The CIA once considered unleashing a “truth serum” made up of anti-anxiety drugs to milk information out of its detainees after 9/11, according to a report obtained this week by the American Civil Liberties Union.The drug in question, marketed under the brand name Versed, is often used as an anti-anxiety medication and can cause amnesia. The government had researched the drug’s use in a program called “Project Medication,” but held concerns over whether it would be considered unethical or illegal. The agency was already prohibited from conducting experiments on prisoners or "silently" dosing people with mind-altering drugs during interrogations. And because Versed would have to be administered intravenously by a doctor, suspects would be pretty aware of what was going on, canceling out many of its effects.So, amid those dilemmas, the program was shelved in 2003, sparing “physicians some significant ethical concerns” and a conversation with the Department of Justice, according to the once-sealed report released Tuesday.The agency’s harsh interrogation program ended in 2007, but the consideration of medication-laced interrogation methods harkens back to the CIA’s history with Project MK-ULTRA in the 1950s and '60s. That infamous program led to the unsuspected druggings — mostly through LSD — of government employees, members of the general public and physicians. After 9/11, the CIA thought the drug-based interviews might be less harsh than their physical torture methods: waterboarding, hitting, throwing people against walls and confining people to small, cramped spaces.In 2014, a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation found that these practices were overly cruel — and didn’t even work. At the time, then-President Barack Obama declared that the interrogation program had done "significant damage to America’s standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners,” according to the Washington Post.Cover image: LANGLEY, VA - JULY 9: The CIA symbol is shown on the floor of CIA Headquarters, July 9, 2004 at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Earlier today the Senate Intelligence Committee released its report on the numerous failures in the CIA reporting of alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. (Photo by Charles Ommanney/Getty Images)