Editing Truth serum (section)

==Use by country==

===India===
India's [[Central Bureau of Investigation]] has used intravenous barbiturates for interrogation, often in high-profile cases.<ref name="Rinde"/> One such case was the interrogation of [[Ajmal Kasab]], the only terrorist captured alive by police in the [[2008 Mumbai attacks|2008 attacks]] in [[Mumbai, India]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3661948/Mumbai-attacks-Militant-kept-in-underwear-to-prevent-suicide.html | work=The Daily Telegraph | title=Mumbai attacks: Militant kept in underwear to prevent suicide | date=8 December 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThE84w-P-eo&feature=my_liked_videos&list=LLyu1R7iu08rBerkZf2xfvcw |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/ThE84w-P-eo| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live| title=Exclusive: The Kasab Confession Part - 1}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Kasab was a [[Pakistani people|Pakistani]]<ref name="Dawn Pakistani Newspaper">The [[government of Pakistan]] initially denied that Kasab was a Pakistani citizen, but, in January 2009, it confirmed his citizenship. {{cite news|url=http://archives.dawn.com/archives/42931|title=Ajmal's Nationality Confirmed |publisher=Dawn (Pakistani Newspaper) |date=8 January 2009|access-date=31 January 2012}}</ref><ref name="SupremeAppeal">{{cite web|url=http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/outtoday/39511.pdf|title=CRIMINAL APPEAL NOS.1899-1900 OF 2011|date=29 August 2012|publisher=[[Supreme Court of India]]|access-date=6 February 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130118063713/http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/outtoday/39511.pdf|archive-date=18 January 2013}}</ref> militant and a member of the [[Lashkar-e-Taiba]] terrorist group.<ref name="azam">{{cite news|title=Planned 9/11 at Taj: Caught Terrorist|url=http://www.zeenews.com/nation/2008-11-29/487150news.html|publisher=Zee News|date=29 November 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081225174923/http://www.zeenews.com/nation/2008-11-29/487150news.html|archive-date=25 December 2008}}</ref><ref name="b-mirror">{{cite news|title=Please give me saline|url=http://www.bangaloremirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=1&contentid=2008112920081129095627277cedee9e0&sectxslt=|publisher=Bangalore Mirror|date=29 November 2008|access-date=8 February 2014|archive-date=2 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302112856/http://www.bangaloremirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=1&contentid=2008112920081129095627277cedee9e0&sectxslt=|url-status=dead}}</ref> On 3 May 2010, Kasab was found guilty of 80 offences, including murder, waging war against India, possessing explosives, and other charges.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bombay HC upholds Kasab's death sentence|url=http://ibnlive.in.com/news/2611-bombay-hc-upholds-kasabs-death-penalty/143895-3.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110222214710/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/2611-bombay-hc-upholds-kasabs-death-penalty/143895-3.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2011-02-22|publisher=IBN Live}}</ref> On 6 May 2010, the same trial court sentenced him to death on four counts and to a life sentence on five counts.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1478204.ece|title= Kasab waged war against India: court |work=[[The Hindu]]|access-date=22 February 2011|location=Chennai, India|date=22 February 2011}}</ref>

The Central Bureau of Investigation also conducted this test on Krishna, a key witness and suspect in the high-profile [[2008 Noida double murder case|2008 Aarushi-Hemraj Murder Case]] to seek more information from Krishna and also determine his credibility as a witness with key information, yet not known to the investigating authorities. Per unverified various media sources, Krishna had purported to have deemed Hemraj (the prime suspect) as not guilty of Aarushi's murder, claiming he [Hemraj] "treated Aarushi like his own daughter".

On May 5, 2010 the Supreme Court Judge Balasubramaniam in the case "Smt. Selvi vs. State of Karnataka" held that narcoanalysis, [[polygraph]] and [[brain mapping]] tests were to be allowed with the consent of the accused. The judge stated: "We are of the considered opinion that no individual can be forced and subjected to such techniques involuntarily, and by doing so it amounts to unwarranted intrusion of personal liberty."<ref>{{cite news | url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/No-narcoanalysis-test-without-consent-says-SC/articleshow/5892348.cms | title=No narcoanalysis test without consent, says SC | date=May 5, 2010 | access-date=May 18, 2012 | work=The Times Of India}}</ref>

In [[Gujarat]], Madhya Pradesh High Court permitted narcoanalysis in the investigation of a killing of a tiger that occurred in May 2010. The Jhurjhura Tigress at [[Bandhavgarh National Park]], a mother of three cubs, was found dead as a result of being hit by a vehicle. A Special Task Force requested the narcoanalysis testing of four persons, one of whom refused to consent on grounds of potential post-test complications.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhopal/Narco-test-report-throws-up-zilch/articleshow/16925773.cms|title=Narco test report throws up zilch |newspaper=Times of India |date=October 23, 2012 |author=P. Naveen |language=en|access-date=2020-01-22}}</ref>

