'KNOCKOUT' DRUGHUNT BY C.I.A. IS DESCRIBED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000300030003-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 13, 2004
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: August 16, 1977
• Content Type: NSPR

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16 August 1977
'KYCCI(OIITTRIIGFlIIYT
BY C.I.A. IS DESCRIBED
Records Toll of Proposed. Tests on
Hospitalized Persons in 6-Year
Project Costing $531,960
By JO THOMAS
Sq-clal to Tho New York Ttmea
WASHINGTON, Aug. 15--The Central
Intelligence Agency- sponsored a six-year
search for a "knockout" drug during
which scientists were supposed to ana.
lyze spinal and other vital fluids from
comatose and delirious patients hospital-
ized with terminal cancer; liver failure,
uremia and severe- infections, newly de-
classified records show.
. The project w di 'designed to discover
the biochemical mechanisms that cause
delirium and to develop new drugs and
techniques to produce "maximum levels
of physical and ' emotional stress in
human beings," the documents show.
To keep their pool. of human subjects
and to continue the project's "cover," the
researchers were also supposed to evalu-
ate other effects of the drugs they-were
developing, such as their anticancer or
cardiovascular effects.-
The C.I.A. records show that this drug
project lasted from 1955 to 1961 and cost
$531,960. Funds went from the C.I.A. to
the Washington-based. Geschickter Fund
for Medical Research Inc.
.Data on Humans Incomplete
While the records clearly describe the
research proposed: for humans and for
parallel animal studies, only the results
of the animal studies are described-in
.detail. References.' to the results of the
proposed human studies are vague and
generalized and do not show conclusively
that they were actuallj- performed.
The documents, which were heavily.
censored before being declassified; do not
indicate where the delirious and comatose
patients were hospitalized, how many
subjects-if any-were used, and what,
if anything, happened to them afterward.
The documents do show that the project
was designed and financed to provide for'
.two biochemists to analyze "bodily.fluids.
in a toxic state," that "the chief interest'
in the toxic cerebral state centers in pa-
tients,", and that $43,000 was spent on
this portion of the project in the 1957.58
A research proposal drafted for Febru-
ary 1956 through February 1957 shows
that the biochemists were supposed to
analyze blood serum, cerebrospinal fluid,
intraperitoneal fluid from the abdomen
and pleural fluid from 1 V1 Fier
tients in a, variety of - con i Ions-'many
terminal'=-that might cause toxic cere-
Failure of Vital Organ
In these patients, some vital organ
other than the brain would-have failed-
causing them to pass. from mild mental
disorientation into delirium--and"' comas.
Some would be suffering, from liver or
kidney' failure; others,` from ;advanced
cancer or severe infection.
Under the proposal, one biochemist as-
sociated with.. the hospital's routine serv-
ices would provide- routine analysis. The
other -biochemist would try to isolate
toxic constituents in the fluids.
"While the chief interest in, the toxic
cerebral state centers in patients," the,
proposal said, parallel experiments' were
planned for laboratory animals.. Over the
years, these included guinea pigs, rabbits
and rats.
In January 1957- a? C.I.A. memorandum
noted that research in the field of "natu-
ral toxic psychoses" had been undertaken 1
in the previous year and.-would continue
in 1957. ' The : researchers had also
screened 10D new drugs and found three
that, at that time, looked promising, in-
cluding "a very potent new type of bar-
biturate and possible alcohol antidote."
Many Covert Projects
The knockout drug project was one of
dozens of covert medical studies financed
by the C.I.A. during a 25-year effort. to
learn how to control human behavior.
This project occurred during MK-Ultra,
the code name for the research at its
most intense stage. . ' . .-
Many of the documents describing these
experiments have been destroyed, but last
month Adm. Stansfield Turner, the Direc-
? for of Central Intelligence, announced
that 5,000 pages of documents pertaining
to these projects had been discovered in
the agency's archives. Admiral Turner
testified about these on Aug. 3 before
a joint hearing of the Senate Select Com-
mittee on Intelligence and the Senate
Health subcommittee. -
Dr. Charles F. Geschickter, who headed
the Geschickter Fund, which received
funds for the knockout 'drug :.studies,
could not be reached for comment. He
is one of four men who have been sub-
poenaed to testify before the health sub-
committee on Sept. 9.
Dr. Geschickter, a pathologist and for-
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