Lena Cao (Lc206@uakron.edu)
“Truth Serum” refers to a psychoactive drug containing various drugs such as sodium pentothal, scopolamine, and sodium amytal that is said to be a truth-inducing drug that prevents lies. How accurate has “truth serum” proven to be and is “truth serum” constitutional to be used during interrogation and legal court cases?
Truth serum has been used in an attempt to extract truthful information from suspected criminals for the past century. Truth serum can be compared to being under anesthesia during surgery, but instead of allowing the patient to fall into a deep coma, truth serum is administered in a lower quantity to keep the person in the sweet spot between the unconscious body and the conscious mind, called the twilight sleep. However, when it was first discovered, truth serum was not used to prove someone was guilty, but rather to prove someone’s innocence. The first truth-inducing drug was scopolamine. In 1922, Dr. House observed that this anesthetic drug would cause his patients to fall into a state where they would answer questions in an almost instinctive and automatic way. Once the subjects had awakened from the effects of the anesthetic drug, they claimed that they could not control the answers that came out of their mouth. By the conclusion of Dr. House’s experiments, he stated that “subjects under the influence of scopolamine would be unable to lie because the drug temporarily destroys the brain’s power of reasoning”.
After the initial discovery, many groups such as the military, CIA, and even the Nazis set on to experiment with alternative drugs. Many of these alternative drugs used were called barbiturates (sleep-inducing sedatives). Like many drugs, overdosing on barbiturates can be lethal and has caused many deaths, including the death of Marilyn Monroe. Though it never had once been scientifically proven to be accurate, truth serum was commonly used in interrogation (also referred to as narco-analysis) and then used as evidence in court to determine if a suspect was guilty or innocent during the 1920s-1940s. There is no way to prove that truth serum prevents lies from being told, in fact, it has been proven it is still possible to lie while under the effects of truth serum. Apart from lethal deaths caused by being administered truth serum drugs, there is another problem with the use of truth serum. Being coerced into making untrue confessions is already a huge problem in the justice system all around the world. As the person picks up on slight cues made by the questionnaire, the effects of narco-analysis can cause the person to be more susceptible to manipulation and criminalizing themselves.
Certain issues about narco-analysis were repetitively brought up. People who undergo analysis are not capable of giving consent, statements are made involuntarily, and in many situations, physical assault and mental assault have been used during this method of interrogation. In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case Townsend v. Sain, that confessions obtained from the use of truth serum were unconstitutionally coerced. Therefore refuting all evidence obtained from narco analysis, whether it is from alcohol or drugs. Truth-inducing drugs have since been ruled unconstitutional and unethical under international law. However, similar to the use of polygraphs, the continuous use of narco-analysis is still frequently used in various parts of the world.