Marine security

Finland authorises work to begin on 'Squadron 2020' OPVs

The Finnish Ministry of Defence (MoD) has given its mandate to start work on the 'Squadron 2020' (or 'Laivue 2020') future offshore patrol vessel (OPV) project.

The project will cost about EUR1.2 billion (USD1.35 billion). The MoD has signed agreements with local shipbuilder Rauma Marine Constructions (RMC) with a view to the company being likely to build the four new warships for the navy. These agreements have specified conditions to be met. The whole process (from design to commissioning) will be overseen by the Finnish Defence Forces Logistics Command (FDFLC), as the navy's equipment purchaser.

The FDFLC has stipulated that the vessels must be designed and then built domestically. RMC is the only major Finnish-owned yard that has the capacity to build and maintain surface combatants of the size of the OPVs. As IHS Jane's has previously reported, the new platforms will displace about 2,500 tonnes.

Diplomats security

Is Vladimir Putin Poisoning U.S. Diplomats?

 Many a Western visitor and not a few expats living in St. Petersburg in the 1990s shared stories about poisoned libations in the city’s watering holes. That gorgeous metropolis, renowned for the elegance of its 18th century architecture, had become Russia’s Wild West. Local bandits shot each other dead in the streets. And local residents who worked as translators and assistants for Western businessmen and journalists, myself included, often got emergency calls at odd hours from their foreign friends pleading for help.

“Somebody drugged me!” the foreigner would scream in the receiver—somebody like a hooker or just a drinking companion, and the victim felt as if he, or occasionally she, was about to die.

Nuclear security

Why Deterring ‘Unprecedentedly Terrible Nuclear Attacks’Is Now on the Pentagon’s Agenda

Speaking at Minot Air Force Base (North Dakota) on Monday, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter accused Russia of «nuclear saber-rattling» and argued that even though the Cold War is long over, the US Army still needs nuclear weapons to deter Russia and other potential aggressors from thinking they could get away with a nuclear attack. 

However, knowing it would be difficult to sell the image of «Russian aggressors» as suicidal, (everything will burn in a global nuclear war, including those who started it), the head of the Pentagon was quick to say that people should probably not expect a global conflict. «Today», he stated, «it’s a sobering fact that the most likely use of nuclear weapons is not the massive nuclear exchange of the classic Cold War-type, but rather the unwise resort to smaller but still unprecedentedly terrible attacks, for example, by Russia or North Korea».

The manner in which Ashton Carter frightened his audience could be considered a banal attempt to get even more money to modernise America’s nuclear weapons and their means of delivery. It seems that the $108 billion he mentioned, which will be used for this purpose over the next five years, is not enough for the Pentagon.

Forensics

A Dog, The New Weapon To Fight Child Pornography In Will County

The Will County state’s attorney has a new weapon to fight child pornography — a black Labrador named Cache.

Though most crime-fighting dogs are known for sniffing out bombs or drugs, Cache, has another set of very unique skills — he has been specially trained to detect hidden electronic devices.

Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow purchased Cache, the first electronic detection dog in Illinois, from Jordan Detection K-9 in Greenfield, Indiana, according to a statement from Glasgow’s office.

Cache was trained by Todd Jordan, an Indiana firefighter who pioneered the training of dogs to detect a proprietary chemical used in SD cards, thumb drives and other electronic devices that store digital content, according to the statement.

Military

BAE Systems Begins Producing U.S. Army’s Newest Thermal Weapon Sights

The U.S. Army has awarded BAE Systems a $13.5 million order to begin producing the new Family of Weapon Sights-Individual (FWS-I) thermal weapon sight for soldiers. Under the low rate initial production award, the company will deliver more than 100 weapon sight systems as part of a previously announced five-year contractfor the Army’s Enhanced Night Vision Goggle III and Family of Weapon Sight-Individual (ENVG III/FWS-I) program.

“These advanced weapon sights will allow soldiers to conduct surveillance and acquire targets in any light or weather conditions, increasing mission safety and effectiveness,” said Marc Casseres, director of Imaging and Aiming Solutions at BAE Systems. “This production order means that soldiers are one step closer to receiving this mission-critical technology for use in-theater.”

