Honestly, the long term effect that I've felt of pepper spray is that it's made me decidedly more radical in my politics. Like, I went from just wanting to hold my opinions and play my music to actively organizing with my local anarchist collectives.

I believe a lot of folks feel that way- I know a lot of folks who were pretty moderate in their actions and outlooks that have experienced the state using chemical weapons on them and who are now much, much more radical in their outlook.

Raw Story is not a particulary credible source, but it raises important questions: What are the effects of chemical [0] crowd control tools, such as tear gas? Is it more than pain / discomfort? They cite this Lethal In Disguise report (which might be a good FPP):

https://lethalindisguise.org/

According to the PDF (in its summary, p. 12): "Tear gas has continued to be used extensively around the world. While chemical irritants continue to be the primary crowd-control agent used by law enforcement and security forces to repress and disperse protests, there is almost no publicly accessible manufacturer or government-sanctioned literature on the composition, health or environmental safety standards on the use of these weapons."

That's pretty surprising given tear gas's long history. I wonder if it's a failure of research or of this report.

[0] I doubt it takes much to grasp the consequences of kinetic tools.