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Some of our soldiers that keep our border safe have brought back a new "commodity" used by Evorian (Border country) soldiers.

They call them "cigarettes", and they have become pretty popular in our army, everyone wants to try them. After some research, we have found they contain nothing bad and our neighboring country isn't trying to kill/maim our men with them.

But we can't let our men use foreign cigarettes. We need to produce our own. Our home industries have all the means to produce them.

Our head of Military wants to make more than a simple cigarette for our soldiers. They have ask the most brilliant minds of our nation to create a cigarette that could help our soldier. The desired effects are:

  • Better focus
  • Calming down after combat
  • Help with healing
  • Pain reduction
  • Any other effect which could help our brave soldiers perform better in their duties for the motherland.

So what could be added to regular cigarettes to help soldiers in this fashion?

Note: all the effects cited earlier are examples, I don't need them all, I just want to know which one are the most possible and useful.

Additional information: this world has a tech level equivalent to 1960-70. Imagine the two counties being the United States and the Soviet Union.

Totally unrelated fact: I am a non smoker and don't work for the cigarette industry, I just like protagonists who smoke.

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    $\begingroup$ What are you searching specifically that cannot be found with a google search on stimulating drugs? $\endgroup$
    – L.Dutch ♦
    Commented Jan 22, 2019 at 17:22
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    $\begingroup$ Stimulants during peacetime cause various addiction, discipline, and corruption problems. Instead of pharmacological research, consider investing in better leadership and professionalizing your force. $\endgroup$
    – user535733
    Commented Jan 22, 2019 at 19:52
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    $\begingroup$ umm....points one and two are why I smoked cigarettes when I was in the Military (horrible vice was really, really.....really hard to quit). Could include 3 too, if you include stress reduction for healing (and ignore what inhaling hot smoke with fun additives does to you)....also 4 for strictly psychological reasons (I can attest to that part) $\endgroup$
    – LinkBerest - SO sold our work
    Commented Jan 23, 2019 at 1:21
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    $\begingroup$ It's worth noting that the nicotine in regular cigarettes produces small improvements in the speed of muscle reflex, memory retention and focussed/sustained attention (all fairly useful traits for a soldier): ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC31902 If withdrawal wasn't markedly detrimental to those same traits it would probably be more useful. $\endgroup$
    – Ynneadwraith
    Commented Jan 23, 2019 at 12:51
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    $\begingroup$ You state that the cigarettes were found to "contain nothing bad", which either means they're substantially different from the real-world cigarettes I'm familiar with, or the research was insufficient. Would it be possible to clarify which one, and what the differences are if it's the first option? $\endgroup$
    – Kamil Drakari
    Commented Jan 23, 2019 at 19:33

1 Answer 1

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My vote would be amphetamines, as there is some precedent for their use. In World War 2, they were used by the allies to improve energy and focus, specifically with pilots and bombing crews. Then again, amphetamines aren't exactly the kind of thing you want freely distributed among the troops. Even in WW2 they were closely regulated.

Instead, cannabis would probably be a lot safer and in line with calming and healing soldiers. It has been said to be beneficial in the treatment of PTSD and is famous for making boring assignments and bad entertainment more palpable. So, cutting the cigarettes with small amounts of THC and making some strict rules about when they can be smoked might be a good idea for your higher ups. Plus, these Colombian-cigarettes would be more desirable than the foreign ones, which seems to the the goal.

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