Pharmacological torture

In Brazil, pharmacological torture involved the injection of alcohol into the tongue in the 1940s, the injection of ether into the scrotum in the 1960s, and drugs were used to cause strong contractions in the 1970s. Also, muscle relaxants were used to minimize muscular rigidity and bone fractures caused by electric shock in the 1970s.[3]

Amir Mirza Hekmati accused Iran of torturing him with forced drug withdrawal sometime during his captivity between 2011 and 2016 for being an alleged CIA agent.[4]

In the 1960s, prisoners were reportedly given drugs to make them talk in their sleep.[5]

In 2013, leaked video footage shot inside South Africa's Mangaung Prison showed a prisoner with no record of mental illness being forcibly injected, apparently with anti-psychotic drugs.[6] The Legal Resources Centre, a non-governmental organization, is representing 13 clients who allege they were forcibly injected with the drugs.[7]

In the former Soviet Union, drugs were allegedly used as a form of punishment. Haloperidol, an antipsychotic medication, was a preferred agent. It was used to induce intense restlessness and Parkinson's-type symptoms.[8] Another antipsychotic medication, chlorpromazine (trade name Thorazine™), was also used to induce grogginess, sedation, and (in high doses) vegetative states. Other alleged uses of pharmacological torture included:

• Use of insulin shock therapy to render people comatose.[8]
• Administering Sulfazin to induce severe fevers.[8]
• Use of sodium amobarbital with LSD to cause loss of inhibition.[8]

In the United States, in a series of hearings in the fall and winter of 1977, Congressional committees drew forth disclosure of project MKULTRA, which was most active between 1953 and 1966 and conducted experiments that included the CIA agents administering LSD and Truth Serum to soldiers, citizens, and foreign nationals without their knowledge or consent. Activities of MKULTRA resulted in at least one death, that of Frank Olson, an army scientist who was given LSD without his knowledge, and committed suicide as a result of his experience.[9][10]

In 1953 Harold Blauer died in a New York State psychiatric institute after doctors there administered 3,4-Methylenedioxyamphetamine derivatives to him without his consent, as part of a 1950s secret program run by the US army that tested chemical warfare agents on US citizens.[11]

In Uruguay, people have allegedly been paralyzed using curare derivatives.[8]