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Former SAS Soldier Opens Up About The Drugs Taken In Combat

Former SAS Soldier Opens Up About The Drugs Taken In Combat

He's reflected on the role of drugs in his memoir, High Risk: A True Story of the SAS, Drugs and Other Bad Behaviour

Jake Massey

Jake Massey

A former SAS soldier has opened up about the drugs taken in combat.

Ben Timberlake was embedded with US soldiers during the war in Iraq, where he said drugs were routinely used to keep the military working.

He said drug-taking was commonplace.
Pexels/Specna Arms

Speaking to VICE, the 47-year-old said: "With the American soldiers, there was Provigil, Adderall and all these quite Gucci stimulants - medical-grade uppers that the US military medics dished out like candy. The Brits made do with Pro Plus.

"There were always bins of Jolt Cola, things to keep people wired.

"The Americans work nuts hours - the smell of every ops room is the smell of coffee that's been reduced to nail polish to keep everyone going.

"What I don't know is whether we will start seeing court cases from former soldiers - because I would imagine that if you were witnessing a traumatic incident and you were on a stimulant, you would be more likely to suffer from PTSD."

On one occasion - Christmas Eve 2006, to be precise - Timberlake said he dished out ecstasy tablets among US soldiers, transforming the despondent atmosphere to scenes of jubilation, with troops hugging and wishing each other a happy Christmas.

This sort of thing became commonplace on his houseboat on the Thames between 2003 and 2008, which he used to form an unofficial MDMA-fuelled therapy group for troops with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Participants would all pool their money so they had an 'ample supply of wraps' and they would begin taking the drugs early doors.

Soldiers used MDMA to help deal with PTSD.
Pexels/Somchai Kongkamsri

Timberlake told VICE: "We had a rule that we had to do our wraps by 9AM - certainly before noon.

"We worked out that if we took the MDMA in the morning, people told the stories a lot better... Drugs were dumped in bowls and everyone could help themselves. We were completely f****d."

He continued: "The whole thing about PTSD is it's a cluster of horrible symptoms that revolve around a traumatic episode - or episodes. Any little reminder can produce a full blown flight or fight response.

"MDMA puts an amazing wedge in there. There's no threat in the world when you're on vast amounts of MDMA, so you can revisit this stuff and you can talk about it."

You can read more about Timberlake's story in his memoir High Risk: A True Story of the SAS, Drugs and Other Bad Behaviour.

Featured Image Credit: Pexels/Pixabay

Topics: War, army, Interesting, Drugs, Community

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

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@jakesmassey