Thanks to Indy Neidell for doing research on this in Prague in the 1990s and taking one for the team. Who knew some random Texan bloke who illegally ran a Scottish youth hostel who then stayed in the former Iron Curtain was actually doing critical WW2 research?
As far as I know special groups under the special operations command of the US. still use a weaker amphetamine during operations. Can't remember the name but in Iraq they would give guys amphetamine stuff for sleep, and anxiety. I use to use methamphetamine but I clean almost 4 years. Extreme euphoria, talkative, less pain response, and higher pain tolerance , with little resource requirements , such as H20, food, sleep, with extreme concentration and enhanced energy . endless stamina and, concentration is how I would describe the effects I don't recommend. It'll make you brave, also create a lack of general care of the situation and environment. definitely would boost morale. Problem is the side effects especially overtime of use, and overuse. The addiction aspect could make people not really even care about anything, given enough use time they'll be a complete change of state of mind. Definitely not a healthy drug, and should only be used as a crutch during certain times , difficult times. If you had to endure 3 days no sleep, or food after 6 hard days of fighting that's what you want. I myself definitely don't recommend it maybe less potent, and easier psych side effects would be more beneficial. I wouldn't recommend it even then, the long term side effects of prolonged use aren't great. I can't use stimulants of any kind. Nicotine caffeine, and sugar is what I stick to.
Uppers, cigarettes, booze. Heroin even, for the wounded. If you're facing death (or boredom, the other inevitability), anything that could make you feel better would have been irresistible. I don't blame any soldier, sailor or airman who grew dependent on this stuff. War destroys from the inside as much as from without. Probably doesn't help if you were ordered to take them.
heroin (Diacetylmorphine) and morphine are 2 different chemicals heroin has two acetyl groups attached to the morphine molecule, replacing the hydroxyl groups. These acetyl groups make heroin more fat-soluble, allowing it to cross the blood-brain barrier much faster than morphine.
In his book The Greatest Air Battle: Dieppe, 19th August 1942, Norman L. R. Franks tells of a pilot who ended up in the water off the French coast. After scrambling into a one man raft, he took _all_ his 'pep' pills and determined to row across the channel. A landing craft returning from the beach saw him frantically paddling in circles and picked him up. He was returned to his squadron later that same day where they took shifts 'minding' him until he could come down. He collapsed with a thud. Falling asleep mid sentence, after about 24 hours.
@Lord.Kiltridge There was a Finnish soldier during the Continuation War that inadvertently took his entire unit's supply of amphetamines while fleeing a Soviet Ambush. He went on a 13 day trip and nearly died several times to hypothermia, burning alive, crashing into trees at high-speeds and landmines.
Benzidrine Sulfate stocks for the Royal Navy are what started the Speed epidemic in Britiain in the 60s and even nowadays they're still called "Bennies" as one slang name
Diet doctors gave them out by the bag full. My mom said hers wouldn't even send her to a pharmacy with a script but literally just shovel it out of a massive jar into a brown paper bag. Not even counting them exactly...
There's a lot of people in the comments going, "Of course militaries use drugs, why wouldn't they want to give their soldiers narcotics?" And this is why. It's not like war is an isolated situation.
Some of the combinations eg heroin and cocaine IV barbiturates and amphetamine (purple hearts) were common until the late 60s 70s and further on another note Vietcong used to leave opium/heroin and weed behind so the troops would get lazy and eventually addicted also drugs can be used for prolonged torture eg someone on uppers can take more of a beating than one not on any
Post war there were enough supplies of meth lying around Japan that it became a problem in civilian society and was associated with some brutal murders. Japan is the only Asian country where an opiate isn't the most used narcotic.
With Wojtek, the bear helping to move 25 pounder ammo crates closer to the guns in Italy, I can imagine a German forward observer struggling to stay awake and taking sone pervitin then seeing the bear and reporting back that the Poles have trained bears in artilery! Then, getting sent to the eastern front.
Former AD-2 during early 80s: guys that served on carriers during the Vietnam War told me of flightdeck crews being issued speed for 36 to 48 plus hour shifts.
I remember a story my grandfather once told me about a truck driver when he was in the Army. This guy apparently took about a fistful of benzedrine tablets before a long convoy drive; he drove like a man possessed for the entire three days, went back to his barracks, and immediately crashed out on his bed. They couldn't wake him for two whole days!
Lots of American pilots flew their planes right into the sea on low altitude missions, especially in the Aleutian Campaign. Tilting the plane's nose by a mere 6 degrees meant losing 11 meters of altitude a second. Getting sleepy for 2-3 seconds was all it took to crash. So... stimulants.
I always wondered when hearing all the stories about substance abuse during the war, if there was any serious withdrawal issues after the war, like did the occupation administration have to deal with bunch of junkies roaming the streets?
A lot of servicemen's trauma got swept under the rug in the interests of either "being a man" or just "returning to normalcy". Not just occupation troops (who probably still had ready access to whatever they were addicted to during the war and more oversight), but the ones who came home changed forever. Like with a lot of war experiences, it was something a lot of people just didn't want to talk about.
Actually there was a huge concern about this during vietnam, a huge percentage of soldiers relied on opiates and heroin to cope with the war, and a lot of them ended up junkies and addicts when they came back home and were neglected by the government and forgotten about What’s interesting is most soldiers who were habitual users in Vietnam entirely dropped the habit, they were using heroin to cope with the stressful environment, and once their environment changed and they returned home and had friends and their families there was no need to cope with drugs, there’s some interesting studies about this
@@professionaltrainenthusias4945 Considering how heroin is THE most addictive drug, I'd be impressed if most who became addicted in Vietnam were able to kick the habit.
