Microtrends: Amnesia beams

[Fredkc]

Now that I have jogged my memory a bit...

Here is a story and a situation whioch should give pause, really. Police deterining that a person on the street is "out of control" and them administering a drug which, not only renders them unconscious, but also removes the suspect's memory of the event.

The drug is called Midazolam, which is better known as Versed.

"The drug has an amnesia effect, and we use that therapeutically because one of the nice ways to take care of the discomfort is to make people forget that they've had it," said biomedical ethics and law enforcement expert Dr. Steven Miles.

But the shots have also been used on the streets on people police said were out of control.

One of the first to get the shot administered to them was Dameon Beasley.

"Well, that night, I hadn't been properly taking my meds, you know, like I'm supposed to. I got so depressed that when I was up on the bridge running into traffic back and forth, cars dodging me, swerving, I ended up with two sharp objects in my hands. By that time, the police had arrived. I was charging them with these sharp objects trying to make them shoot me, actually yelling at them to shoot me," he said.

When a Taser didn't work on Beasley, police turned to a brand new protocol -- an injection of Versed. Officers called emergency medical personnel for the injection.

"I remember they were holding me down. There was maybe four or five on each side, and I remember they were calling for something, you know. Some guy came up on the left side and hit me with it," he said.

"I do know that whatever it was works immediately. I mean, you ain't got a chance if you are 300 pounds. It's like a horse tranquilizer. I don't care. You're gone. It's a wrap," he said.

Beasley said he had no idea what happened after he was injected.

"I woke up -- I don't know how much time had passed -- with a sergeant standing over me telling me to sign here. I didn't know what I was signing. I just signed a piece of paper and was immediately right back out," he said.

You can read the full text of the original story here. Mind you the original story on MSNBC is gone. Removed. and a search of MSNBC for the words "police" and "Versed" now produce ZERO hits.

So yeah, we violated your rights, illegally questioned you, searched you, your vehicle, but now instead of worrying about a lawsuit, or some such silly thing, we'll just give you a shot (honest! He looked outa control to me!), and when you wake up, you sign a confession, a statement waiving rights, and who knows what else.

And this ain't "someday" either! They've been using this for almost 3 years.