that's what the lawyer is saying.

Gents, I'm really not to up to speed on all of this, and I'm sure that you guys know much more about it than I do...

Just wondering though about using caffeine, or nodoz, or anything like that...

[sixgun wingman]

I was actually part of a test conducted for the army on the use of uppers. The drug of choice was dex....yes the same dex in dex-a-trim. This is the same drug that made our Air Force friends so loopy they blew up Canadians.

If I seem less than compassionate, read on.

The amount of dex authorized to be taken during flight add little more pep than two or three cups of coffee....THAT'S IT!!! It's effects lasted only slightly longer. If you were allowed to take it at all, it had to be approved by the COC based on the expected length of the mission and then IT WAS ALWAYS VOLUNTARY!!! They could not make you take it....EVER!!

The claim of these jackasses that the dex distorted their perspective is further bunked by the results of the test I took part in, and several other tests which showed that dex actually showed (marginal) increases in motor response and decsion making.

The end result is that due to these fuck sticks you need approval from the Christ child himself to use dex, regardless of how long or important a mission is.

Thank God for Red Bull!!

[HAMMERHEAD]

Excellent reply Sixgun! Even after almost 20 years wearing Army green, I learn something new every day.

As far as the original question goes, if by "uppers" he was referring to something other than caffeine, such as amphetamines, he is wrong. In the military it is illegal to "wrongfully" consume any controlled substance, which is any substance included in Schedules I through V of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Wrongful means the ingestion is done without legal justification or authoirzation.

I have worked literally hundreds of drug cases during my almost 20 years as a CID Agent and never heard of any controlled substance being ordered to soldiers outside of valid medical prescriptions. To operate a vehicle under the such a manner is criminal. To authorize the operation of a vehicle under such a manner is hard to fathom, as the individual who would do so would also be signing away his career. Don't waste your time listening to those who wish to detract from our great country and those who defend her.