[jackpirate]

Plenty of soldiers' lives depend on other soldiers' 100m dash times in combat... yet the military is quite good at preventing illegal drug use... and the drugs that soldiers most want to take are drugs that would harm physical performance

[Permit]

No they don't. The marginal running ability (or strength) of a soldier does not save lives. That is, a solider who runs a 12.5s 100m dash will not save more lives than a soldier who runs a 12.6s 100m dash.

Obviously there are minimum physical requirements to serve in the military, but once you're in you are not going to start saving more lives because you can run a little bit faster.

[strken]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_drugs_used_by_militari...

Modafinil, one of the common study drugs that med students are known to use, is used by quite a few militaries.

[FiveSquared25]

And also see morphine use during Vietnam war

[nradov]

Anecdotal reports indicate that illegal steroids and similar performance enhancing drugs are quite common in ground combat units. The military doesn't routinely test for those.

[kvee]

Soldiers use stimulants too -

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/why-are-we...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_and_culture_of_substit...

[rscho]

Yes, except that people who care for soldiers' lives outside of other soldiers are few and far in between.