Activity 4

MSNBC’s article “Go pills: A war on drugs?,” NY Times’ article “Bombing error puts a spotlight on pilots’ pills,” and The Christian Science Monitor’s article “Military looks to drugs for battle readiness” all provide insight on the use of “go pills” in military pilots to fight fatigue on long missions. I had not heard of the use of these pills for pilots before, so I found these articles and this subject to be interesting. I think the military’s continued use of amphetamines to increase alertness and performance is a very controversial issue that has logical arguments and support for both sides.

In my opinion, I think that the military is ethically distributing the pills. These pills and their use are strictly regulated and the military is not forcing any of the pilots to take any pill if they do not agree to it and sign a consent form. Additionally, the unused pills are taken away after each mission. I think that since it is the pilot, and the pilot alone, in the aircraft then it should be his/her decision on whether or not they need the pills to prevent fatigue and potentially save their lives. As pointed out by Major General Dan Leaf, “It’s an insurance policy. When they’re in the air there’s no place to pull over. It’s a life-or-death situation. The decision to take a pill is made by the individual pilot.” The pilots are fully informed of the potential for abuse and every pilot is not going to become addicted.

As for the pilots’ careers, I think that they will suffer without the pills because they are expected by the military to preform and resist effects of sleep deprivation. However, there are consequences of using this type of drug in this line of work. One of these consequences includes impaired judgment, as shown by the two National Guard pilots that mistakenly bombed Canadian troops. Another consequence is that this drug, Dexedrine, is currently a schedule II drug, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and can also cause anxiety, paranoia and heart problems.

Some strategies to reduce the consequences of taking amphetamines include making sure that the pilot is well-rested before he/she leaves for their mission because studies show that low doses of amphetamines do not affect reaction time or decision making ability in well rested people. They just improve the mental performance of people who are fatigued. I think this would reduce the amount of pilots that use the drug while in flight. Another strategy that could reduce the consequences is continuing to monitor how many and how often pilots are consuming the pills. I think that the military taking away the unused pills right after flights helps to reduce the potential of addiction as well.

I think this topic relates to class material because it ties into the government and the bans they place on certain substances. It is shocking to me that the military would provide a schedule II drug to soldiers, but I think that the most shocking statistic out of these three articles was that fatigue has claimed more deaths among military pilots in the past two decades than combat duty. It was also stated in the articles that the use of this drug has not caused any deaths. This goes to show just how dangerous fatigue can be and the necessity for something to remedy it. Even though providing drugs is not the ideal way to fix this problem, it seems to be the best solution out there at the present time.