After the American Civil War a ton of troops were addicted to opioid. Troops coming home from WW2 probably weren't super addicted (depending on what they did) to drugs and what habits they gained traded it for cigarettes and alcohol. Vietnam was a mess because soldiers would get clean heroin in Vietnam straight from the nearby fields. But when they made it back home with those addictions the heroin they could aquire was cut to shit and poor quality to what they knew. This lead to a lot of ODs and poisoning.
My dad continued using amphetamines for years after the war. He burned the candle at both ends, working way too hard, until his body literally gave out on him in the early 80s.
Wasn't there a Finnish soldier cut off by the Russian advance in WWII who scoffed down an entire squad's worth of meth and fought his way over hundreds of kilometres to get back to his own lines?
He never actually got to his own lines by himself. At the end of his little ski march he found an abandoned bunker. He tried to go inside, but the door was mined, which threw him into a ditch in the snow, where he spent several days just lying in, reportedly managing to catch a Siberian Jay with a ski pole, eating it raw. When he was finally found by a small recon team, and was brought to a hospital, he weighed only little over 40 KG, 88 pounds, and had a heart rate of over 200. We were shown his story in health ed in school as a cautionary tale of drug use.
Philopon in recreational use is mentioned in the Ian Fleming novel Moonraker: James Bond is described reading a report on it being used as a "murder drug" (Ironic, given Bond's own use of benzedrine in the same novel)
The funniest/saddest part of the German burnout is that the civilian professional class (doctors, accountants, lawyers, etc) knew the burnout and loss of performance was coming because they had experienced it themselves during the pre-war amphetamine craze. Educated Germans, and even regular folks, knew the drugs provided a false sense of high function because of the volume of work done, but actually resulted in more mistakes and emotional instability. But the high councils had stars in their eyes and all such reports were buried before they could reach actual decision makers. We should be grateful, because if they were paying attention, the Wehrmacht wouldn't have burnt itself out after the blitzkrieg. If they had implemented their draconian narcotics policies earlier, the German war machine might have saved itself from the crucial stumble early on. Considering how ferocious they remained up through the winter of '44-'45, it's scary to imagine a fully functional and mentally healthy Wehrmacht as it stood in 1940 persisting through the next 5 years.
Pervatin’s street name in the Czech Republic is Piko. I accidentally ingested some at a club in Prague. I was up for three days. That was 30 years ago. I’m still coming down. That stuff is bad news, kids. Speed kills. Assault tablets are killing me, figuratively.
No, the amount you've ingested wasn't "some". "Some amount" only leaves you unable to sleep for ~12 hours, the amount that keeps you awake for 3 days is an absolutely huge dose.
Truckers were using amphetimine pills as late as the 1970s - so far as I know they're quite rare today - uppers, second drivers, or, my personal fav, _westcoast turnarounds_
I wonder what the rates of familial abuse were before & after the war. Probably no statistics, but there's a reason there was a spike in Serial Killers in the 60s & 70s. The children of these guys were damaged.
When I was Air Force stationed in germany in the mid 70's. On the german market they had a liquid drug called " X- 12 ", basically liquid speed, sold in glass bottles with a dropper. One drop in a cup of coffee, an you were up for 24 hrs at least. Everybody just turned a blind eye to its use, never heard of anyone getting busted for it, as everybody an anybody that worked on or in aircraft, flightline dutys, security patrols, truck or equipment drivers , atoc centers, or anywhere else that you would be up all nite or sometimes for days, for different reasons used it on the downlow, but it helped keep us awake an alert.
This was a few years ago already but there was a case in Finland where somebody had stolen emergency rations from the air force. The rations included both strong pain killers, basically opiates as well as stimulants, meant to be used if a pilot crash lands, let's say in the wilderness of Lapland
I remember the US Army experimented with sedatives, thinking that sedatives might reduce any fear and anxiety its soldiers experience going into battle. The experiments were discontinued.
The 2024 USA Military meth is called "ProVigil", , to make you "Vigilant" on your patrol or checkpoint. Made one camoflauged operator crap himself just before "Taliban time" in the morning.
Provigil isn't in the same class of drugs as amphetamine or methamphetamine. It is an atypical stimulant drug. It has low addiction and dependence potentials, and it's LD50 is really far from the therapeutic dose. The side effect profile is also better than typical stimulants. It's also less intense than amphetamines. I'd liken it to a strong coffee that doesn't make you pee, and actually works well on making you more focused and awake.
The only good thing about giving it to soldiers is that they at least knew its purity. Buying it off the street means anything could be in it, but if it’s regulated, it’ll be able to have quality assurance
And Imperial Japan’s doctrine of having “Meth head” living off the land has done “wonders” to the local population of the occupied territories. My father in law told me about how some villagers from his area resisted the “requisition” squad and later Japanese assembled a company sized detachment and massacred the villagers.
Fun fact: event today USAF pilots take the amphetamine stimulant (called a “go pill”)at least once on the ground and are observed by a flight doctor to identify any side effects
Modafinil is common amongst soldiers these days. It is not a traditional stimulant, but it's labeled as a "wakefulness promoting agent". Normally prescribed for narcolepsy. Ive taken it maybe 20-30 times and it works great to keep awake. Some people claim that it acts as a nootropic for them, but I never felt that myself
To be fair, it's not just aircrew. Basically all units in combat are on stimulants. Hell, look up Aimo Koivunen. Was a Finnish soldier who was on a ski patrol and ended up taking all the patrols pervitin. Went on a drug fueled hallucination for 3ish weeks. It's a funny story. A few youtubers that talked about it. Fat electrician and qixr videos are funny
No wonder people come back with severe PTSD. Dopaminergic stimulants exacerbate anxiety and fear, and also trains the brain to consider traumatic combat memories as important.
