Recreational use of Benzedrine-or bennies-became a popular part of Beatnik culture in the 1950s. The German army ordered front-line soldiers and fighter pilots to take military-issued stimulants that contained a combination of methamphetamine and cocaine. Japanese factory workers also used methamphetamine to work longer hours. Kamikaze pilots received high doses of Pervitin before suicide flight missions. Japanese, U.S., British and German military personnel are reported to have used the stimulant to enhance endurance and ward off fatigue on long campaigns. Methamphetamine triggers a response in the body that’s similar to adrenaline, heightening alertness and a willingness to take risks. Methamphetamines in World War IIĭuring World War II, German pharmaceutical company Temmler marketed methamphetamine tablets as a nonprescription drug under the brand name Pervitin. People soon discovered its euphoric, energizing side effects.īecause of these stimulant-type effects, pharmaceutical companies began to manufacture Benzedrine in pill form for narcolepsy (a sleep disorder). Their inhaler medication, called Benzedrine, was initially available without a prescription. Benzedrine and Early Methamphetamine UseĪmerican pharmaceutical company Smith, Kline, and French began marketing the amphetamine inhaler for use in asthma and nasal congestion in 1932. This gives users a rapid, intense high, making crystal meth both more addictive and potentially more harmful than other forms of methamphetamine. Smoking the drug can quickly elevate levels of methamphetamine in the brain.

It may look like shards of glass or clear-white rocks. Other, illegal forms of methamphetamine-usually in the form of a white powder-can be recreationally snorted or dissolved in water and injected.Ĭrystal meth is a solid, crystalline form of the drug. A form of the drug known as methamphetamine hydrochloride, marketed as Desoxyn, is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-controlled substance used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obesity.Īdderall (amphetamine) and Ritalin (methylphenidate) are related FDA-approved drugs that have typically been used to treat ADHD in adolescents. He used phosphorus and iodine to reduce the ephedrine into a crystallized form, creating the world’s first crystal meth.Ĭrystal Meth and Other Types Of Methamphetamine Methamphetamine was difficult to make until 1919, when another Japanese chemist-Akira Ogata-streamlined the process. In 1885, Nagai Nagayoshi-a Japanese chemist studying in Germany-identified the active chemical in ephedra, a stimulant called ephedrine. Scientists first developed amphetamine-type stimulants-including methamphetamine-as a manmade alternative to the ephedra plant.Įphedra is a type of shrub whose extract has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for over 5,000 years. After the war, meth use increased dramatically, even after it was outlawed by the United States in 1970. During World War II, the Allies and Axis powers both used the drug to keep troops awake. Methamphetamine was used early on as a medical treatment for narcolepsy, asthma and as a weight-loss drug. A Japanese chemist first synthesized methamphetamine-also called meth, crank, crystal meth or speed-from another stimulant in 1893.

Kamikaze drink history