The BAE Systems-developed FWS-I solution integrates the company’s first-to-market 12-mircon technology, which helps make its offering smaller and lighter while providing superior image quality. The uncooled infrared thermal weapon sight allows soldiers to clearly view targets at more than 1,000 meters away. The clip-on sight can be mounted on an M4 carbine, M16A4 rifle, M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, M136 AT4 rifle, or M141 Bunker Defeat. It can also seamlessly connect with the ENVG III for increased survivability and lethality.

International security

U.S.-Russia Ties Crumble Under Weight of Syria, Nuclear Pact

Ties between Russia and the U.S. deteriorated further after the Obama administration proclaimed bilateral peace talks over Syria dead and Moscow suspended a 16-year-old treaty meant to reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation.

“Everybody’s patience with Russia has run out,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in Washington on Monday, blaming Vladimir Putin’s government for undermining the fight against Islamic State and for indiscriminate bombing that has killed civilians and targeted hospitals in Syria. “Russians have been complicit” in the Syrian tragedy, Earnest said, and “there is nothing more for the United States and Russia to talk about.”

Nuclear security

Russia Adds Hundreds of Warheads Under Nuclear Treaty

Russia increased its deployed nuclear warheads over the past six months under a strategic arms reduction treaty as U.S. nuclear warhead stocks declined sharply, according to the State Department.

During the same period, the United States cut its deployed nuclear warheads by 114, increasing the disparity between the two nuclear powers.

Russia’s warhead increases since 2011 suggest Moscow does not intend to cut its nuclear forces and will abandon the New START arms accord as part of a major nuclear buildup.

“It is now highly unlikely that Russia intends to comply with New START,” said Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon nuclear weapons specialist now with the National Institute for Policy.

At the same time, the Obama administration is continuing a program of unilateral nuclear disarmament despite promises by President Obama to modernize and maintain U.S. nuclear forces as long as strategic dangers are present.

The latest Russian warhead increases coincide with increased tensions between Moscow and the West.

Electoral battles

Post-mortems: The Clinton-Trump debate—A degrading spectacle

It says a great deal about the US political system that, out of 330 million people in America, the choice for president has been narrowed down to these two individuals, both members of the financial aristocracy—they last met face-to-face when the Clintons attended Trump’s third wedding in 2005—and both deeply and deservedly hated by a large majority of the population.

There was not the slightest intellectual substance or reasoned political content to the so-called “debate.” No topic was addressed with either intelligence or honesty. Both candidates lied without effort or shame, slinging insults and prepared one-liners against each other while posturing as advocates of working people.

The capitalist two-party system in America has never put a premium on intelligence or truth. It has always been based on politicians who represent the interests of a narrow stratum at the top of society, while pretending to speak for all of the people. But by 2016, this pretense has lost all credibility.

Civil defense

Amid Escalating Tensions, 40 Million Russians Practice for Nuclear Emergency

Amid collapsed diplomatic efforts over Syria and increasing tensions with the United States, the Russian government is beginning emergency response exercises on Tuesday that will include the participation of thousands of government officials and many millions of citizens who will respond to a mock nuclear attack or other large-scale catastrophe.

The four-day drill will reportedly include 200,000 rescue professionals, tens of thousands of emergency vehicles, and an estimated 40 million civilians from around the country.

"Our priority during the drill is to train evacuation of the civilian population from potentially-risky areas," Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov, who oversees all civil defense in Russia, told the Interfax news agency. "The main goal of the drill is to practice organization of management during civil defense events and emergency and fire management, to check preparedness of management bodies and forces of civil defense on all levels to respond to natural and man-made disasters and to take civil defense measures."

Cybersecurity

Russian cybersecurity firms greenlit to hack Viber, WhatsApp encryption - report

Russian cybersecurity companies have a greenlight to decrypt traffic of such popular communication tools as Viber, WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger, a popular business daily reports. The measure is connected to a recently-adopted anti-terrorism law.

“We are going to look into the main messengers — WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Skype both for iOS and Android,” Kommersant cites a letter from an employee of Con Certeza, a company dealing with the development of tools necessary for enforcing law in the telecommunications field.

The employee wrote that the company aims to make conclusions about the possibility of accessing sensitive data – which includes identifying the parties, their passwords and the content of the messages, including using the Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attacks – and to come up with a working prototype for a system, if such a possibility exists.

