#99: 💊 Where Have All The Quaaludes Gone?
#99: 💊 Where Have All The Quaaludes Gone?
Popular in the 1960s, now the Forgotten Drug
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💊 Where have all the Quaaludes gone?
📚 Emily in Paris
⚡️ Where Love Lives in the Brain
💊 Where Have All The Quaaludes Gone?
Quaaludes were a popular U.S. household drug in the 1970s and 1980s.
We haven’t heard much about them since, besides an epic reference in Martin Scorcese’s film the Wolf of Wall Street to Lemmon Quaaludes.
Quaalude is the trade name for methaqualone.
Methaqualone is a hypnotic sedative.
It was first synthesized in India, and the first big markets it hit were Germany and Japan.
Methaqualone quickly gained a reputation for addiction and abuse.
When it reached the US in the 1960s, it was prescribed to treat insomnia and anxiety.
It was manufactured under the name Quaalude with the number 714 stamped on the tablet.
"Doctors were essentially giving them out like candy," says Justin Gass, author of “Quaaludes (Drugs: The Straight Facts)”.
"It was very easy to obtain Quaaludes in the mid-late 1970s and early 1980s."
People could buy them semi-legally at “stress clinics" without needing to visit a GP.
These were pseudo-medical centers that would hand out the maximum legal prescription.
Eventually these actions would lead to the downfall of the clinics.
America in the 1950s and 1960s was having a sedative boom.
The barbituates of the 1950s became stigmatized and drug companies therefore introduced newer sedatives, such as Librium and Valium, which claimed to be significantly different.
Young people view the older sedatives as these soul-killing corporate things that turned their parents into conformist robots.
And Quaaludes were part of the new wave of drugs which contributed to its popularity.
Quaaludes were also unpatented, so any pharmaceutical company could produce it.
Disco Biscuits
In the late 1960s and 1970s Quaaludes became popular for recreational use in discos and were known as disco biscuits.
The reputation was that Quaaludes could relax people so that they can have freer sex, which made them catch on across college campuses.
Popularity skyrocketed.
Musicians sang about Quaaludes.
David Bowie’s song ‘Time’ references “Quaaludes and red wine.”
Frank Zappa sings of “Quaalude moonlight.”
Effects
Quaaludes boost the activity of the brain’s GABA receptors and this increase in GABA activity causes blood pressure to fall.
Effects include drowsiness and reduced heart rate and respiration.
The high can be very powerful, with an onset of just 30 minutes and lasting up to six hours.
The deep state of relaxation explains why Quaaludes were first prescribed for insomnia.
Tolerance to the drug builds quickly, leading to more of the drug being required to achieve the same effect.
An overdose of the drug can cause coma and death.
When Quaaludes are combined with alcohol, overdose and death can occur at much lower doses.
Alcohol is also a central nervous system depressant, so “luding out on the Qualuudes and wine’ which was a standard practice in the 1970s, saw users magnifying the effects of the drug.
Why Don’t We See Quaaludes Anymore?
In 1984, Quaaludes were listed as a Schedule I drug in the U.S. and Class B drug in the U.K., which makes production and distribution illegal.
The function of methaqualone has now essentially been replaced by benzodiazepines and barbiturates.
The unfortunate reality is that opiates are the downers of choice nowadays and far more dangerous.
Rohypnol, a drug commonly cited in sexual assault cases, is part of the Valium family and has sometimes been referred to as the Quaalude of the 1990s.
It has many of the same effects. It’s quick to work, erases memory and is a muscle relaxant.
While legal production of Quaaludes in the U.S. ended in the 1980s, underground labs in Mexico still continue to manufacture the pill and it is still used in South Africa and India under different names.
Quaaludes in the Headlines
In 2005, actor and comedian Bill Cosby testified in court that he had acquired Quaaludes ‘with the intent of giving them to young women to have sex with’ and admitted to giving the sedative to at least one woman.
At that time, Cosby had not been charged with a crime in connection to allegations that he drugged women in order to have sex with them. His lawyers denied all allegations.
Cosby was found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault at retrial on April 26, 2018 and on September 25, 2018, he was sentenced to three to ten years in state prison. Cosby was released in 2021 after nearly three years in prison when Pennsylvania's state supreme court overturned his conviction.
📚 Book of the Week
No book this week because I was sucked back into the reality of…Emily in Paris - Season 4.
But the savages at Netflix split the season into 2 parts.
So, we only get 4 episodes now and another 4 episodes after September 12. Grrr.
Regardless, I love the show and deeply agree with Tim and this tweet.
⚡️ Check This Out
A study published in August 2024 in the journal Cerebral Cortex reveals where love lives in the human brain.
Researchers used brain imaging to better determine the neural activity of where love lives in the brain.
During the study, researchers from Aalto University presented scenarios to participants to measure brain activity related to six types of love: romantic love, parental love, platonic love, maternal love, paternal love, and self-love.
Each type of love is associated with distinct brain regions, suggesting that different neural mechanisms underlie these different forms of love.
For example, romantic love is associated with increased activity in the reward system, while parental love is associated with increased activity in the regions involved in empathy and caregiving.
Researchers found love for one’s children generated the most intense brain activity, followed by romantic love.
For love for pets, the researchers found overall less activation than for love for humans.
Edited by Wright Time Publishing