Advances in Neuroscience and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
Table 4
Examples of concerns about the future of neuropsychopharmacology*.
- Use of neuropsychological agents as incapacitants
“Aerosols of opioids serve as excellent incapacitantsRussia deployed this technology in the Moscow Dubrovka Theatre in 2002. The agents were probably fentanyl derivatives”
- Nanotechnologies that allow dispersal of highly potent chemicals over wide areas
“Pharmacological agents are not used as weapons of mass effect, because their large-scale deployment is impracticalHowever, technologies that could be available in the next 20 years would allow dispersal of agents in delivery vehicles that would be analogous to a pharmacological cluster bomb or land mine.”
- Technologies for highly potent blood-pressure agents or sensory specific pharmacological targeting
“Existing pharmacological agents could be used in a nefarious waycurrently used agents, such as alpha blockers, that would work quickly to drop blood pressure if delivered in high dosesanticholinergic agents could cause molecular changes that lead to temporary blindness.”
- Drug-delivery systems applied to the blood-brain barrier
“New nanotechnologies have allowed molecular conjugation or encapsulation that may permit unprecedented access to the brain.”
