Still in use by the US Air Force. Although it's amphetamine / modafinil instead of meth. I'm always curious if they train while medicated, which seems kind of necessary considering how it modifies decision making behavior.
- "Go pills" are either dextroamphetamine (Similar to adderall), or modafinil. They are not used for normal day-to-day training. They are used reasonably heavily on deployments and international flights, to keep you sharp in these situations (Sudden combat after a long uneventful air patrol, or just fighting drowsiness while crossing the ocean and needing to mid-air refuel for the 5th time etc.)
No-go pills (eg ambien) are also common on deployments, mainly to deal with shift changes, or dealing with sunlight affecting the circadian rythm.
Use is up to the individual. I found that Dex has a severe impact on my sleep, even when taking 14+ hour prior. It is a very effective mental performance enhancer and obliterates exhaustion IMO, if you don't develop a tolerance. Ie, if you have available when flying, and take only when needed.
Rule of thumb: Always fly with dex available, but only take when needed. Never have ambien anywhere in the cockpit, or you risk mixing them up.
Modafinil has been the go to pill for the Air Force for quite some time. I don't know about nowadays, but in the mid 00s they handed it out like candy in the war zones. Same with Ambien. (source: I was there)
Well, per [1], it increases dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and other chemicals in the brain. It is highly unlikely that it has no effect on one's decision making (esp. when you take it when you are _not_ very tired). It's more likely that you don't notice the effects, but the effects would likely be measurable.
It's the same with caffeine. I'd wager a guess that most people don't think it influences their decision making... And yet it seems it does (e.g. [2]).
Modafinil increases my risk-taking behavior much more than amphetamine does, though otherwise has much lower physical side effects than amphetamine. Took me awhile to realize I was being incredibly flirty due to modafinil. It was typically well-received and it took me a long time to realize that it was modifying my behavior. But once I knew what to look for I saw the modifications across wide parts of my life including work and personal goals. Generally made me take on more ambitious goals.
Eventually I suffered some traumatic events and modafinil started causing anxiety, especially when mixed with caffeine, and I found vyvanse was better after that for managing my ADHD without quite as much paralyzing anxiety.
Everyone’s brain reacts very differently to each stimulant. On the very rare occasion that I take cocaine I usually just fall asleep and enjoy a hard nap! I don’t experience about 90% of the effects my friends report from it.
Caffeine keeps me awake all night long even if I have just half of a cup of coffee any time after 11AM, and increases my anxiety to the point where it’s very difficult to be productive.
Dextroamphetamine and Vyvanse both affect work productivity similarly for me but dextroamphetamine shuts down my social interaction, whereas Vyvanse increases it. This is particularly strange because they “should” be the exact same active drug once the Vyvanse is metabolized. Biology is still very much being discovered and there is a lot that we just don’t know yet.
I remember reading a study on modafinil that found people on modafinil for a couple days when giving directions where apt to be irritable and not throwing in identifying details.
so a modafinil user "Go three blocks that way, turn left, go two blocks turn left again, turn right immediately"
non-modafinil user "Go that way until you see the Circle-K, turn left, then it's two blocks where you have to turn left again, the street name is something like Majors way, and then the first time you can turn after that you turn right - there's a large drawing of a man drinking coffee on the side of the building"
on edit: unfortunately no idea where I read this but that was a big let-down for me as it implied there was perhaps no such thing as a free ride. Bummer.
Very much underestimate the impact of exhaustion. If I recall correctly, I read a study that driving after a long day of work was many times more dangerous than driving over the legal limit for alcohol. Kind of puts both into perspective
"Pervitin was one of the first commercially available formulations of methamphetamine hydrochloride (salts); it also contained large doses of caffeine. It was used by Nazi soldiers, sometimes along with cocaine, to help them remain alert on night patrols, long marches and also to help increase aggression and stamina during battle. Pervitin was heavily used by Stuka (a German fighter plane) pilots to help keep them alert on long patrol flights, hence the nickname "Stuka tablets". By 1940 the German Army had started greatly reducing the number of tablets each solider was allowed to have due to the severe side effects. While the drug was in their system, it had the benefit of causing decreased fear and increased strength, stamina, aggression and gave them a high resistance to pain. However, after the drug wore off, soldiers often took several days to recover. They suffered from a form of amphetamine "hangover" and were pretty much useless for the next few days because they acted more like zombies than soldiers; this was mainly because of the long duration of methamphetamine's effects which would cause soldiers to be awake for a few days straight, so it would take several days for the body to recover. Pervitin use also was responsible for Nazi soldiers becoming too aggressive and attacking fellow soldiers and superior officers. It also caused some to commit war crimes by killing civilians and raping women and young girls as amphetamines often greatly increase libido and decrease inhibitions."
One of the takeaways is that meth works ok during fast blitz campaigns like Poland or France where you want to get the whole thing over in a few weeks at most. But it works horribly in a long attritional fight like the eastern front where soldiers start suffering from the cognitive and physical consequences while still in the field fighting.
"How Methamphetamine Became a Key Part of Nazi Military Strategy" https://time.com/5752114/nazi-military-drugs/