Combat drugs: from Pervitin to captagon and henbane

Captagon, Pervitin and henbane: the drugs war put to the test

No pill makes a man immortal, but a few have helped him endure enemy fire without his finger trembling. The underlying question is which would be the best combat drug —understood as the substance that allows you to stay steady under fire with your pulse under control— setting aside long-term health effects. The answer that emerges is not a single molecule, but a catalogue ranging from the military lab to the trench brew.

The first coincidence is captagon, the substance repeatedly cited as synonymous with the tireless fighter. Not far behind is Pervitin, another name on the list of combat stimulants. Neither solves the central problem, however: holding out without your pulse going haywire and without becoming a danger to your own side.

What is the most mentioned combat drug? Captagon and amphetamines

When asked about the reference substance, the answer is repeated: captagon. And behind it looms the entire amphetamine family, which serves as a catch-all. Some directly recommend estimulante ilegal, no ceremony, for anyone going to war. Others bet on methamphetamine and, according to a forum user, a gram can be bought for about 25 euros and the necessary doses would be up to ten times smaller than those of cocaine, making it cheap and potent.

Cocaine doesn't come off well. The most shared experience is the day after: according to a forum user, it leaves you wrecked, with hangovers that drag on for days. Against that, MDMA is defended for its duration and because, they say, the hangover disappears; the price to pay is accumulated fatigue. Everyone chooses their bill.

The berserkers' henbane and scopolamine

Beyond lab chemistry there is a historical path. Warriors who fought half-naked, covered only in skins, became famous for their violence and because they seemed not to feel pain. Behind that behaviour, according to the hypothesis in play, would be the consumption of a hallucinogenic plant known as black henbane or mad herb, rich in hyoscyamine and scopolamine.

It's a logic similar to that behind tranquillisers: if you're looking for someone who won't blink when shooting, some recall Sniper Wolf, the marksman from a video game who took diazepam. In fiction, the pill makes the character.

The real problem: amphetamine, microsleeps and the trembling pulse

Here the fantasy breaks. Being anaesthetised and having a good pulse don't go hand in hand, and as a forum user sums up, no commander wants drunk or suicidal soldiers. Stimulants keep you awake, yes, but the body pays the price and the crash arrives in the form of microsleeps: someone who has spent two days sleeping a couple of hours starts behaving erratically and ends up asleep on their feet. Adrenaline is not infinite: even in the sharpest pain its effect runs out within minutes.

The recipe sketched in jest —stimulant for the nervous system, cocaine for fun, testosterone, benzodiazepines for the pulse, painkillers to taste and heroin to sleep— self-destructs: the same drug that stops the tremor shuts down the reaction. Those who have lived it in a combat zone sum it up without epic: to avoid falling asleep on guard duty, strong caffeine gum will do. War chemistry, in practice, is more modest than the legend.

The assassins' hashish and trench alcohol

There is an episode cited as a precedent: the assassins in the service of Hassan-i Sabbah received a hashish high before the mission, a way of influencing them with the promised paradise. After the ritual they went predisposed, not necessarily high, and carried out the target even if the guards ended up killing them. Scopolamine, hashish, henbane: history accumulates methods to switch off antiestéticar.

The other classic is alcohol. Anís de cazalla in a single gulp, mead drunk in torrents from a horn or the saltaparapetos of the Civil War, of which it was said that with two glasses you'd eat anyone put in front of you. None of these routes solves the pulse with precision, but all serve the same function: lift the spirits and lower awareness of risk.

The matter ends where these topics usually end, with the catalogue exhausted and the answer slipping through your fingers. Someone proposes hatred, proven with excellent results for thousands of years. Another, music. Another, simply, sugar. And some swear by love. None is bought for 25 euros a gram.