Learn about the History of Methamphetamines


This is Hitler at a rally


Ok yes Hitler used meth! As a matter of fact the whole Nazi military did and so did the Japanese and the Allies even the USA but I will get to that after we cover the actual beginning of methamphetamine history ok? Lets start where it actually began.

The first time they ever made or synthesized methamphetamine was in Japan in 1893 by a guy named Nagayoshi Nagai and he got it from ephedrine which oriental cultures had been interested in for a long time. They didnt get it into crystal meth form until 1919 when Akira Ogata from Japan made it by reduction using red phosphorous and iodine like the crank cooks do now. Now before all this a German dude made amphetamine but as i keep on saying that is a whole other drug they call speed and NOT meth so Im not gonna talk about that here.

Now when they first invented methamphetamine it didnt so much all ready have a use. Not a particular medical condition or disease that they came up with it to treat but instead they made it first and then started looking for what it might be good for. By the 1920s they were trying it on everything from depression to colds to whatever they could think of because surely such a powerful drug would be helpful medicine they thought.

Up until the 1930s you really couldnt find methamphetamine but what you found instead was amphetamine and that got used to catch a buzz back then because of the Great Depression and Prohibition where they made alcohol illegal in the US if you can imagine that! The thing about
methamphetamine was that it could be made easy as the guy in Japan proved and because it dissolved in water people could inject the stuff in their veins.

So then along comes Word War II and we got not just the Japanese troops using meth but also the Nazis. They made meth in tablets under the name Pervitin in 1938 from a company called Temmler and found out that it could keep soldiers alert and make them need less sleep DUH! So because of that they gave it out to sailors, soldiers and pilots sometimes put inside chocolate so it would be easier to take than the pill form. Another version called Isophan was also sent out to the front lines and to give you an idea we are talking huge amounts of this stuff like in 1940 before the Nazis cracked down on it because of abuse they put out 35 million tablets to the military between April and July of that year!

Adolf Hitler himself hasnt been said to be a drug addict but when the Nazis started losing the war his Dr. Theodor Morell started giving him injects of methamphetamine every single day probably because they needed him to stay awake longer and try to beat the Russians who were about to invade not to mention the US and other Allies. Sometimes in videos they took of Hitler you could see his hands shake so some people say thats due to the meth but it could also be Parkinsons disease or syphillis depending on who you believe. On top of the Nazis getting the Pervitin they got booze for relaxing and sometimes even morphine which is basically heroin. In fact by the end of the war in 1944 the Nazis had an idea to make a drug called D-IX which was meth and cocaine with moriphine all in one pill. They figured that might help them make the super soldiers they wanted so bad. If you think this sounds like a great time to be an addict think again because if the military or other parts of Nazi Germany thought you were becoming a addict then you might get to take a trip to a research center to be studied and become a canadate for "Law for Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases" which means they could castrate you to stop you from reproducing or even euthanize
you if they so chose to.

The Nazis were not the only ones to use methamphetamines for the soldiers though there was also Imperial Japan of course. Over there some they gave it to to their soldiers and kamikaze pilots but that is not real clear. What is known is that after WWII the Japanese Imperial
military stockpile got into the hands of the civilian people and they called it shabu. A huge problem of shooting up meth came around then in the late 40s and early 50s but Japan flat out banned the drug in 1951. Then the yakuza which is the Japanese version of the mafia started getting into dealing meth and some say they still do that today.

Then in the US came Methedrine a prescription version of meth that doctors would perscribe for narcolepsy, obesity, depression and if you can believe it alcholism! These tablets got used by college kids trying to study longer and truck drivers who had long hauls to make in the 50s.

Then came the 60s and people started to make meth at home and alot more started shooting up methampetamine than before when they just took tablets. In 1970 the Controlled Substances Act got passed which restricted alot of pharamaceutical grade meth production but of course it was too late to stop people from taking the drug just to get high.

Around the 70s is when the so-called outlaw motorcycle gangs got into the game. These guys made and distributed crank all up and down the West Coast which is where meth became more popular. In 1983 the federal government passed laws to make it illegal to have the ingredients and supplies to manufacture meth and then in 1986 the Federal Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement Act got passed to try and stop the designer drug craze. By this time crank started to catch on in the Midwest and South of the US especially in the small towns and out in the country because it was a cheap drug to make so poor people would try to make it and sell it like they did with bootlegging booze back in the day.

By 1997 crank had gotten popular in the Midwest and South where it started to get noticed by the police in those places. While they say that meth use peaked in the 80s there sure wasnt no shortage of crank on the streets in the 90s and even after 2000 if you ask me. Even with those hard new laws what started happening was you saw more labs that people set up in cars or houses get busted. Why so many labs you ask? Well it got more expensive to buy the drug because instead of the bikers selling it you had the Mexican cartels getting into the scene and all the other big international crime organizations coming onto the scene and these are the same guys who have been dealing massive amounts of cocaine and heroin for years so they know what they are doing. People turned to the home made crank to try and get it cheaper but wound up getting busted instead half the time.

California of course is the major state where meth got produced especially in San Diego which a lot of people call the meth capital of the USA. By the 90s youd see rich kids making what they called bikers coffee which was meth dropped into coffee and alot of tweekers came out the raver scene too where they would mix crank with ecstasy so they could dance all night or whatever. Every time a new generation or social clique starts using crank it takes a while for the bad effects to start showing because you got to remember that this drugs been out for now sixty years being used by people to get high and who knows when or if it will ever go away.

You are talking a drug that goes for anywhere from three grand to $30,000 a pound! That is a reason why people keep risking all kinds of prison time and getting killed by competitors to keep getting it to the tweekers.

We are about done with the history but last there is the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 which is part of the Patriot Act and put in a bunch of new laws and regulations on the cold medicine like sudafed and contac plus other allergy medications. The idea being they could stop people from getting the raw ingredients to make crank meth and put an end to it being manufactured here in the US. So far the feds are saying its working but I imagine there are still tons of tweekers out running around because i know I still see them from time to time even tho I dont have nothing to do with those kinds of people. The bad side effect of these laws may end up being that the raw ephedrine or pseudoephedrine starts coming from other countries in huge shipments so people still will make it here or also that the meth itself starts coming from overseas where they can make it cheaper or whatever. I doubt the story of crank is done yet.

So what is my bottom line for showing you all this history? To prove to you how and why the drug started getting used in the first place and to show the risks that people making and or selling it are getting in to. Whether you think meth is a good thing or not you need to educate yourself on the laws and the history because theres no since in being ignorant about the world around you. The main thing that I think will ever make meth go away is if it doesnt make money because once it became illegal that was the main thing that kept it going people want to get paid! And crank addicts spend a hell of a lot of money to keep getting high over and over again so that is a perfect way for a dealer to make his money back fast on the investment of buying the drug or making it. Until the profits disappear I am thinking meth will be out on the streets. After all heroin and cocaine are even older and they cant be grown in the US yet they are still out there too.

Atleast now you know how the drug came to be and what all happened back in the old days. It is up to all of you to write the rest of the story if you know what i am saying and I am sure you do.