National security

America’s National Security Trilemma — and How to Solve It



America’s military is the world’s best, say Gen. David H. Petraeus and scholar Michael O’Hanlon. (Some like to call it the finest force the world has ever known.) If that is so, why can’t it win our wars?

The country’s track record since 9/11 has been so dismal, in fact, that senior civilian and military leaders from three major NATOallies have told me in recent months that their faith in American leadership has eroded significantly.

Is our military prowess over-hyped, like the talented athlete who chokes in real matches? Or is military capability ineptly employed, like an all-star player poorly coached by an overwhelmed staff?

The problem is closer to the latter. America has a terrific military. It also has brilliant diplomats, intelligence officials, aid experts, and civil servants across the government. But in recent conflicts, the whole has been less than the sum of its parts – and unequal to the task.

Middle East

US Military Builds a New Air Base in Northern Syria

The US is building a military airfield in northern Syria as part of its ongoing campaign against Daesh, a representative of the Syrian Democratic Forces command told Sputnik on condition of anonymity.

The construction site, located between the cities of Sheddadi and al-Hasakah and secured by SDF fighters, sits on a major oil and gas field. The US Air Force will make active use of the new air base during the operation to liberate Raqqa. “The Americans previously built military airfield in Rimelan in al-Hasakah Governorate and in Kobani in Aleppo Province, and they will now have another one in Sheddadi with its large deposits of oil and gas,” the SDF representative told Sputnik.

International security

Pakistan threatens a nuclear war with India

With the West distracted by entertainment, professional sport and the U.S. presidential elections, the war clouds that started gathering over the Indian subcontinent in September have now thickened after a threat from Pakistan that it will use nuclear weapons to “annihilate” India.

The latest flare-up in the 70-year-old India-Pakistan conflict began after an attack on an Indian army base by jihadi suicide bombers infiltrating from Pakistan that left 19 Indian soldiers dead.

India responded with what it called a “surgical strike” on the terrorist camps inside the Pakistan-administered part of Kashmir, resulting in “significant casualties” among the jihadi militants, in addition to some regular Pakistan troops.

Drug smuggling

How Smugglers Attempt to Get Drugs and Other Contraband Over the Border

Mexican authorities said on Monday that they had discovered a homemade bazooka that appeared to be designed to launch packages over the border fence from Mexico into the United States.

This makeshift launcher, discovered in the state of Sonora across from Arizona, is the latest in innovative methods used to smuggle drugs and other contraband over the International Boundary Fence into the U.S.

While the bazooka method has been used to throw drugs over a fenced area of the border in the past, it is not common or particularly effective, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). A similar contraption was discovered on the California border in 2013.

"As you might guess, someone needs to be reasonably close to the fence to receive the package of drugs where agents patrol. Or come by later to look for it," CBP spokesperson Ralph DeSio said in a statement to ABC News.

Radiation safety

France’s Nuclear Power Stations ‘At Risk of Catastrophic Failure’

The review was carried out at the request of Greenpeace France following the discovery of serious metallurgical flaws by French regulators in a reactor vessel at Flamanville, where an EPR plant is under construction.

The problem is that parts of the vessel and its cap contain high levels of carbon, making the metal brittle and potentially subject to catastrophic failure. These key components were provided by French nuclear engineering firm Areva, and forged at its Le Creusot.

“The nature of the flaw in the steel, an excess of carbon, reduces steel toughness and renders the components vulnerable to fast fracture and catastrophic failure putting the NPP at risk of a major radioactive release to the environment”, says nuclear safety expert John Large, whose consultancy Large Associates (LA) carried out the Review.

His report examines how the defects in the Flamanville EPR reactor pressure vessel came about during the manufacturing process, and escaped detection for years after forging. It then goes on to investigate what other safety-critical nuclear components might be suffering from the same defects.

Public security

'Mini-Hiroshima' Expert warns of nuclear armageddon threat from airliner over UK city

A BOEING 737 enters UK airspace posing as a Russian civilian airliner, crossing Europe and the Channel without arousing any suspicion.

Once over British soil it heads for London, where it drops from its cruising altitude of 37,000ft to around 30,000ft before a nuclear device stored in the hold is detonated over the capital.

This is the terrifying sequence of events that aviation chiefs have been warned to protect against at an annual airport security conference in London.