=== USSR ===
In 2004, ''[[Novaya Gazeta]]'', with reference to [[KGB]] General [[Oleg Kalugin]], published an article that said that since the end of the 1980s the [[First Chief Directorate|First]] and Second Directorates of the KGB had used, in exceptional cases and mostly on foreign citizens, a soluble odourless, colourless and tasteless substance code-named SP-117, an improved successor to similar drugs used by the KGB prior, that was effective in making a subject lose control of oneself 15 minutes after intake.<ref name="kalugin">[https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2004/02/16/22926-rybkinu-dali-sp-117 РЫБКИНУ ДАЛИ СП-117?] ''[[Novaya Gazeta]]'', 15 February 2004.</ref> Most importantly, a person who would be given, consecutively, two parts of the drug, i.e. both the "dote" and "antidote", would have no recollection of what had occurred in between and feel afterward as though he had suddenly fallen asleep, the preferable way to administer the "dote" being in an alcoholic drink, as that would serve as a plausible explanation of the sudden onset of drowsiness.<ref name="kalugin" />

Other reports state that SP-117 was just a form of concentrated alcohol meant to be added to alcoholic drinks such as champagne.<ref>{{cite web |title=Russia's Lab X: poison factory that helped silence Soviets' critics |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/09/russia-lab-x-poison-factory-that-helped-silence-soviets-critics |website=the Guardian |language=en |date=9 March 2018}}</ref>

=== Russian Federation ===
According to the Russian [[Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)|Foreign Intelligence Service]] (SVR) officer, Alexander Kouzminov, who quit the service in the early 1990s, the officers of SVR′s Directorate S, which runs SVR's "[[Non-official cover|illegals]]", primarily used the drug to verify fidelity and trustworthiness of their agents who operated overseas, such as [[Vitaly Yurchenko]].<ref name="Kuzminov">Alexander Kouzminov ''Biological Espionage: Special Operations of the Soviet and Russian Foreign Intelligence Services in the West'', Greenhill Books, 2006, {{ISBN|1-85367-646-2}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20050425151231/http://www.calitreview.com/Interviews/int_kouzminov_8013.htm].</ref> According to [[Alexander Litvinenko]], [[2004 Russian presidential election|Russian presidential candidate]] [[Ivan Rybkin]] was drugged with the same substance by FSB agents during his kidnapping in 2004.<ref name="Goldfarb">[[Alexander Goldfarb (author)|Alex Goldfarb]] and Marina Litvinenko. ''[[Death of a Dissident]]: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB''. New York: Free Press, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-4165-5165-2}}.</ref>

=== United States ===
[[Hyoscine hydrobromide|Scopolamine]] was promoted by obstetrician Robert Ernest House as an advance that would prevent false convictions, beginning in 1922. He had noted that women in childbirth who were given scopolamine could answer questions accurately even while in a state of [[twilight sleep]], and were oftentimes "exceedingly candid" in their remarks. House proposed that scopolamine could be used when interrogating suspected criminals. He even arranged to administer scopolamine to prisoners in the [[Dallas County, Texas|Dallas County]] jail. Both men were believed to be guilty, both denied guilt under scopolamine, and both were eventually acquitted.<ref name=cia1961/> In 1926, the use of scopolamine was rejected in a court case, by Judge Robert Walker Franklin, who questioned both its scientific origin, and the uncertainty of its effect.<ref name="Winter"/><ref name="Rinde"/>

The United States [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS) experimented with the use of [[mescaline]], [[scopolamine]], and [[marijuana]] as possible truth drugs during [[World War II]]. They concluded that the effects were not much different from those of [[alcohol (drug)|alcohol]]: subjects became more talkative but that did not mean they were more truthful. Like [[hypnosis]], there were also issues of suggestibility and interviewer influence. Cases involving scopolamine resulted in a mixture of testimonies both for and against those suspected, at times directly contradicting each other.<ref name="Rinde"/><ref name="Lee"/>

[[LSD]] was also considered as a possible truth serum, but found unreliable.<ref name="Rinde"/> During the 1950s and 1960s, the United States [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) carried out a number of investigations including [[Project MKUltra]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/09/one-shocking-cia-programs-time-project-mkultra/|title=One of the Most Shocking CIA Programs of All Time: Project MKUltra|date=2013-09-23|language=en-US|access-date=2016-08-18}}</ref> and [[Project MKDELTA]]{{cn|date=December 2023}}, which involved illegal use of truth drugs including LSD.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/finalreportofsel01unit#page/390/mode/2up |title=Final report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, United States Senate: together with additional, supplemental, and separate views |year=1976 |access-date=2014-07-17}}</ref><ref name="Lee">{{cite book|last1=Lee|first1=Martin A.|last2=Shlain|first2=Bruce|title=Acid dreams: the complete social history of LSD: the CIA, the sixties, and beyond|date=1992|publisher=Grove Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8021-3062-4|edition=Rev. Evergreen|url=https://archive.org/details/aciddreamscomple00leem|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Brown">{{cite news|last1=Brown|first1=David|title=Some Believe 'Truth Serums Will Come Back|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/19/AR2006111900891_pf.html|access-date=4 January 2017|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|agency=A08|date=20 November 2006}}</ref> A CIA report from 1961, released in 1993, concludes:

