Drugs for military or police work condemned

The British Medical Association has issued a report into the use by governments of drugs, usually delivered by airborne means, for disabling people in hostage situations, for example. The UK-based physicians' association noted the use of an anesthetic by Russian forces during a terrorist siege in a Moscow theater. Over 120 hostages were reported killed by the agent.

Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the BMA, told the BBC that "it is disingenuous of governments to describe drugs as non-lethal - there is no difference between a drug and a poison except the dose."

The BMA report claims that authorities in China and the USA, in particular, are pushing for a loosening of restrictions on the use of chemical weapons, in order to develop policing uses.