Chemical security

Fentanyl as a Chemical Weapon

It is less well known that fentanyl and its analogues have been investigated as incapacitating agents by a number of countries. In the United States, the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Justice conducted such investigations into the 1990s.7 Military and nonmilitary security entities, in the United States and abroad, long had an interest in effective forms of less-than-lethal force, including chemicals. Tear gas was used by numerous military forces before the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and remains a mainstay of law enforcement around the world for riot control.8 DOD produced an incapacitating chemical weapon in the early 1960s that utilized the psychoactive compound BZ (3-Quinuclidinyl Benzilate), but eliminated it by 1989.9 Tear gas and BZ did not meet the objectives of incapacitating agent research, which was to discover a chemical, or a cocktail of chemicals, that would incapacitate an adversary individual or unit—fast enough to preclude the target from resisting and long enough to enable the target to be disarmed or other objective to be achieved—without causing permanent harm. Tear gas compels an unprotected person to flee the area, while BZ can cause bizarre behavior. DOD saw promise in fentanyl and some of its analogues, or a combination of such compounds, for incapacitation, but did not solve the margin of safety issue prior to the program’s termination.