After Harrison’s law, cocaine consumption in America began to decline, but a new stimulant, amphetamine, soon appeared on the scene. This is a class of drugs that includes amphetamine, dextroamphetamine and methamphetamine. They were first synthesized in the late 19th century, and, although they were immediately available for research, their medical use began only in the 1920s. It was believed that they are useful in the treatment of colds, obesity, narcolepsy (a disease in which a person falls asleep uncontrollably). They, oddly enough, were also used to treat hyperactive children. Amphetamines are now rarely used in medicine, mainly because they are very easy to abuse. These drugs were used as stimulants during World War II on both sides of the front. After the war, amphetamine abuse reached epidemic proportions in Japan, Sweden and some European countries, but in America until the 1960s they were not considered dangerous drugs. Ironically, they became America’s headache when doctors began to prescribe them as a cure for heroin addiction. As with the cocaine treatment of morphineism, undertaken by Freud, this innovation turned into a surge in the abuse of amphetamines, especially on the west coast.
Injection of amphetamines leads to addiction, similar to cocaine problems at the beginning of the century (and which we see now). Immediately after the injection, a person experiences a short but strong rise or “arrival”. The very pleasant sensations that occur after the injection of cocaine or amphetamine are often described as orgasmic in nature. But since they do not last longer than a few minutes, the person soon wants to return to the heights of bliss again, although the level of the drug in the blood is still quite high. Several injections follow one after another, the person becomes more and more excited, but it becomes more difficult to achieve the same pleasant recovery as the first time. Both cocaine and amphetamines suppress appetite and interfere with sleep, and therefore a person can not sleep for days, eat very little, and at the same time inject himself dose by dose. In the 1960s, such people were called “speed freaks” (speed freak). With their appearance, it became clear that amphetamine has almost all the properties of cocaine. For example, after taking a large dose of amphetamine, a person also feels goosebumps, as well as overdose of cocaine, and paranoid hallucinations appear, that is, amphetamines can cause a psychosis almost identical to cocaine.
Here is a description of a typical fast eccentric from San Francisco: “He’s a very nice man and very generous. However, when he smacks … he starts having problems. Because he has a shotgun very quickly in his hands … I saw him he drove the hitchhikers from the highway exit: they cause him paranoia. At four o’clock in the afternoon, he yells with a huge shotgun in his hand “come on, come on, get out of here, you can’t stand here.”
This paranoid psychosis caused by an overdose of cocaine and amphetamines can be called stimulatory psychosis.
In the late 60s they wrote “Speed ​​is killing!” The slogan does not imply that death comes from an overdose. Deaths from amphetamine overdose have occurred, but comparatively rarely. The paranoid state, which often leads to the commission of an act of violence, develops much more often. In addition, after taking large doses of amphetamines, a person “breaks down” (falls asleep for a long time), and when he wakes up, he finds himself in a state of severe depression. It can last several days and is an abstinence syndrome after heavy use of amphetamine or cocaine. To overcome depression, a person often takes a drug again, and everything repeats from the beginning. Ultimately, the physical and mental state of a person is seriously deteriorating, and the person is no longer able to break this circle.
When the risk to which a person is exposed when using amphetamines became apparent, other, less dangerous stimulants were sought. In the 1970s, amphetamines-related phenmetrazine became popular. Soon, however, it turned out that it causes all the same side effects. By the mid-1970s, another tendency was revealed: a “new” stimulant, an “organic”, a “natural” or a “natural” drug appeared on the scene – of course, because there can be nothing wrong with … cocaine?