In the US Air Force they are called Go Pills, and when they return from a mission to dull the effects and keep from becoming agitated while "coming down" they give them sedatives called No-Go Pills
Nowadays, most US go pills are modafinil. That's a stimulant which doesn't cause euphoria and doesn't have any mood lifting effect, which is why it's preferred by the USDOD.
Meth chocolate, cocaine pills, the worlds most powerful adderall ,,, next time you wonder about addiction in your family ask if anyone served in WWII lol
For those not aware, Buckfast is named after the Benedictine Abbey, where it is produced in Dorset. It is a tonic wine, so it is fortified and caffeinated as an old "pick-me-up" for folks feeling poorly (a bit like Jägermeister was traditionally used). Unfortunately, the high caffeine content means the alcohol affects the body very quickly, so it is a stereotypical favourite of binge drinkers and delinquents.
My old highschool quarterback flies F-35s for the Air Force. They are absolutely given pills to keep them awake and alert for long flights. He said it feels like Adderall x 10.
I think meth was used by German's in ww2 , British used soon after found troop losses very high as men felt invincible but they weren't.Hence high casualty rate.
Fentanyl lollipops are used in the US military to treat combat casualties. They are taped to the victim's finger so that, once sedated, they let the lollipop fall from their mouth to reduce the chance of overdoses.
Even so, they should put at least 4 pilots on a mission like that Not smart to get only 2 pilots to fly dozen hours drugged up, better add another team of pilots even if also drugged up.
@@pagodebregaeforro2803You should have told the USAF that when they designed the B-2. Now they're just left with a small bucket as a toilet back there.
@@spartacus-olsson Hi Spartacus! I’ve been wanting to ask this ever since I started watching this channel… do those bracelets you wear hold any special significance? Thank you for the work you do btw.
@@LizzyMeyer-g1dthe black and silver with a skull is my memento mori, the red one with wolf heads is my reminder to stay focused, and the green is just decorative. I make them as physical therapy, and several TimeGhost team, and family members have one or two. I have a progressive congenital tremor in my hands, and I need to keep a few specific muscles in my arms trained to slow the progression, and enable me to still do fine motor skill work.
@@ColasTeamEnglish is one of of my two native languages, and like bilingual children do I chose one as my first at an early age. In my case English came out ahead of Swedish. Research indicates the preference choice bilingual children make seems to be random, but my brother also went with English. As kids we code switched between English, Swedish, and French - much to my parents frustration who don’t speak French, although we lived there at the time. I learnt German as an adult when I moved here, and Anna (my daughter) refused to speak English with me until her late teens, so I got a lot of practice 😉.
2024 - we use amphetamines to increase alertness where needed in our military. 1940 - here's your (for the time) highly efficient rifle, and here's a few grams of this new thing called methamphetamine. Remember, only use either where and when the time is right - prof. Oak
Here's a fun fact: in my country, the Czech Republic, which was occupied by Nazis, many slang names for methamphetamine are still derived from the name Pervitin.
There's a huge difference between amphetamine and methamphetamine, I mean, not chemically, they're almost the same, but in effect they're vastly different. Adderall is just a brand name for amphetamine and we give it to kids. Methamphetamine is, well, meth.
Have you done both? I have and can say that they're very comparable. It's like comparing 30% fruit liqueur with a 40% brandy. Whatever makes you feel better about your kid's script though
I notice you didn't mention the Tarnak Farm incident where two American pilots high on speed attacked Canadian ground troops, killing four and wounding eight others. The USAF claimed their pilots were incapable of doing their job without being stoned out of their tiny little minds.
Look up the Tarnak Farms friendly fire incident in Afghanistan, in 2002 a US air force F-16 dropped a 500 pound guided bomb without authorization on a Canadian infantry platoon that was conducting live fire training exercises on a firing range, killing 4 and injuring another 8. During his court martial, the pilot's defense was that he mistakenly believed the unit on the ground was shooting at the pair of F-16s and blamed the amphetamine stimulants that the air force was requiring pilots to take before going on every long-range mission in order to keep them alert while flying for long periods of time.
Many WW2, Korean,and Vietnam vets came back dependent on speed and the doctors in those time periods were only too happy to fill prescriptions out for them when they returned. It's an ugly but, overlooked part of our history that could use some more serios coverage. It might help give some closure to family members who had to experience living with an addict they didn't know existed.
While literally speaking it isn't, it kinda is. Adderall is like three parts levoamphetamine isomer, one part dextroamphetamine isomer or something along those lines. Meth is dextromethamphetamine (though it may be racimic in some cases, eg when using P2NP "cartel cooking"). Both are amphetamines, meth is basically just adderall with a methyl group added to the side. Yes, this changes the lipid solubility, thus allows it to cross the BBB faster and more erratically, but its the same thing really.
@y0h0p38 it's tough with that prefix, but for example I was advised to take methyl folate as a vitamin for dopamine production. The same doctor who advised that drew that line between Adderall and Ritalin which very much is in the no-no category also based on experience. My understanding from reading is that they had Dexadrine (forgive any misspelling) on the dopamine note and added "adrenaline" likely in the form of epinephrin for fight or flight response. I understand that these chemicals differ from the one allegedly discovered in Japan in 1897.
