-- On 22 Oct 2001, at 23:05, measl@mfn.org wrote:
My understanding (from questioning on this topic in the distant past with an MD/"shrink") is that the sodium thiopental/pentobarbital/etc. "truth serum" is an urban legend. He was quite specific that the drug was a definite aid to relaxing patients, and "allowing" them to go where they _wanted_ to (psychiatrically speaking) with much less "work", but that "pentothal interviews" were very much not free-will altering devices.
In vino veritas. People will confess under mere psychological pressure even when sober, sometimes to terrible crimes that they have not committed. A wide variety of drugs, most famously alcohol, will make them even more talkative, though less coherent and intelligible. Most of the date rape drugs are also highly effective truth serums, most of them considerably more effective even than alcohol. Jimson weed can get anyone to talk with alarming frankness, though what they say may not make a lot of sense, or have any reliable connection to reality. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG OV/M+pPz395rYGZdJAWC2jLQTsBD3fd0KW7/Aptz 4zUt5zqlpjnRPDD27tfczySh5sIhOm2VMSIQaItmW