Drug info - benzedrine

[cobetcknncoio3]

SWIM was reading the book "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac, and read one part where they were using a drug called "benzedrine," and they called it "bennies" for slang. SWIM didn't know what it was, so he looked it up, and found that benzedrine was a brand name for amphetamine back in the day, and benzedrine inhalers were over-the-counter meds from the forties and the fifties. people would open up the inhalers and eat the little pieces of paper inside, which were soaked with benzedrine, and those were bennies. and also, they sold it as tablets in the sixties, and they would give benzedrine tablets to soldiers in the sixties to make their senses clearer and make them better in battle. SWIM has never heard of amphetamine being used in this way before. is there still benzedrine in the U.S., or anywhere for that matter? is there still such thing as the benzedrine inhaler, and if so, do people still take bennies like that?

[RaverHippie]

use the forum search engine. Look for "propylhexedrine" it's what has replaced benzedrine inhalers.

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Thanks!

[ScorpioSunshine]

Benzedrine is also frequently mentioned in pop-culture, which is also how swim learned about it; but, swim doesn't know much about it other than what she's read on wiki and what's been referenced in books she's read.

[cobetcknncoio3]

SWIM wonders how the effects of benzedrine would contrast with the effects of the dextroamphetamine in adderall.

[RaverHippie]

nearly equivalent. A very simple internet search yielded the following: benzedrine is a racemic mixture of dl-amphetamine.

There's hardly any difference to the active ingredients.

[cobetcknncoio3]

that's interesting. well, SWIM was just wondering about it after having read about its widespread use back in the middle of the 20th century. thanks for the info guys. interesting piece of drug history.