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From: honig@ics.uci.edu (David Honig)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: BZ (psychemicals)
Message-ID: <1991Jan19.033844.1106@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 19 Jan 91 03:38:44 GMT
References: <1991Jan17.053412.28932@cbnews.att.com> <1991Jan18.001443.5440@cbnews.att.com>
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From: honig@ics.uci.edu (David Honig)
In article <1991Jan18.001443.5440@cbnews.att.com> kp74615@lapasorsa.tut.fi (Karri Tapani Palovuori) writes:
>
>In article <1991Jan17.053412.28932@cbnews.att.com> Otto.Makela@jyu.fi (Otto J. Makela) writes:
>>
>>In a Finnish newspaper article there was discussion of psychemical weapons,
>>ie. hallucinogenics and similars.  I remember reading a Readers Digestive :-)
>>article from the 60s on this stuff, which was rather sketchy and had some
>>pretty wild claims.  I'd like to know a bit more about these chemicals
>>(in the newspaper article this class was called BZ - where do these names
>>come from ?) 
>
>BZ is not a group but a single chemical - quinuclidinyl benzilate (sp?).
>Some other bezilates and glycolates are also potential psychoagents.

I believe BZ acts like atropine, and is properly called a "deleriant"
rather than a hallucinogen or psychotomimetic.

Interestingly, atropine (and chemical cousins) are the active
ingredients in Jimsonweed, a plant that got its name from an incident
in pre-revolutionary America.  To supress a colonial rebellion,
England send troops.  Troops that got hungry and foraged, and ate said
weed.  The troops were reported to have taken off their clothes,
barked at the moon, etc.  They were not very effective as a military
force for a couple of days.  The weed got the name of the city that
the incident occurred near: Jamestown.

-- 
David Honig

"Moral righteousness through superior firepower."