{{blockquote|The salient points that emerge from this discussion are the following. No such magic brew as the popular notion of truth serum exists. The barbiturates, by disrupting defensive patterns, may sometimes be helpful in interrogation, but even under the best conditions they will elicit an output contaminated by deception, fantasy, garbled speech, etc. A major vulnerability they produce in the subject is a tendency to believe he has revealed more than he has. It is possible, however, for both normal individuals and psychopaths to resist drug interrogation; it seems likely that any individual who can withstand ordinary intensive interrogation can hold out in narcosis. The best aid to a defense against narco-interrogation is foreknowledge of the process and its limitations. There is an acute need for controlled experimental studies of drug reaction, not only to depressants but also to stimulants and to combinations of depressants, stimulants, and ataraxics.<ref name="cia1961"/>}}

In 1963, the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled, in ''[[Townsend v. Sain]]'', that confessions produced as a result of ingestion of truth serum were "unconstitutionally coerced" and therefore inadmissible.<ref>''Townsend'' v. ''Sain, Sheriff, et al.'', 372 U.S. 293, 307-308</ref> The viability of forensic evidence produced from truth sera has been addressed in lower courts – judges and expert witnesses have generally agreed that they are not reliable for lie detection.<ref>See for example {{cite court |litigants=State v. Pitts |vol=116 |reporter=N.J. |opinion=580 |court=The Supreme Court of New Jersey |date=1989 |url=http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?page=27&xmldoc=1989696116NJ580_1669.xml&docbase=CSLWAR2-1986-2006&SizeDisp=7 |access-date=12 Mar 2013 |quote=Three experts ... agreed that sodium-amytal-induced interviews are not considered scientifically reliable for the purpose of ascertaining "truth."}}</ref>

In 1967, during his investigation into the [[assassination of President John F. Kennedy]], [[New Orleans]] District Attorney [[Jim Garrison]] arranged for his key witness, [[Perry Russo]], to be administered sodium pentothal before being questioned about his knowledge regarding an alleged [[John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories|conspiracy]].<ref>[https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32136896.pdf JFK Assassination System] Archives.gov</ref> Russo would later describe "his conditioning by the DA's office as a complete brainwashing job."<ref>[http://www.jfk-online.com/russorecants.html Memo by Edward F. Wegmann of interview with Perry Russo], January 27, 1971.</ref>

In 1995, during the search for evidence that could acquit [[Andres English-Howard]], his defense attorney employed [[methohexital]].

More recently, a judge approved the use of narcoanalysis in the [[2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting]] trial to evaluate whether [[James Holmes (mass murderer)|James Eagan Holmes]]'s state of mind was valid for an [[Insanity defense|insanity plea]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Judge OKs medication for Colorado shooting suspect |author=P. Solomon Banda |author2=Dan Elliott |date=11 Mar 2013 |url=https://news.yahoo.com/judge-oks-medication-colorado-shooting-suspect-192015620.html |agency=[[Associated Press|AP]] |newspaper=[[Yahoo! News]]}}</ref> Judge William Sylvester ruled that prosecutors would be allowed to interrogate Holmes "under the influence of a medical drug designed to loosen him up and get him to talk", such as sodium amytal, if he filed an insanity plea.<ref name=guardian.co.uk/> The hope was that a 'narcoanalytic interview' could confirm whether or not he had been legally insane on 20 July, the date of the shootings.<ref name=guardian.co.uk>{{cite news|last=Pilkington|first=Ed|title=Judge approves use of 'truth serum' on accused Aurora shooter James Holmes|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/12/judge-approves-truth-serum-james-holmes|newspaper=The Guardian|date=12 March 2013}}</ref> It is not known whether such an examination was carried out.<ref name="Rinde"/>

William Shepherd, chair of the criminal justice section of the [[American Bar Association]], stated, with respect to the Holmes case, that use of a "truth drug" as proposed, "to ascertain the veracity of a defendant's plea of insanity... would provoke intense legal argument relating to Holmes's right to remain silent under the fifth amendment of the US constitution."<ref name="guardian.co.uk"/> Discussing possible effectiveness of such an examination, psychiatrist August Piper stated that "amytal's inhibition-lowering effects in no way prompt the subject to offer up true statements or memories."<ref name="salon.com">{{cite news|last1=Lennard|first1=Natasha|title=James Holmes and the ethics of "truth serum"|url=http://www.salon.com/2013/03/13/james_holmes_the_ethics_efficacy_of_truth_serum/|access-date=4 January 2017|work=Salon|date=March 13, 2013}}</ref> ''Psychology Today''{{'s}} Scott Linfield noted, as per Piper, that "there's good reason to believe that truth serums merely lower the threshold for reporting virtually all information, both true and false."<ref name="salon.com"/>