^ it's tough with that prefix, but for example I was advised to take methyl folate as a vitamin for dopamine production. The same doctor who advised that drew that line between Adderall and Ritalin which very much is in the no-no category also based on experience. My understanding from reading is that they had Dexadrine (forgive any misspelling) on the dopamine note and added "adrenaline" likely in the form of epinephrin for fight or flight response. I understand that these chemicals differ from the one allegedly discovered in Japan in 1897.
Its just 6 tablets with 5mg each in those benzedrine kits. Thats 30mg total, and its racemic not pure dextro. (Racemic means its 50% L (laevo-amph.) 50% D (dextro amph), and L-amph. is 3-4x weaker as a CNS stim. than D-amph. So its basically the equivalent of 20mg pure dex.amp.sulphate.
Did you know that if you take 1 actifed tablet, it makes you drowsy? But, if you take 20, you'll be awake for days. During Desert Shield and Desert Storm, medics gave me many, many 100 count bottles no questions asked.
I think the US stopped issuing amphetamines after a pilot that was using it and getting very little sleep dropped bombs on friendly forces. I think it was either in gulf war 1 or 2
The Finn who didn't realise he'd eaten his entire companies supply for weeks didn't straight _remember_ taking our many more of the enemy while skiing hundreds of kilometres but it sure was effective! 😂
Just found out they were the doors were welded shut on the pilots. In middle east american pilots were taking stimulants 1991 to 2000. To me that is unsafe when a person is some thing.
I've used meth many times in my life. It made me want to be alone and hide in a dark room. It didn't make me aggressive or courageous at all. Amphetamine is common drug for many soldiers. They walk around with morphine on them. I wouldn't be surprised if they had stimulants on them at all times too.
This question comes from quite a few different people, thank you to everyone who asked!
Woodpecker 🦢🐥🚀
Thanks to Indy Neidell for doing research on this in Prague in the 1990s and taking one for the team. Who knew some random Texan bloke who illegally ran a Scottish youth hostel who then stayed in the former Iron Curtain was actually doing critical WW2 research?
Wonderful Mustache!
Very very interesting! Thanks alot for this short!❤
As far as I know special groups under the special operations command of the US. still use a weaker amphetamine during operations. Can't remember the name but in Iraq they would give guys amphetamine stuff for sleep, and anxiety. I use to use methamphetamine but I clean almost 4 years. Extreme euphoria, talkative, less pain response, and higher pain tolerance , with little resource requirements , such as H20, food, sleep, with extreme concentration and enhanced energy . endless stamina and, concentration is how I would describe the effects I don't recommend. It'll make you brave, also create a lack of general care of the situation and environment. definitely would boost morale. Problem is the side effects especially overtime of use, and overuse. The addiction aspect could make people not really even care about anything, given enough use time they'll be a complete change of state of mind. Definitely not a healthy drug, and should only be used as a crutch during certain times , difficult times. If you had to endure 3 days no sleep, or food after 6 hard days of fighting that's what you want. I myself definitely don't recommend it maybe less potent, and easier psych side effects would be more beneficial. I wouldn't recommend it even then, the long term side effects of prolonged use aren't great. I can't use stimulants of any kind. Nicotine caffeine, and sugar is what I stick to.
Not "War on Drugs!", but "War, on Drugs!".
I'll never understand why the Chinese thought it was a good idea to fight the Brits hopped up on opium.
Was my joke on The Opium Wars too soon?
😂
ooo very good.👏
Nice one man.
"Energy Alcohol"...... I need to try that wartime japanese Four Loko
Wartime Japanese Four Loko 💀
A drunk kamikaze is the most dangerous
@@HuiYingHong-b8q you could even die if you're not careful.
Any Four Loko is wartime Four Loko if you drink enough (2)
@@lukaskubik4698They don't even put caffeine in it any more. It's just a crappy mixed drink.
Uppers, cigarettes, booze. Heroin even, for the wounded. If you're facing death (or boredom, the other inevitability), anything that could make you feel better would have been irresistible. I don't blame any soldier, sailor or airman who grew dependent on this stuff. War destroys from the inside as much as from without. Probably doesn't help if you were ordered to take them.
Heroine is the street name for morphine, and is still used during surgery because it is comically effective.
@@samsonsoturian6013heroin and morphine are 2 different drugs, morphine is used to make heroin.
Funnily enough they usually have no problems stopping when they get home, the addiction is psychologically compartmentalized to a mental state of war
heroin (Diacetylmorphine) and morphine are 2 different chemicals
heroin has two acetyl groups attached to the morphine molecule, replacing the hydroxyl groups. These acetyl groups make heroin more fat-soluble, allowing it to cross the blood-brain barrier much faster than morphine.
Sounds like my early 20s
In his book The Greatest Air Battle: Dieppe, 19th August 1942, Norman L. R. Franks tells of a pilot who ended up in the water off the French coast. After scrambling into a one man raft, he took _all_ his 'pep' pills and determined to row across the channel. A landing craft returning from the beach saw him frantically paddling in circles and picked him up. He was returned to his squadron later that same day where they took shifts 'minding' him until he could come down. He collapsed with a thud. Falling asleep mid sentence, after about 24 hours.
Reminds me of that Finnish soldier
@@polkka7797 I'm sorry, but I don't get the reference.
@Lord.Kiltridge There was a Finnish soldier during the Continuation War that inadvertently took his entire unit's supply of amphetamines while fleeing a Soviet Ambush. He went on a 13 day trip and nearly died several times to hypothermia, burning alive, crashing into trees at high-speeds and landmines.
