Introduction

There is a syngierstic relationship between warfare and substance abuse. Drug has been used to weaken enemies, relieve pain, and stimulate troops to fight. The use of alcohol and other drugs by members of the military to manage the physical and psychological stress of war and subsequent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are accepted. To consider the argument against the use of drugs such as propranolol in combat settings, one only has to reflect on the ways in which the Nazis used amphetamine-based drugs to create more violent, less compassionate soldiers to carry out heinous acts against humanity during World War II. The drug war did not begin with prohibition, nor did it begin with the Nixon Administration's declaration of a War on Drugs. However, the current matrix of drugs and war and their escalation in response to one another does appear to derive from the Opium Wars of the mid 1800s.