BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//InvisionCommunity Events 5.0.18//EN METHOD:PUBLISH CALSCALE:GREGORIAN REFRESH-INTERVAL:PT15M X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT15M X-WR-CALNAME:RMCommunityCalendar NAME:RMCommunityCalendar BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London TZURL:https://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20250330T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20251026T020000Z RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:World War Meth - January 23rd 2025 DTSTAMP:20250124T040349Z SEQUENCE:0 UID:157-7-c3fe8195a3dde498d013e477e2142422@aalbc.com ORGANIZER;CN="richardmurray":noreply@aalbc.com DESCRIPTION:\n World War Meth - January 23rd 2025\n\n https://aalbc.com/ tc/profile/6477-richardmurray/?status=2832&\;type=status\n\n\n\n \n\n\n \n  \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n IF YOU DIDNT CLIC THE LINK ABOVE\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n \n World War Speed\n\n\n\n MY THOUGHTS\n\n\n\n Great information on the us e of drugs in world war two. And how The german government used it heavy a nd  excelled in the war\, the british government\, general montgomery com missioned heavy drug use. 20 milligrams per day is given to the tank briga des in the break through the german line. Funny how the drug is restricted by germans when the usa enters world war two and eisenhauer looks for mil lions. Amazing\, the story on fake german leather is excellent.and the mil itaristic culture of germany which always relied on quick attacks and tech nology.\n\n\n\n VIDEO\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR\n\n\n\n ht tps://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/preview-world-war-speed/4337/\n\n\n\n TRANS CRIPT\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n [ Suspenseful music plays ] -It's long been known that German soldiers used a form of methamphetamine called Pervitin in th e Second World War.\n\n-[Speaking German] -But have tales of Nazis on spee d... [ Suspenseful chord strikes ] ...obscured the other side of the story ?\n\n[ Radio chatter ] [ Suspenseful chord strikes ] -Wow!\n\nThat's amazi ng\, isn't it?\n\n-The massive use of stimulants by British and American t roops.\n\n[ Rapid gunfire ] Did total war unleash the world's first pharma cological arms race?\n\n♪♪ And\, in the face of industrial slaughter\, what role did drugs play in combat?\n\n♪♪ Now\, one historian... -My goodness\, look.\n\nThere's the swastika.\n\n-...is on a quest to dig deep er... -You got the machine guns there.\n\nYou got the tools.\n\nSo you jus t do this\, you just go...?\n\n-Precisely.\n\n-A cannon shell is just gonn a rip through.\n\n-This soldier here that can hardly walk.\n\n-Yes.\n\n-.. .and learn the truth behind World War speed.\n\n-Stand by.\n\n-Eight\, sev en\, six... -The amount of dust was incredible!\n\n[ Explosion ] -...five\ , four... -Oh\, my goodness\, me.\n\nLook at that!\n\n-...three\, two\, -S et\, shoot.\n\nFire One.\n\n-one.\n\n[ Explosions ] -Oh\, my god!\n\n[ Sus penseful chord strikes ] ♪♪ [ Engine humming ] [ Static crackling ] -[ Speaking German ] -[ Speaking German ] -[ Speaking German ] -[ Speaking G erman ] -December 1942.\n\nA German bomber crew struggles to keep their da maged plane aloft.\n\n-[ Conversing in German ] [ Engine buzzing ] [ Omino us chord strikes ] [ Suspenseful music plays ] ♪♪ -Seven decades after it went down\, this German Heinkel He 115 bomber is pulled from a Norwegi an fjord.\n\n[ Oxygen whooshing ] It's an amazing discovery.\n\nThe only a ircraft of its kind ever recovered\, from a time when England stood alone against fascism in Europe.\n\n[ Poignant tune plays ] The fjord's oxygen-p oor water has left the plane remarkably intact and the recovery team will soon discover artifacts inside [ Camera shutter clicking ] in near-pristin e condition\, including brandy\, caffeine-infused chocolate\, and speed.