US pilots on speed?!
Is anybody else as surprised as I am that US armed forces pilots regularly fly after taking amphetamines, as disclosed following recent friendly fire incidents and also those in Afghanistan a while back?
There is no objective medical evidence that I know of which points to an increase in performance, although subjectively the person may believe there is, rather like with alcohol. Anybody who has dealt with the results of popping speed / ecstasy (a close cousin) in a casualty department on a Saturday night would not step into an aircraft piloted by someone who has taken these drugs or anything like them. They have markedly different effects on different people and the effect is not always consistent either.
Take a theatre of war, add in confusion, inexperience, fatigue, adrenaline, fear and, especially, amphetamine-like drugs and you have a recipe for rash, cowboy-like action. I wonder if the taking of amphetamine underlies some of the friendly fire incidents?
Do British pilots take this ghastly stuff? I can't believe they do.
QDM