Nazis and narcotics

Norman Ohler is rather hard on the Nazis, for compared to what our little group got up to in the late 1960s and 1970s, they were shrinking violets in the drugs department. We smoked cannabis, ate opium and sometimes took strong LSD; lines of uncertain content went up nostrils; and we swallowed countless uppers (speed) and downers (tranquillisers, sleepers for looning on). Speed was amphetamine sulphate. Benzedrine, Dexedrine, Methedrine were the three original brands, in rising strength. Soon there were many other names, including slang: Desoxyn, Durophet, Durophet-M (speed with Mandrax), French Blues, Purple Hearts, Black Bombers.

Many were prescribed by doctors who didn’t regard them as outrageously dangerous. I also purchased amphetamine in clear liquid form by the half pint from science undergraduates at both Oxford and Cambridge. In the early 1970s amphetamine sulphate appeared for snorting, an amateurish product, much cut. We took these drugs on an almost daily basis for years.