\n \n[ Suspenseful music plays ] -[Speaking local language] -We're going to s ee the remains of a Heinkel 115\, which is a float plane\, a sea plane\, t hat was used by the German Navy.\n\nAnd\, not only did they pull up this H einkel 115\, they also found lots of things on it\, [ Turn signal clicking ] including\, it turns out\, a packet a Pervitin.\n\n♪♪ For me\, ther e's a massive difference between just being an armchair historian and actu ally getting out on the ground\, rolling up your sleeves\, and doing some proper primary research.\n\n♪♪ You can't really understand a subject u nless you actually seen what you're looking at for real\, you know\, you'v e touched those pieces of paper\, looked at the sites\, talked to other pe ople who really know what they're talking about.\n\nAnd it is amazing how it actually then prompts you to ask all sorts of other questions that you might not have thought about in the first place.\n\n-James Holland has wri tten nearly 30 books about the Second World War.\n\nHe's an expert on the blitzkrieg of 1940 and the Battle of Britain\, which will prove pivotal ch apters in his quest to understand how amphetamine use evolved during the c onflict.\n\n-[Speaking local language] -Could German amphetamine packets h ave survived the crash and decades underwater?\n\nIf so\, they may provide unique insight into the role speed played during German bombing missions over England.\n\n-You know\, I've seen a few aircraft wrecks that have bee n pulled out of the water\, but this Heinkel 115 that's been pulled up out of the fjord was in incredible condition\, so good that you could still s ee the paintbrush marks on the tailplane.\n\nSo I'm looking at the bomb ba y\, here\, aren't I?\n\n-Yeah.\n\nYeah.\n\n-Okay\, but this was carrying b ombs when it was found?\n\n-Yeah.\n\nYeah.\n\n-So where would they be?\n\n -They was in the center section.\n\n-And this is a camouflage for going ov er the dark North Sea.\n\n-You know\, you wouldn't want it light\, would y ou?\n\nYou look at that sea from above\, you can see how dark it is all th e time.\n\n♪♪ -For German bomber crews\, night missions from Norway in volved a 12-hour round-trip flight over the North Sea.\n\n[ Rapid gunfire ] Raving spitfires and flak over England\, then\, surviving the long trip home.\n\n♪♪ German victories make the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht seem inv incible.\n\n[ Explosion ] Rumors circulate of German soldiers and airmen f ueled by a super-drug that makes them fearless\, energized\, and able to p ress on without need for rest or recuperation.\n\n[ Tranquil tune plays ] Even Nazi dive-bombers stir theories about so-called Stuka-Tablets\, pills that enable fliers to withstand G-force plunges to target no human being could possibly survive.\n\n♪♪ -This is the Heinkel 115 elevator.\n\nIt was cut in two when the plane crashed\, so.\n\n-Right.\n\n-In the wing\, there was a dinghy.\n\n-Yes.\n\n-And\, within the dinghy\, there was a res cue package.\n\n-It's possible to look at it?\n\n-Yes.\n\n-Fantastic.\n\nS o\, when I walked in and saw the table full of objects from this escape ki t\, plus a few other little bits and pieces they found\, I\, you know\, I was absolutely staggered.\n\nAnd\, obviously\, we've got a brace of machin e guns here.\n\nThese are 17s?\n\n-MG 17s\, yeah.\n\n-You got the machine guns there\; you got the tools.\n\nYou got all this\, but this is the bit that's really catching my eye.\n\n-Matches.\n\n-Yeah.\n\n-Cigarettes?\n\n- Yeah\, it is.\n\n-This is obviously chocolate.\n\nThis has a high caffeine content\, doesn't it?\n\n-Yes.\n\n-And this is the brandy.\n\n-Yes\, that 's the brandy.\n\n-I can't believe you haven't tried it.\n\nOkay\, but the re's one item here that\, to me\, is missing.\n\n-Yes\, I guess we are mis sing the Pervitin.\n\n-Yes\, where's that?