Free Republic

Starved Israeli hostages were fed tranquilizers and extra food right before they were freed by Hamas to make them appear calm and happy for the cameras, Israel said Tuesday. An Israeli Health Ministry leader told a Knesset Health Committee that the 110 civilian hostages returned in a swap for Palestinian terror suspects last week were given the Israeli brand of Klonopin “to improve their mood,” according to the Times of Israel. The benzodiazepine-class sedative and muscle relaxant can produce a euphoric feeling, which could explain why at least one hostage went viral for her supposed “look of love” toward a...

In 1986, Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka published a book about an unlikely future called “Nature’s End”. In it, the world is so beset by environmental problems that were left over from the 1980’s, that a cult leader calling for 1/3rd of the planet’s population to commit suicide in order to cull the population is taken seriously. While the novel is ridiculous and events have proven its apocalyptic vision mostly incorrect, there was one element in the story which was true to life: in this future world, there was widespread use of mood altering drugs. The use of mood altering...