History of meth goes back to 1887

[~Absynthe~]

June 27, 2008
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Post-Tribune staff report

Methamphetamine became a drug epidemic in the United States during the mid-1990s, but it has been around for decades.

The stimulant's origins can be traced to Germany in 1887 when amphetamine, a close relative to the drug, was first synthesized. The drug made its way to Japan where a chemist used ephedrine to develop methamphetamine in 1919 as a way to treat fatigue and increase alertness, according to the Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse.

Amphetamine came to the U.S. in 1930 when doctors began using it to treat asthma and narcolepsy.

The U.S. began experimenting methamphetamine and amphetamine during World War II when Allied bomber pilots took them to stay alert during long flights. The irritability and aggressiveness caused by the drugs caused the experiment to fail, according to the Vermont Department of Health.

After World War II, the world saw its first epidemic when the drug made its way to Guam, the U.S. Marshall Islands and the U.S. West Coast.

By the 1950s, the epidemic had calmed, but many people were taking derivatives of it in the form of "pep pills."

Methamphetamine abusers began cooking the drug and injecting it in the 1960s, but abuse began to wane by the end of the decade.

The Drug Enforcement Administration began to crack down on methamphetamine during the 1970s with the Controlled Substances Act, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Drug abusers began evolving the way the drug was used in the 1980s, which is when people began smoking it.

By the mid-1990s, methamphetamine had become about five times stronger than it once was. During this time, manufacturers began moving their labs to rural areas where they would be isolated and had easy access to ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and anhydrous ammonia.

Congress passed the Comprehensive Methamphetamine Control Act in 1996 to regulate distribution of ingredients by monitoring the mail for substances such as iodine and hydrochloric acid.

I have heard before that it was used in World War II, by the Japanese fighter pilots, but I had no clue that it had been around since the 1800's.


http://www.post-trib.com/news/1027707,methhistory.article