"WHO (the World Health Organization) allocated $110,000,000 dollars to exterminate a peculiar kind of plant growing on Sri Lanka; youngsters who chewed on this plant lost their sense of fear of death and were easily able to commit suicide. Necessary measures are being taken to reduce the risk of this plant spreading around the world." This was an interesting piece of news announced by news agencies in 2003.

The conclusion that Fluocsetine (Prozac), once known as the medicine of happiness, triggered a tendency to suicide in some patients, created a storm in psychiatry. And last year, one of the strongest anti-depressants, Parocsetine (Serotat), was banned in England as it was found to have similar suicidal effects; its abuse by young people was already a matter of debate among professionals.

All these developments raised the question of "are we facing a new danger?" among those involved in the psycho-pharmacological sciences. Have we enabled people with medical treatment to have the courage to kill themselves? Does this mean that a person who is on such medicines becomes little more than a robot? Or, even more frightening, has psychopharmacology become a science that is likely to be abused in acts of terrorism?

These developments suggest that it would not be difficult to turn a group of people into suicide attackers; one would have to train them in a training program that resembles a boot camp, and then give them medication that triggers a sense of euphoria, and then another dose of a different drug that will help them overcome the fear of death.

When the terrorist acts that have occurred over recent years, such as the attack of September 11th, and the attacks in the Middle East, are looked at from this perspective, the argument that terrorism is systematic and consists of organized events supported by powerful organizations gains more ground.

During the American Civil War (1861-1865), and the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) morphine, administered by injection, was widely used among soldiers as a painkiller. It was used to help soldiers withstand pain from their wounds, injuries, and burns, and to help them to relax. However, when these soldiers were discharged from the hospital, they suffered from headaches, trembling, nausea, vomiting, and cramps. This clinical phenomenon came to be known as "soldier’s illness." Later on, it was discovered that this was the result of the soldiers going through withdrawal; soldiers who had been previously treated with morphine experienced withdrawal symptoms when cut off from their morphine supply.

The hydrochloride salt of opium is found in a solution obtained from the stem of the opium plant; it is obtained by pricking the plant. It was generally smoked in a pipe, or chewed and swallowed in Europe and the Far East, and was a common drug used by the nobility. In 1804, a French chemist Seguin succeeded in obtaining colorless crystals of refined morphine from opium. And in 1812, another chemist from Germany, Serturner analyzed the substance scientifically and published his analysis as "The Analysis of Opium." It took a great deal of effort to transform morphine into an injection, but this was finally achieved in 1853.

The name of this substance, which was advertised as the miracle medicine, the medicine of happiness, and which was used both as an analgesic and a sedative, was taken from the name of the Greek mythological god of sleep and dreams, Morpheus. When one used morphine it was considered that one had let one’s self go in the arms of this god. This habit was so common that some wealthy people would carry morphine in syringes, wrapped in silk handkerchiefs, always ready for an injection under the skin at any time they pleased. Pichan drew attention to the addictive effects morphine caused in his renowned book Morphinisme in 1890. In Turkey, Mazhar Osman published similar information in his book Keyif Veren Zehirler [Pleasure-giving Poisons] in 1934. Throughout the world, the addiction was more common among people in the health profession. Finally, once its adverse effects had been established, its use on soldiers as a method of pain relief during wartime was abandoned.

It would not be wrong to argue that today "Ecstasy" has begun to hold the place that morphine used to hold in society.

Psychedelic drugs, i.e., those drugs which make the spiritual side of human life apparent and visible, were initially defined as consisting of LSD and Mescaline in 1954, and later became influential in modern art and music.

Substances that have sedative and psychic effects, such as Mescaline, which is found in the Peyote Cacti in South America, were used in Aztec rituals. American Indians and Aztecs, who ate the leaves of the cacti and became ecstatic, called this plant the "Divine Plant." In 1895 the original molecule of Mescaline was identified. After the 1940s, by employing a similar pharmacology, LSD (an alkaloid of the ergot of rye) and psilocybin were also found. The Aztec mushroom was reproduced in clinical studies. Mescaline and other LSD-group substances produce feelings of excessive joy, and an excessive distortion of distance and depth perception. The person under the influence of these drugs talks incessantly about the past and the future. These substances stimulate religious feelings and a sense of strength, and all other things the person has suppressed at a subconscious level are poured out. While it is possible for alcoholics to have self-control to some degree, those who are under the influence of psychedelic drugs reveal everything, indiscriminately.

It is for this reason that some secret agencies, such as the CIA, used this substance in some major projects during the 1960s. Eventually such usage was outlawed.

LSD was discovered on April 19, 1943, by Dr. Markus Hopmann in his laboratory; he realized that this substance had caused something strange to happen to him. Hopmann recorded all of the changes that LSD was causing him to go through, minute by minute. LSD was produced from an alkaloid of ergot of rye.

LSD was utilized by spies, secret services, and criminal organizations to access the minds of the "enemy," and, if necessary, to change those thoughts, between the years 1950 and 1966. With the adoption of the Helsinki Convention in 1964, such experiments on humans were banned, and thus these activities have officially ceased to happen.

The exposition of people to these kinds of substances, effected by spiking their food or drink and the subsequent monitoring of their behavior to attain data is not scientifically acceptable. But the same methods can be employed in order to brainwash people in a camp-like environment; drugs and inculcation make a powerful team. It would even be possible to direct people to specific targets and to turn them into suicide bombers.

There are other substances that could be used by relevant groups to gain the loyalty of their members; this would help force the "soldiers" to perform the desired actions. If people can be groomed to be suicide attackers by providing them with drugs that boost their courage and with other substances that eliminate their fear of death, then the most expensive rockets would become obsolete.

"Ecstasy" is an illegal synthetic substance, and it is scientifically known as MDMA (metile endioxy metame fetamine). It is also called the "club drug" because it is used widely in night clubs, as it provides an artificial feeling of joy. The content of Ecstasy, which is produced illegally, is enriched with caffeine, "syrup of immortality," and cocaine, to make what is commonly known as "speed." Amphetamines can keep people hyperactive and vigorous for hours. They increase the attention span enormously, making people feel strong and energetic. Unlike LSD, amphetamines do not distort the sense of reality. They exhaust the serotonin resource in the brain, which is the part of the brain that is related to the sense of happiness (NIDA 2004). The high self-esteem and uncontrolled courage that come with amphetamines give a person a feeling of being as if in another world. In order to be able to maintain such energy, the person craves the drug more and more. If a person harbors feelings of revenge and hatred, then such drugs bring these feelings up to the surface, and direct the person to the target, even if to go toward this target would be suicidal. Today, studies are underway in the field of psycho-pharmacology that look in how to stimulate the area of the brain that is responsible for conditions that are associated with panic and the fear of death.

A thousand years ago, a group known as the notorious "Hash-hashiyyun" (people of the poppies) terrorized the Muslim leaders, scholars, and Islamic governments in the Muslim world; they went to their death fearlessly; this was due to the poppies that they consumed. Today, however, it is possible to brainwash people with the help of modern chemical agents, and to direct the same people to carry out specific actions.

It is possible for any service, organization, or state that possesses chemical laboratories equipped with high technology to delve into the thoughts of a group of people with LSD; it is then possible to feed the same people new propaganda; propaganda that is aimed at certain targets. These people will then be directed—by making them imbibe Ecstasy or amphetamines—to do any action within the following 8 to 10 hours.

The sad part of this is that world peace is being put at risk, or perhaps it is even being destroyed by the hand of science.

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