@@Ch33seandWh1ne Wow. I certainly see the connection. Thank you for explaining.
@@Lord.Kiltridge Aimo Koivunen was his name
Benzidrine Sulfate stocks for the Royal Navy are what started the Speed epidemic in Britiain in the 60s and even nowadays they're still called "Bennies" as one slang name
Yes, they were called "Bennies" in the USA too. It was one of the "hottest" illegal narcotics in the 1950s.
😮 SAD BUT TRUE LIKE
MOST OF ANY WAR😢
HISTORY 😢😢😢
SIGH.................
Diet doctors gave them out by the bag full. My mom said hers wouldn't even send her to a pharmacy with a script but literally just shovel it out of a massive jar into a brown paper bag. Not even counting them exactly...
There's a lot of people in the comments going, "Of course militaries use drugs, why wouldn't they want to give their soldiers narcotics?" And this is why. It's not like war is an isolated situation.
Some of the combinations eg heroin and cocaine IV barbiturates and amphetamine (purple hearts) were common until the late 60s 70s and further on another note Vietcong used to leave opium/heroin and weed behind so the troops would get lazy and eventually addicted also drugs can be used for prolonged torture eg someone on uppers can take more of a beating than one not on any
Post war there were enough supplies of meth lying around Japan that it became a problem in civilian society and was associated with some brutal murders.
Japan is the only Asian country where an opiate isn't the most used narcotic.
Maybe 30 years ago but meth has taken over lol
With Wojtek, the bear helping to move 25 pounder ammo crates closer to the guns in Italy, I can imagine a German forward observer struggling to stay awake and taking sone pervitin then seeing the bear and reporting back that the Poles have trained bears in artilery! Then, getting sent to the eastern front.
I never heard about Wojtek until now. Found an article about him on Britannica. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!
True story
Why would he be sent to the Eastern Front?
@@GaiusCaligula234because they wouldn’t believe him😂
“ we worked hard for everything we got in my day”
“ grandpa you were on meth 😐”
„BaCk iN tHe dAy wE diDnT hAve soMEthing liKe ADHD and NonE of us needed meds“- yea grandpa you could buy meth over the counter
How did Nanna have 13 Kids?
Former AD-2 during early 80s: guys that served on carriers during the Vietnam War told me of flightdeck crews being issued speed for 36 to 48 plus hour shifts.
I remember a story my grandfather once told me about a truck driver when he was in the Army. This guy apparently took about a fistful of benzedrine tablets before a long convoy drive; he drove like a man possessed for the entire three days, went back to his barracks, and immediately crashed out on his bed. They couldn't wake him for two whole days!
Lots of American pilots flew their planes right into the sea on low altitude missions, especially in the Aleutian Campaign. Tilting the plane's nose by a mere 6 degrees meant losing 11 meters of altitude a second. Getting sleepy for 2-3 seconds was all it took to crash. So... stimulants.
I always wondered when hearing all the stories about substance abuse during the war, if there was any serious withdrawal issues after the war, like did the occupation administration have to deal with bunch of junkies roaming the streets?
A lot of servicemen's trauma got swept under the rug in the interests of either "being a man" or just "returning to normalcy". Not just occupation troops (who probably still had ready access to whatever they were addicted to during the war and more oversight), but the ones who came home changed forever. Like with a lot of war experiences, it was something a lot of people just didn't want to talk about.
Actually there was a huge concern about this during vietnam, a huge percentage of soldiers relied on opiates and heroin to cope with the war, and a lot of them ended up junkies and addicts when they came back home and were neglected by the government and forgotten about
What’s interesting is most soldiers who were habitual users in Vietnam entirely dropped the habit, they were using heroin to cope with the stressful environment, and once their environment changed and they returned home and had friends and their families there was no need to cope with drugs, there’s some interesting studies about this
@@professionaltrainenthusias4945 Considering how heroin is THE most addictive drug, I'd be impressed if most who became addicted in Vietnam were able to kick the habit.
After the American Civil War a ton of troops were addicted to opioid. Troops coming home from WW2 probably weren't super addicted (depending on what they did) to drugs and what habits they gained traded it for cigarettes and alcohol.
Vietnam was a mess because soldiers would get clean heroin in Vietnam straight from the nearby fields. But when they made it back home with those addictions the heroin they could aquire was cut to shit and poor quality to what they knew. This lead to a lot of ODs and poisoning.
My dad continued using amphetamines for years after the war. He burned the candle at both ends, working way too hard, until his body literally gave out on him in the early 80s.
Wasn't there a Finnish soldier cut off by the Russian advance in WWII who scoffed down an entire squad's worth of meth and fought his way over hundreds of kilometres to get back to his own lines?
Aimo Koivunen, he skied over 400km, and died at the age of 71.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
He never actually got to his own lines by himself. At the end of his little ski march he found an abandoned bunker. He tried to go inside, but the door was mined, which threw him into a ditch in the snow, where he spent several days just lying in, reportedly managing to catch a Siberian Jay with a ski pole, eating it raw. When he was finally found by a small recon team, and was brought to a hospital, he weighed only little over 40 KG, 88 pounds, and had a heart rate of over 200. We were shown his story in health ed in school as a cautionary tale of drug use.
the fat electrican has a good video about it but the dude above pretty much summed up all the important bits
@@villepore7013 … a cautionary tale of BEING TOO AWESOME.
Recently I've watch video about a Finn,the first case of OD on meth during combat. Dude was on a trip to Narnia and Middle Earth for solid 2 weeks...