Analysts studying emerging threats to UK air security believe an atomic bomb planted on a civilian airliner by a rogue or enemy state is a distinct possibility.

Radiation security

Fukushima Nuclear Radiation Has Contaminated the Entire Pacific Ocean – And It’s Going to Get Worse

If that weren’t bad enough, Fukushima continues to leak an astounding 300 tons of radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean every day. It will continue do so indefinitely as the source of the leak cannot be sealed as it is inaccessible to both humans and robots due to extremely high temperatures.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Fukushima has contaminated the entire Pacific Ocean in just five years. This could easily be the worst environmental disaster in human history and it is almost never talked about by politicians, establishment scientists, or the news. It is interesting to note that TEPCO is a subsidiary of General Electric (also known as GE), one of the largest companies in the world, which has considerable control over numerous news corporations and politicians alike. Could this possibly explain the lack of news coverage Fukushima has received in the last five years? There is also evidence that GE knew about the poor condition of the Fukushima reactors for decades and did nothing. This led 1,400 Japanese citizens to sue GE for their role in the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Nuclear security

Moscow Prepared for Possible Nuclear Attack: Statement of Russian Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM)

Representatives for the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM) said that all bomb shelters and underground shelters in Moscow meant for the evacuation of people in case of a nuclear attack or other emergencies, “were prepared and will be able to accommodate the entire population of the capital.”

“As a result of the introduction of new approaches to civil defense, an inventory of underground facilities of the city was conducted. The Moscow underground facilities will be able to protect  100% of the population of the city,” deputy head of EMERCOM of Russia in Moscow, Andrei Mishchenko said.

He also added that the department takes urgent measures to enhance civil defense. The department updates the legal framework and modernizes control and alarm systems.

International security

Do We Really Want Nuclear War with Russia?

Through an endless barrage of ugly propaganda, the U.S. government and the mainstream American press have put the world on course for a potential nuclear showdown with Russia, an existential risk that has been undertaken cavalierly amid bizarre expressions of self-righteousness from Western institutions.

This extraordinarily dangerous moment reflects the insistence of the Establishment in Washington that it should continue to rule the world and that it will not broach the possibility of other nations asserting their own national interests even in their own neighborhoods.

Rather than adjust to a new multi-polar world, the powers-that-be in Washington have deployed a vast array of propaganda assets that are financed or otherwise encouraged to escalate an information war so aggressively that Russia is reading this onslaught of insults as the conditioning of the Western populations for a world war.

Privacy security

U.S. intelligence community opposes efforts to curtail privacy watchdog

The U.S. intelligence community does not support pending congressional legislation that would curtail the authority of a privacy watchdog that advises the president on government surveillance programs, according to an unclassified memo seen by Reuters.

The position amounts to a rare show of support for the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, or PCLOB, from the spy agencies it is designed to oversee.

It came in a letter to the leaders of congressional intelligence committees that outlined opposition to several sections of an annual intelligence funding bill awaiting action in Congress.

President Barack Obama’s senior advisers would recommend a veto of the bill if Congress does not address the concerns raised, the letter said.

Aerospace

The CIA’s Legendary Blackbird Was Actually the First Stealth Warplane

In 35 years of military and CIA service, the Blackbird became legendary for its blistering top speed and sinister appearance. But a just-released, formerly top-secret official CIA history underscores the Blackbird’s lesser-known but equally important accomplishment.

In addition to being really, really fast, the Blackbird was also the world’s first operational stealth warplane—an honorific that most historians reserve for the 1980s-vintage F-117.

In the mid-1950s, America’s first spy satellites were still in development. The only way for the Pentagon to spot the Soviet Union’s army divisions, airfields, and command centers was to fly an airplane overhead and snap photographs.

Nuclear security

Why It’s Safe to Scrap America’s ICBMs

In recent years, Russia and the United States have started rebuilding their Cold War nuclear arsenals, putting the world on the threshold of a dangerous new arms race. But we don’t have to repeat the perilous drama of the 20th century. We can maintain our country’s strength and security and still do away with the worst of the Cold War weapons.

The American plan to rebuild and maintain our nuclear force is needlessly oversize and expensive, expected to cost about $1 trillion over the next three decades. This would crowd out the funding needed to sustain the competitive edge of our conventional forces and to build the capacities needed to deal with terrorism and cyberattacks.

