Carson and CNN host Poppy Harlow were discussing GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's views on the effectiveness of torture when the retired neurosurgeon suggested the United States could use a "truth serum" instead."I believe there are a number of ways to extract information," Carson said. "Including, you know, some medical ways of, you know, putting people into a less than conscious state which allows information to be extracted much more humanely."Harlow asked Carson to clarify what he meant by "medical ways," so Carson put it in simpler terms."Well, the average person might understand it as truth serum," he said. "But, you know, there are ways where you decrease a person's conscious defenses and they might be much more willing to give up information.""What is truth serum?" Harlow asked. "What is that?""Sodium amytal," Carson said. "There are a variety of different things we can use now. We've made some advances in that kind of science."
Sodium pentothal -- the original "truth serum" -- was discovered in 1936 by Ernest H. Volwiler and Donalee L. Tabern working in Chicago at Abbott Laboratories. They were trying to create an injectable drug for use in general anesthesia. Their discovery was a success and had a huge impact on surgery. Sodium pentothal is still used today to knock out patients before they are given another, longer-lasting anesthetic to keep them unconscious during surgery.
Sodium pentothal made surgery far less painful. It also has an interesting side effect. People under its influence lose their inhibitions and babble on about all sorts of things, leading to some amusing moments for surgical teams. This loss of inhibition gave a few researchers hope that the drug or something like it could be used to get the truth out of people in police stations, security interrogations or trials.
But outside of Hollywood, no drug passes muster as a potion capable of getting accurately at the truth. People do get uninhibited and talk more freely, but they don't necessarily stop lying or fantasizing. They also grow more compliant, tending to agree with those asking them leading questions.
There is no solid evidence that what is said under the influence of a "truth" drug correlates reliably with the truth. For the most part, people yammer away. If anything, they behave as if they were drunk rather than diligently affirming the sober truth.Why don't these people ever listen to the actual experts on interrogation (like the FBI) who know that the only way to get reliable info is to gain a suspect's trust. I guess it's just not as fun to get information if you don't use some kind of coercion or force to extract it against the person's will. On the other hand, I guess we should be grateful that Carson isn't endorsing torture and mayhem like the GOP front runner.