interesting book on my shelf called ON SPEED. history of amphetamines. speed, meth, have a bizarre history in the USA. meth wasn’t actually criminalized until 1970. it was super widely available prior to that…and somehow we survived. it was a “miracle drug” that was EVERYWHERE….the people loved it, doctors prescribed it, and the cheap way to get it was in vick’s inhalers. you’d open em up, take out the inhaler pads froma few of them, mix them in coffee, and VOILA, a hefty dose of speed.
the real question is, was JFK a speed freak? the evidence is unclear, but in the new book, DR.FEELGOOD, it looks to me the authors make a decent case that JFK was getting heft doses of steroids and meth from his doctor. which was not particularly sensational at the time, as it was perfectly legal and acceotable to do so….
meth is what we demonize today. tomorrow it shall be something else.