\n\n-Well\, when it came up and we tried to clean it\, it started to dissolve and\, when we looked back in to the box\, it was -- There's nothing left\, so\, it just vanished.\n\nWe ll\, I'm sorry\, we have only a photograph of it.\n\n-The whole reason for coming here is because Pervitin has been found on this plane when it was brought up from the fjord.\n\nIt was a little disappointing.\n\n-Despite J im's disappointment\, the Pervitin's location on the plane may be more imp ortant than seeing the package itself.\n\n-So this was in the -- this was in the wing?\n\nWhat was really interesting is it wasn't sort of in the co ckpit equivalent of the glove compartment\, you know.\n\nIt wasn't found r ight by the pilot's seat or something\, you know.\n\nIt was actually found in a pre-prepared [ Camera shutter clicking ] emergency escape pack.\n\nT hat made me kind of think that it wasn't used in a kind of sort of casual way\, but in a quite pragmatic way.\n\n-If the Pervitin pack was kept out of reach\, it suggests the drug wasn't meant to keep men awake during flig ht\, but to keep them alive\, should their plane go down.\n\n-So you've go t the brandy\, to keep the cold away.\n\nYou've got some cigarettes to kee p you going\; chocolate with caffeine in it\; and\, of course\, you've got the Pervitin.\n\nWe all know what that does.\n\nThat keeps you going for another 12 hours or so\, while you're bobbing around on the North Sea.\n\n They were flying in winter\, so it's going to be bitterly\, bitterly cold. \n\nThe most important thing is that they don't fall asleep and die of hyp othermia.\n\nSo what's gonna keep you awake?\n\nWell\, Pervitin's gonna do that.\n\n[ Suspenseful music plays ] -Jim's Norway stop has been illumina ting and frustrating\, all at the same time.\n\n[ Bell tolls ] He decides to head south\, to a museum in Germany\, where you can still see and hold Pervitin samples from World War II.\n\n-And I met with Dr. Peter Steinkamp \, who's an expert in this.\n\nYou know\, I just really wanted to pick his brains about what this stuff was\, how it came to be\, and to look at Per vitin packets for the first time.\n\nWow.\n\nThat's amazing\, isn't it?\n\ n[ Suspenseful music intensifies ] -This was methamphetamine created in th e 1930s by a German pharmacologist.\n\nHe called it Pervitin.\n\nThis is a version for injection and this is the version for piercing.\n\n-And what' s this say\, here?\n\n-\"Inject slowly\, not too fast.\"\n\n-[Laughing] Oh \, goodness\, me.\n\nImagine buying\, over the counter\, vials of stuff to inject yourself\, you know\, with a Class A drug.\n\nI mean\, it's just a bsolutely extraordinary and just so casual.\n\nIf I took one of those\, ho w long would I be completely wired for?\n\n-Well\, about two nights.\n\n-S o this came out in Germany\, what\, in the late 1930s?\n\n-Yes.\n\nIn 1938 \, it was first available in drugstores.\n\n-So I could just walk in and I could go\, \"I'll have a packet of 12 Pervitin\, please\"?\n\n-Yeah\, rea lly.\n\n-Wow!\n\nThat's amazing\, isn't it?\n\n♪♪ -By 1938\, Pervitin manufacturer Temmler Pharmaceutical of Berlin had launched a PR campaign m odeled on Coca-Cola's global marketing strategy.\n\n♪♪ And\, despite H itler's vehement anti-drug rhetoric\, many Nazis\, including the Fuehrer h imself\, were heavy drug users.\n\n[ Cheering ] Methamphetamines seemed ge ared to the modern\, tech-embracing Reich that was envisioned.\n\n-The Naz i state is all about\, \"If you work hard\, if you strive for a better Ger many\, then you'll get a better Germany.\n\nCome on\, get your backbone in to it and let's get working.\n\nLet's make Nazi Germany\, the Third Reich\ , let's make it a thousand-year Reich.\n\nLet's make it brilliant!\"\n\nYo u know\, and they embraced science and technology\, and pharmacology is al l tied in with that.\n\nThat's why it appeals.\n\nSo it's not much of a st ep\, is it\, from day-to-day domestic use to being used in the armed servi ces?