The good news is that the United States can downsize its plans, save tens of billions of dollars, and still maintain a robust nuclear arsenal.

Tortures

Tunisian men detail CIA black site torture involving electric chair and more

The men, who were released to Tunisian custody in 2015, described being threatened with placement in an electric chair at a black site prison in Afghanistan in 2002; being beaten with metal batons while their arms were suspended by a bar above their heads; and having their heads pushed into barrels of water.

One of the men, Ridha al-Najjar, was a pivotal detainee for the CIA, which believed him to be a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. Najjar was the first man taken by the CIA to the black site, which was code-named Cobalt and was where at least one detainee is known to have died. His interrogation became a template for others at the site, according to the CIA inspector general. Najjar said the interrogators forcibly inserted something into his anus.

Smuggling

‘Vagina smuggling’: Woman stopped over Florida hit-and-run, hides ID in her private parts

A woman was arrested in Florida for driving a vehicle without a valid license. When police asked for her identification, it was nowhere to be found – at first.

The vehicle that Taccara Nauden, 28, was a passenger in was pulled over after reports of the vehicle being involved in an alleged hit-and-run in Hollywood, Florida at the weekend.

Hollywood police discovered Nauden had an active warrant for operating a vehicle without a valid license and had previously been arrested on November 9, 2015 on a $500 bond. She was rearrested on Saturday.

...According to the Huffington Post, the act of “vagina smuggling” is a common but hushed-up topic among law enforcement.

Police said some women have used their genitals to store everything from marijuana to handguns.

Intel gathering

Islamist terrorists tried to kill MI5 spy

A former MI5 spy has revealed he was nearly kidnapped and beheaded by Islamist extremists who had plotted to kill a British intelligence operative.

The spy narrowly escaped being lured into a trap by fanatics he was following and it was later discovered they had made preparations to film his execution.

The incident is recalled in a new book by the former intelligence officer who spent years carrying out street surveillance on Islamist, IRA, Russian and Chinese targets in the UK.

Border security

Border Immigration Surge in 2016 will be Largest Ever

Two years ago, tens of thousands of Central American migrants—mostly minors and family units—flooded the U.S. border with Mexico to such a degree that the Obama administration labeled the influx a “humanitarian crisis.” According toCustoms and Border Protection data, over 130,000 were apprehended.

U.S. Border Patrol stations, processing centers, and shelters were quickly overwhelmed, and the Department of Health and Human Services had to step in to manage care for thousands of unaccompanied minors. The U.S. government learned a difficult lesson in the summer of 2014 as a result and took several measures to prevent this crisis from happening again. However, border migrant apprehension and processing statistics for 2016 show that the numbers could be even higher by the end of this fiscal year.

Biosecurity

Zika vaccine race spurred by crisis and profit potential

The race to find protection against the Zika virus is fueled by something often missing from tropical disease research: the potential for big profit. The prospect of a blockbuster vaccine against a mosquito-borne virus has accelerated the pace of development and attracted the interest of big drugmakers, including Sanofi SA (SASY.PA), GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L) and Takeda Pharmaceuticals (4502.T).

Although Zika infections are mild or asymptomatic in most people, demand for a vaccine is expected to be strong because it can cause devastating birth defects, pharmaceutical executives and disease experts said.

The most lucrative market is seen in travelers seeking inoculation against the virus that has moved rapidly across the Americas and is the only mosquito-borne disease also spread through sex.

Cybersecurity

People are already selling drugs, animals, and adult services on Facebook's new Craigslist competitor

Facebook officially took the wraps off its new Craigslist and eBay competitor, called Marketplace, on Monday. And people are already using it to brazenly sell things that violate Facebook's policies, including drugs, animals, and adult services.

For example, we've seen listings in Marketplace for snakes, baby hedgehogs, fish, a farm hand, and scantily clad people posing suggestively. (More examples are at the bottom of this story.)

A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment to Business Insider beyond pointing us to the company's Commerce Policy, which expressly prohibits selling these kinds of items and services.

Whistleblowing

Hillary Clinton considered drone attack on Julian Assange - report

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reportedly wanted to drone Wikileaks founder Julian Assange when she was secretary of state.

According to True Pundit, Clinton and the state department were under pressure to silence Assange and Wikileaks in the months before the whistleblowing site released a massive dump of 250,000 diplomatic cables from 1966 up to 2010, dubbed CableGate.