I think some of this info goes back to a special episode of WW II called "High Hitler"
also "allies on amphetimines" episode.
I'm surprised that by actually writing His name, you tube hasn't cen sored your comment yet.
@@douglasharley2440 Such happy times!
his japanese pronunciation is actually pretty good. just shows how much effort and research he puts into these videos.
Philopon in recreational use is mentioned in the Ian Fleming novel Moonraker: James Bond is described reading a report on it being used as a "murder drug"
(Ironic, given Bond's own use of benzedrine in the same novel)
And in Casino Royale.
Due to this, methamphetamine in Korean is still referred to as Philopon. Sort of like how permanent markers are called Sharpies in some countries
The funniest/saddest part of the German burnout is that the civilian professional class (doctors, accountants, lawyers, etc) knew the burnout and loss of performance was coming because they had experienced it themselves during the pre-war amphetamine craze. Educated Germans, and even regular folks, knew the drugs provided a false sense of high function because of the volume of work done, but actually resulted in more mistakes and emotional instability. But the high councils had stars in their eyes and all such reports were buried before they could reach actual decision makers. We should be grateful, because if they were paying attention, the Wehrmacht wouldn't have burnt itself out after the blitzkrieg. If they had implemented their draconian narcotics policies earlier, the German war machine might have saved itself from the crucial stumble early on. Considering how ferocious they remained up through the winter of '44-'45, it's scary to imagine a fully functional and mentally healthy Wehrmacht as it stood in 1940 persisting through the next 5 years.
Pervatin’s street name in the Czech Republic is Piko. I accidentally ingested some at a club in Prague. I was up for three days. That was 30 years ago. I’m still coming down. That stuff is bad news, kids. Speed kills. Assault tablets are killing me, figuratively.
No, the amount you've ingested wasn't "some". "Some amount" only leaves you unable to sleep for ~12 hours, the amount that keeps you awake for 3 days is an absolutely huge dose.
High-capacity assault tablets. In a bump-jar.
Truckers were using amphetimine pills as late as the 1970s - so far as I know they're quite rare today - uppers, second drivers, or, my personal fav, _westcoast turnarounds_
I wonder what the rates of familial abuse were before & after the war.
Probably no statistics, but there's a reason there was a spike in Serial Killers in the 60s & 70s. The children of these guys were damaged.
Also a good idea to consider the effect of pervasive lead toxicity due to leaded gasoline.
Thats interesting....also ive noticed the high frequency of serial killers who had at least a short service record, most recently a Mr Israel Keyes.
Look at Richard Ramirez the night stalker had a cousin Miguel Ramirez a Vietnam vet showing him pictures of women n men being tortured and abused
@@Tough_Bookiezzz that's a good observation of second - hand influence.
If you read the original books, James Bond was a big fan of Benzedrine, but felt that marijuana was a great social evil.
Because marijuana is what THOSE people like, so clearly it's evil.
I'm guessing all soldiers think they are not gonna live long enough to experience the side effects of any stimulant.
When I was Air Force stationed in germany in the mid 70's. On the german market they had a liquid drug called " X- 12 ", basically liquid speed, sold in glass bottles with a dropper. One drop in a cup of coffee, an you were up for 24 hrs at least. Everybody just turned a blind eye to its use, never heard of anyone getting busted for it, as everybody an anybody that worked on or in aircraft, flightline dutys, security patrols, truck or equipment drivers , atoc centers, or anywhere else that you would be up all nite or sometimes for days, for different reasons used it on the downlow, but it helped keep us awake an alert.
I now have an image of a WWII GI at the base pharmacy looking all strung out telling the pharmacist “I need some cautious endorsements !!”
I remember the whole episode they devoted to the drugs the Germans used in WWII and they backfired badly. sm
This was a few years ago already but there was a case in Finland where somebody had stolen emergency rations from the air force. The rations included both strong pain killers, basically opiates as well as stimulants, meant to be used if a pilot crash lands, let's say in the wilderness of Lapland
I remember the US Army experimented with sedatives, thinking that sedatives might reduce any fear and anxiety its soldiers experience going into battle. The experiments were discontinued.
The 2024 USA Military meth is called "ProVigil", , to make you "Vigilant" on your patrol or checkpoint. Made one camoflauged operator crap himself just before "Taliban time" in the morning.
ProVigil isn't meth.
Provigil isn't in the same class of drugs as amphetamine or methamphetamine. It is an atypical stimulant drug. It has low addiction and dependence potentials, and it's LD50 is really far from the therapeutic dose. The side effect profile is also better than typical stimulants.
It's also less intense than amphetamines.
I'd liken it to a strong coffee that doesn't make you pee, and actually works well on making you more focused and awake.
Him saying totsugeki almost gave me a heart attack
🐬🐬🐬
War and drugs go hands in hands
The only good thing about giving it to soldiers is that they at least knew its purity. Buying it off the street means anything could be in it, but if it’s regulated, it’ll be able to have quality assurance
And Imperial Japan’s doctrine of having “Meth head” living off the land has done “wonders” to the local population of the occupied territories. My father in law told me about how some villagers from his area resisted the “requisition” squad and later Japanese assembled a company sized detachment and massacred the villagers.
Which area was this? Manchuria, China, Korea, Vietnam?
Fun fact: event today USAF pilots take the amphetamine stimulant (called a “go pill”)at least once on the ground and are observed by a flight doctor to identify any side effects
Modafinil is common amongst soldiers these days. It is not a traditional stimulant, but it's labeled as a "wakefulness promoting agent". Normally prescribed for narcolepsy. Ive taken it maybe 20-30 times and it works great to keep awake. Some people claim that it acts as a nootropic for them, but I never felt that myself
Mom and Dad had amphetamine tablets in their their first aid kits from WW II.
