D-IX - the Nazi wonderdrug

[lulz]

Toward the end of the war, the Nazis were even working on a miracle pill for their troops. In the northern German seaport of Kiel, on March 16, 1944, then Vice-Admiral Hellmuth Heye, who later became a member of parliament with the conservative Christian Democratic party and head of the German parliament's defense committee, requested a drug "that can keep soldiers ready for battle when they are asked to continue fighting beyond a period considered normal, while at the same time boosting their self-esteem."

A short time later, Kiel pharmacologist Gerhard Orzechowski presented Heye with a pill code-named D-IX. It contained five milligrams of cocaine, three milligrams of Pervitin and five milligrams of Eukodal (a morphine-based painkiller). Nowadays, a drug dealer caught with this potent a drug would be sent to prison. At the time, however, the drug was tested on crew members working on the navy's smallest submarines, known as the "Seal" and the "Beaver."

http://amphetamines.com/nazi.html

Pervitin = methamphetamine. Nazi soldiers had access to as much methamphetamine as they wanted, the rest of the article talks about it.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good find

[Benga]

it's interesting how if the previous wars were more about the new "heroic" synthethic opiate painkillers, WWII was all about the amphetamines. Pretty much all armies used them, and it is said that the substance played a decisive role in the battle of Brittain, increasing the aviator's endurance and stamina. Not without side effects as well...

On the Japanese side, amphetamine stocks quickly ended up in the hands of the emerging Yakuzas, with approval of the governement as long as they stick to the shabu trade and keep other dirty gaijin drugs out, which they did.
(even though Japan was a prominent grower of Java coca, for cocaine production, before WWII)... after all, they help productivity don't they ?

3mg of oral cocaine sounds like a very low dose though, for a real self-esteem boost

will be checking out the article, sounds interesting.

[Nagognog2]

The British turned to Cylert in place of amphetamines (pemoline).

[darawk]

The U.S. gave their soldiers meth too. They still give pilots dexedrine(d-amphetamine) to this day.

[stoneinfocus]

Pretty much a Pot Belge, eh?

[Benga]

Originally Posted by co-incidence

Pretty much a Pot Belge, eh?

huuuuum amphetamine antalgics cocaine opiates and caffeine all mixed in one convenient little vial......
luckily those speed cyclists stick to circling around france mostly, and don't seem to intend to take over europe yet, otherwise we'd all be wearing yellow jerseys in no time