\n\n-Yes\, yes\, you're right.\n\nThe officers said to the medical off icer\, \"Please\, now\, give Pervitin to our soldiers.\"\n\n♪♪ -By May 1940\, German troops under the influence of Pervitin have already conquer ed Poland.\n\nNow\, Hitler's Army masses for another attack\, against Fran ce.\n\n♪♪ The British and French armies facing them outnumber the Germ ans in men\, artillery\, and even tanks\, but the German plan is audacious : built on the use of combined arms\; using air power as moving artillery\ ; and what some will call a new method of warfare\, which really wasn't ne w at all.\n\n-The German way of war\, what has become known as blitzkrieg\ , has always been traditionally depicted as something kind of new.\n\nIt i sn't.\n\nIt's an extension of the way of war that Germans have always been practicing and\, before Germany became Germany in 1871\, the Prussians be fore them.\n\nAnd it's because they're stuck in the middle of Europe.\n\nT hey don't have those resources of bauxite and copper and iron ore and\, mo re latterly\, oil\, and food\, actually\, that you need to protract a long \, attritional war.\n\nSo what do you do?\n\nWell\, you get round that by fighting your wars with overwhelming force at the point of impact\, where you first attack\, knocking your enemy off-balance\, surrounding them and annihilating them\, and you do that incredibly quickly.\n\n-At this point in the war\, the German army is outgunned and outnumbered.\n\nTo win\, the y'll have to move swiftly\, with no time for rest.\n\nAnd\, like the Luftw affe\, the army also has a secret weapon to help defeat the military comma nders' oldest enemy: sleep.\n\n♪♪ -I mean\, how much Pervitin was used in 1940?\n\n-During the war against France in 1940\, there was a deliveri ng of 35 million pills -Ha!\n\n-of Pervitin to the Wehrmacht.\n\n-Wow.\n\n So\, literally\, just in sort of 10\, 12 weeks\, they're issuing 35 millio n tablets of Pervitin?\n\n-Yeah\, yes.\n\n-You know\, all-in\, there's onl y about 3 million troops involved in the whole thing.\n\n[ Rapid gunfire ] -In the end\, the German army pulls off what seemed impossible\, even to Hitler.\n\n[ Rapid gunfire ] Wehrmacht tanks and foot soldiers managed to fight and march for 10 days straight... ♪♪ ...trapping the entire Brit ish army on the beaches of Dunkirk.\n\n♪♪ [ Gunfire ] German troops mo ve an average of 22 miles a day\, [ Flames crackling ] under fire.\n\nIt's considered one of the greatest feats [ Flames crackling ] in military his tory.\n\n-So\, obviously\, Pervitin keeps you awake\, but what else does i t do to you?\n\n[ Rapid gunfire ] -When you're taking it and you have to d o a duty... ♪♪ ...you are focused on it.\n\nThere was no fear and you don't think about anything else in that moment.\n\n-What other side effect s are there?\n\n-I talked to some veterans who used Pervitin and they said \, after doing the duty\, they sometimes got frightened -Oh.\n\n-because \ "We were in fear that we could never\, ever\, sleep again and\, when we co uld not sleep anymore\, we must die.\"\n\n♪♪ -However the drug affects individual soldiers\, the larger outcome is clear: German troops\, fueled by methamphetamine\, crushed the combined arms of Western Europe in littl e over a week.\n\nNazi tactics and technology seem unstoppable.\n\n[ Suspe nseful chord strikes ] But did the Wehrmacht truly need a stimulant to ach ieve victory in 1940?\n\nWas marching 22 miles in a single day an amazing pace or has the blitzkrieg tale\, like the word itself\, been warped into legend over time?\n\n♪♪ Today\, Jim's gathered a group of fellow histo ry fanatics to put this question to the test.\n\n-The idea is that\, rathe r -- -They start by comparing British and German infantry gear\, to see if one was better than the other.\n\n-Much more.\n\nJust asking.\n\n-Taff Gi llingham has served as a military consultant for feature films and TV seri es.