Drugs can never be used safely as weapons, says BMA report
Sipa Press/Rex Features
Innocent hostages were gassed alongside armed rebels in Moscow |
Drugs could never be used as weapons or for law-enforcement without significant mortality among the target population, according to a new report by the British Medical Association, which considers the implications of the Moscow theatre siege in 2002.
“The agent whereby people could be incapacitated without risk of
death in a tactical situation does not exist and is unlikely to in the
foreseeable
future. In such a situation, it is and will continue to be almost impossible
to deliver the right agent to the right people in the right dose without
exposing the wrong people, or delivering the wrong dose,” the report
concludes.
Vivienne Nathanson, BMA head of science and ethics, said: “It is
important to remember that target groups are likely to comprise people
of varying weights, sizes and ages; some may be pregnant or have pre-existing
medical conditions. It is virtually impossible to control the amount
of a drug delivered or to ensure it acts without producing toxic effects
or causing death.
“It is disingenuous of governments to
describe drugs as non-lethal — there is no difference between a
drug and a poison except the dose. Using drugs as a method of law enforcement
may constitute a violation of international conventions which prohibit
the use of chemical weapons.”
The report was written because of interest expressed by governments in
the use of drugs as weapons. What was subsequently claimed
to be a derivative of fentanyl mixed with halothane led to 130 deaths among more than 800
hostages being held by armed Chechens in a Moscow theatre in 2002 (PJ,
16 November 2002, p723).
“Health care professionals and their associations have a number
of responsibilities with regard to the use of drugs as weapons. The most
important is to
bring their specific knowledge to bear in this domain,” the report
concludes. “This would bring reality to the political, diplomatic,
legal, military and law enforcement dialogue about ‘non-lethal’ weapons.
From an ethical perspective, health care professionals need to begin
a deeper examination of their roles in relation to such use of biomedical
knowledge and medical expertise for hostile purposes.”
The report is available from the BMA science and education department,
tel 020 7383 6164.
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