“Can’t we just drone this guy?” Clinton asked, according to unidentified state department sources.

Published by True Pundit on Sunday, Wikileaks posted a link to the story on their official Twitter account on Monday, along with a screenshot of the article.

Health security

Black Monday: Polish women strike against abortion ban

Thousands of women in Poland have gone on strike in protest against proposals for a total ban on abortions.

They marched through the streets wearing black as a sign of mourning for their reproductive rights.

Women who oppose the ban are staying away from work and school and refusing to do domestic chores, in a protest inspired by a women's strike in Iceland in 1975.

Anti-abortion protests are being held around the country too.

National security

The National Security State – Joined At The Hip To Terrorism

Since 9/11, untold sums of money have gone into building up the national security state. That includes new billion-dollar-plus headquarters for some of its agencies,hiring outside contractors by the bushelful, and creating a system of global surveillance the likes of which would once have been inconceivable even for the rulers of totalitarian states.  It includes the National Security Agency constructing in Georgia “the world’s largest listening post” focused only on the Middle East.  James Bamford describes it as a “$286 million, 604,000-square-foot facility [that] has more than 2,500 workstations and 47 conference rooms, and... employs more than 4,000 eavesdroppers and other personnel.” 

Middle East

US Holds No Military Talks With Russia, Not Planning Joint Operations in Syria

The United States and Russia have no military to military conversations or plans for joint operations in Syria, US Department of Defense spokesperson Adrian Rankine-Galloway told Sputnik on Monday.

"We are not currently planning any joint military operations with Russia, nor are we having military to military conversations," Rankine-Galloway stated when asked about military contacts between Washington and Moscow on Syria. Earlier in the day, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said the United States and Russia had not maintained military contacts recently. He noted, however, that Russia is attempting to negotiate with the United States the steps needed to restore the cessation of hostilities agreement in Syria.

Radiation safety

50 years after 'we almost lost Detroit,' America's nuclear power industry faces even graver doubts

The history of nuclear power in the United States has been marked by numerous milestones, many of them bad — accidents, construction snafus, engineering incompetence, etc., etc.

One anniversary of an incident that has cast a long shadow over the nuclear power industry’s claim for safety will be marked this week. On Oct. 5, 1966 — that’s 50 years ago Wednesday — Detroit Edison’s Fermi-1 nuclear plant suffered a partial meltdown, caused by a piece of floating shrapnel inside the container vessel. 

According to subsequent inspections, no radioactivity escaped to the environment. No injuries were reported inside or outside the plant. The worst case scenario of a “China Syndrome” incident in which melted fuel pooled within the containment vessel and reached critical mass didn’t even come close to occurring.

Nuclear security

Russia suspends weapons-grade plutonium deal with US

Russia has suspended an agreement with the US on the disposal of surplus weapons-grade plutonium, the latest sign of worsening bilateral relations.

In a decree, President Vladimir Putin accused the US of creating "a threat to strategic stability, as a result of unfriendly actions" towards Russia.

Moscow also set pre-conditions for the US for the deal to be resumed.

Under the 2000 deal, each side is supposed to get rid of 34 tonnes of plutonium by burning it in reactors.

It is part of cuts to nuclear forces.

The US state department said the combined 68 tonnes of plutonium was "enough material for approximately 17,000 nuclear weapons". Both sides had reconfirmed the deal in 2010.

Drug trafficking

The Great Binge: Heroin, Cocaine and Opium Over the Counter

It’s difficult to imagine now, but from 1898 to 1910 heroin was marketed as a cough syrup and treatment for migraines. In 1886, John Pemberton included cocaine as the main ingredient of his new soft drink, Coca Cola. In 1910, the French were consuming over 36 million litres of absinthe a year, the potent alcoholic drink even used as treatment for soldiers suffering from Malaria.

The period from 1870 to 1914 is referred to by some historians as the Great Binge. It was a time when stunning advances were made in pharmaceuticals and chemistry. Numerous drugs were developed, widely sold and consumed with little regulation or prohibition.

During the Great Binge, substances that are now some of the most vilified could be found advertised in newspapers and magazines, at times even marketed for children. It’s a bizarre fact which shows the drastic shifts that have occurred in our understanding of narcotics and intoxicating substances.