I remember that there was one allied bomber crewmen who testified to the one time use of the wakey wakey tablets , and he never used them again.
To be fair, it's not just aircrew. Basically all units in combat are on stimulants. Hell, look up Aimo Koivunen. Was a Finnish soldier who was on a ski patrol and ended up taking all the patrols pervitin. Went on a drug fueled hallucination for 3ish weeks. It's a funny story. A few youtubers that talked about it. Fat electrician and qixr videos are funny
The blitzkrieg bop
No wonder people come back with severe PTSD. Dopaminergic stimulants exacerbate anxiety and fear, and also trains the brain to consider traumatic combat memories as important.
In the US Air Force they are called Go Pills, and when they return from a mission to dull the effects and keep from becoming agitated while "coming down" they give them sedatives called No-Go Pills
Nowadays, most US go pills are modafinil. That's a stimulant which doesn't cause euphoria and doesn't have any mood lifting effect, which is why it's preferred by the USDOD.
They downgraded the US Air Force from the good stuff like 30 years ago. Used to be able to get the high quality simulants back in the day
They weren’t on “methamphetamine type substances”, they were on methamphetamine…
Meth chocolate, cocaine pills, the worlds most powerful adderall ,,, next time you wonder about addiction in your family ask if anyone served in WWII lol
We still have energy alcohol in the UK. It's called Buckfast. Also known as bionic tonic or wreck the hoose juice.
For those not aware, Buckfast is named after the Benedictine Abbey, where it is produced in Dorset.
It is a tonic wine, so it is fortified and caffeinated as an old "pick-me-up" for folks feeling poorly (a bit like Jägermeister was traditionally used). Unfortunately, the high caffeine content means the alcohol affects the body very quickly, so it is a stereotypical favourite of binge drinkers and delinquents.
This guy's shoulders get broader with each video.
My old highschool quarterback flies F-35s for the Air Force. They are absolutely given pills to keep them awake and alert for long flights. He said it feels like Adderall x 10.
I think meth was used by German's in ww2 , British used soon after found troop losses very high as men felt invincible but they weren't.Hence high casualty rate.
It really is crazy learning that pretty much everyone in WWII was on meth.
I’ve heard about fent lollipops for severe injuries in the military
Fentanyl lollipops are used in the US military to treat combat casualties. They are taped to the victim's finger so that, once sedated, they let the lollipop fall from their mouth to reduce the chance of overdoses.
US pilots that fly the B2 B52 Are still given uppers to stay awake even today when they have those 40 hour missions and they need to be awake
Even so, they should put at least 4 pilots on a mission like that
Not smart to get only 2 pilots to fly dozen hours drugged up, better add another team of pilots even if also drugged up.
@@pagodebregaeforro2803You should have told the USAF that when they designed the B-2. Now they're just left with a small bucket as a toilet back there.
You pronounced "Wehrmacht" just about perfectly! Kudos from a teacher!
Thank you, but I cheated… I speak fluent German - I’m a naturalized German and live in Germany since almost three decades.
@@spartacus-olssonI always assumed you were born in Germany and learned English as your second language 😂
@@spartacus-olsson Hi Spartacus! I’ve been wanting to ask this ever since I started watching this channel… do those bracelets you wear hold any special significance? Thank you for the work you do btw.
@@LizzyMeyer-g1dthe black and silver with a skull is my memento mori, the red one with wolf heads is my reminder to stay focused, and the green is just decorative.
I make them as physical therapy, and several TimeGhost team, and family members have one or two. I have a progressive congenital tremor in my hands, and I need to keep a few specific muscles in my arms trained to slow the progression, and enable me to still do fine motor skill work.
@@ColasTeamEnglish is one of of my two native languages, and like bilingual children do I chose one as my first at an early age. In my case English came out ahead of Swedish. Research indicates the preference choice bilingual children make seems to be random, but my brother also went with English. As kids we code switched between English, Swedish, and French - much to my parents frustration who don’t speak French, although we lived there at the time. I learnt German as an adult when I moved here, and Anna (my daughter) refused to speak English with me until her late teens, so I got a lot of practice 😉.
Wait. The US government gives drugs to their military?.... i thought drugs are bad? Why do i get arrested?
They aren't giving them meth, nor do they get people high. They simple make it impossible to fall asleep for ~12 hours. You feel very serious.
Sometimes it seems like everyone in WW2 was on something.
Humanity is so fucked up
Us airmen nervously putting away the truvigil 😬
Sounds like a blast to me flying and flying while flying😅
2024 - we use amphetamines to increase alertness where needed in our military.
1940 - here's your (for the time) highly efficient rifle, and here's a few grams of this new thing called methamphetamine.
Remember, only use either where and when the time is right - prof. Oak
Here's a fun fact: in my country, the Czech Republic, which was occupied by Nazis, many slang names for methamphetamine are still derived from the name Pervitin.
I really appreciate the efforts to properly pronounce the foreign words. The German ones are spot on!
Im suddenly feeling patriotic and want to join the Air Force
Totsugeki....I'm getting dolphin girl PTSD flashbacks
There's a huge difference between amphetamine and methamphetamine, I mean, not chemically, they're almost the same, but in effect they're vastly different. Adderall is just a brand name for amphetamine and we give it to kids. Methamphetamine is, well, meth.
Have you done both? I have and can say that they're very comparable. It's like comparing 30% fruit liqueur with a 40% brandy.
