6. High Times at Edgewood

Your stoner friends were right about this one. The U.S. military did test drugs like LCD and marijuana on soldiers during the Cold War. These experiments came out of Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland beginning in 1955.

In addition to researching chemical weapons, the project’s goal was to find non-lethal agents that could incapacitate the enemy during combat, or encourage prisoners to willingly spill the beans during interrogations.

 

Thousands of soldiers were given everything from mescaline to PCP often without their knowledge or with limited details. Not all left with just a bad trip though. Some soldiers were given potentially-lethal doses of sarin and VX. Many endure lingering psychological trauma and health defects to this day. They still seek proper medical care from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Public outrage and a Congressional hearing led to the project’s termination in 1975.