Whatever makes you feel better about your kid's script though
The way hes able to pronounce this stuff perfectly makes me happy
Thank you
I notice you didn't mention the Tarnak Farm incident where two American pilots high on speed attacked Canadian ground troops, killing four and wounding eight others. The USAF claimed their pilots were incapable of doing their job without being stoned out of their tiny little minds.
And now you can't drink an energy drink if you're in flight status😊
In 12 O'Clock High they just drink lots and lots of COFFEE! Alternating with lots and lots of BOOZE!!
Look up the Tarnak Farms friendly fire incident in Afghanistan, in 2002 a US air force F-16 dropped a 500 pound guided bomb without authorization on a Canadian infantry platoon that was conducting live fire training exercises on a firing range, killing 4 and injuring another 8. During his court martial, the pilot's defense was that he mistakenly believed the unit on the ground was shooting at the pair of F-16s and blamed the amphetamine stimulants that the air force was requiring pilots to take before going on every long-range mission in order to keep them alert while flying for long periods of time.
I would like to once again congratulate drugs for winning the war on drugs
"Energy Alcohol" 🤣👍🏻
Many WW2, Korean,and Vietnam vets came back dependent on speed and the doctors in those time periods were only too happy to fill prescriptions out for them when they returned. It's an ugly but, overlooked part of our history that could use some more serios coverage. It might help give some closure to family members who had to experience living with an addict they didn't know existed.
...WW2 was powered by meth! XD
This feels like some HL2 combine army type of stuff
And here they complain about Adderall which isn't a meth derivative.
While literally speaking it isn't, it kinda is. Adderall is like three parts levoamphetamine isomer, one part dextroamphetamine isomer or something along those lines. Meth is dextromethamphetamine (though it may be racimic in some cases, eg when using P2NP "cartel cooking").
Both are amphetamines, meth is basically just adderall with a methyl group added to the side. Yes, this changes the lipid solubility, thus allows it to cross the BBB faster and more erratically, but its the same thing really.
@y0h0p38 it's tough with that prefix, but for example I was advised to take methyl folate as a vitamin for dopamine production. The same doctor who advised that drew that line between Adderall and Ritalin which very much is in the no-no category also based on experience. My understanding from reading is that they had Dexadrine (forgive any misspelling) on the dopamine note and added "adrenaline" likely in the form of epinephrin for fight or flight response. I understand that these chemicals differ from the one allegedly discovered in Japan in 1897.
^ it's tough with that prefix, but for example I was advised to take methyl folate as a vitamin for dopamine production. The same doctor who advised that drew that line between Adderall and Ritalin which very much is in the no-no category also based on experience. My understanding from reading is that they had Dexadrine (forgive any misspelling) on the dopamine note and added "adrenaline" likely in the form of epinephrin for fight or flight response. I understand that these chemicals differ from the one allegedly discovered in Japan in 1897.
@@y0h0p38 I responded to you but I think they deleted it because I typed so much so I prefixed it with a carat.
A.H. liked Demerol. (Pethidine)His Dr. , a certain Morell, was quite the man.
Nowadays pilots use modafinil.
Its just 6 tablets with 5mg each in those benzedrine kits. Thats 30mg total, and its racemic not pure dextro. (Racemic means its 50% L (laevo-amph.) 50% D (dextro amph), and L-amph. is 3-4x weaker as a CNS stim. than D-amph.
So its basically the equivalent of 20mg pure dex.amp.sulphate.
Still, 20mg is a pretty good line if snorted recreationally!
"Pervert time with Pervitin" - German 1940's add probably.
Did you know that if you take 1 actifed tablet, it makes you drowsy? But, if you take 20, you'll be awake for days. During Desert Shield and Desert Storm, medics gave me many, many 100 count bottles no questions asked.
Gonna need the name of the mustache wax company 😂
Apparently American motorcycle gang culture has in its roots American airmen who were speed freaks. Thats where the leather jacket element came from.
I wouldn't doubt it!
Ah, the classic "Go Pill".
The Japanese still use amphetamine in business
I think the US stopped issuing amphetamines after a pilot that was using it and getting very little sleep dropped bombs on friendly forces. I think it was either in gulf war 1 or 2
Caffeine is also a stimulant
The Finn who didn't realise he'd eaten his entire companies supply for weeks didn't straight _remember_ taking our many more of the enemy while skiing hundreds of kilometres but it sure was effective! 😂
Took plenty of downers during OEF/OIF. I skipped the uppers, made me feel weird. Just stayed with Red Bull and Ripits
I was on adderal for over a decade when I was younger. If I had to do another deployment I’d certainly find it useful.
Assault tablets? That name goes hard.
The one medic with a spoon and lighter at the ready
Drugs and war/ battles in general go hand in hand
What hold on we need to talk more about these uppers
Just found out they were the doors were welded shut on the pilots.
In middle east american pilots were taking stimulants 1991 to 2000.
To me that is unsafe when a person is some thing.
The stimulants were found to be a factor in more than one Blue-on-Blue "friendly fire" incident in the 2003 Iraq War if I recall correctly.
I've used meth many times in my life. It made me want to be alone and hide in a dark room. It didn't make me aggressive or courageous at all. Amphetamine is common drug for many soldiers. They walk around with morphine on them. I wouldn't be surprised if they had stimulants on them at all times too.
It exists today in the civilian population with "totally harmless" energy drinks.
Stimulants are still used on the battlefield
That’s how WWII Germany was able to Blitzkrieg entire countries quickly.
American combat and special forces troops call’em Go-Pills.