\n\n-You then don't need to take your eye off the target until you've k nocked him over.\n\n-He's an expert on Second World War paraphernalia.\n\n -Well\, Taff\, you know\, we've got this all laid out.\n\nWe've got Britis h here\, German here.\n\nPresumably\, this is an ammunition pouch?\n\n-Tha t's right.\n\nThat's the ammunition pouch.\n\nYou've got three clips in ea ch of those pouches.\n\n-I mean\, they do love leather\, don't they\, the Germans?\n\nI mean\, every bit of it is.\n\nIt's just leather\, leather\, leather.\n\n-The British had a simpler idea\, which was to carry a cotton bandolier\, and then you just pull the clips out\, ready to push into the rifle.\n\n-Hm.\n\n♪♪ -The British kitty is actually pretty quiet becau se it's all cotton\, it's canvas.\n\nIt doesn't make much noise as you mov e around.\n\nWhereas\, the veterans always had this story that you could h ear the German Army coming because they sounded like a loose cutlery drawe r with all this stuff clinking and clanking away [ Laughter ] as the Germa n -- Exactly.\n\nThe gas mask tin bouncing around.\n\n♪♪ -I'll take th is back.\n\n-Next\, they'll set out to see just how hard it would've been to cover 22 miles while carrying a 60-pound combat load\, with only coffee or tea to keep you going.\n\n-That's quite heavy.\n\n[laughs] ♪♪ -I c an't believe that they'd have walked a long way with a kit like that.\n\n- I mean\, this is the reason for doing this.\n\nIt's only when you actually start using this practically that you can understand how people would ope rate with it back in the day.\n\nSo the real point of this entire experime nt is\, after walking 20 miles around here with all this kit\, if you've g ot a drug that can keep you going\, can we understand why they're using th is in 1940?\n\n-Okay.\n\nLet's do it.\n\n-Let's do it.\n\n♪♪ -My feet are -- Oof.\n\n♪♪ -How's that?\n\n-That looks good.\n\n-Feels better.\ n\nOh\, post.\n\n♪♪ Ooh!\n\nThat's my feet.\n\nNow they hurt.\n\n♪ ♪ [ Grunts ] ♪♪ -Ah!\n\n[ Metal clinking ] [ Laughter ] We'll maybe leave that bit out.\n\n[ Laughter ] -Two hours and seven miles in\, the gr oup breaks for tea.\n\n-It's heating up pretty quick\, isn't it?\n\n-For m any Allied soldiers\, caffeine was the stimulant of choice.\n\nCoffee was so critical to American GI Joes that\, today\, cup of Joe is synonymous wi th the drink.\n\n-All right\, cheers.\n\n-I've got my foot out.\n\n-Peel y our heel off.\n\nWhere is it?\n\n-Just there.\n\n-Wiggle your foot.\n\nHow much am I getting paid for this is all I wanna know.\n\n-So\, because we' re able to take caffeine\, we're on these lovely\, delicious-looking choco late\, caffeine-enhanced chocolate.\n\nSo\, James\, this should send us ar ound the next bit of the march a bit quicker then\, eh?\n\n-Should do.\n\n -Come on\, let's go.\n\n-Yeah.\n\n♪♪ -They may not be in combat... -He llo\, Woofit.\n\n-[Barking] -...but they are carrying the same 60-pound lo ad that German and British soldiers would've humped\, back in 1940\, and i t's proving no easy task.\n\n-Where's the shortcut\, then?\n\n♪♪ -If i t's not 100 yards\, I'm gonna collapse in a pile\, there.\n\n[coughing] Oh !\n\nOh.\n\nOh\, [bleep] Ow.\n\nMy feet are broken.\n\n♪♪ My ankles ar e broke.\n\nSo\, I reckon that 20 miles is achievable\, but\, day after da y\, that's a very hard thing to ask for a platoon of soldiers.\n\n-Despite bruised ankles\, they've logged 14 miles in just under 4 hours.\n\nAt thi s pace\, they'd have easily hit the 22-mile mark of the Wehrmacht.\n\n-You know\, they're all trained up for doing this kinda stuff\, so you have to think that walking 22 miles a day\, over consecutive days\, for those guy s\, really shouldn't have been a massive problem without drugs.\n\n[ Band plays march ] I am not convinced that the Germans needed it\, at all.\n\ n♪♪ -Whether the Wehrmacht needed Pervitin or not\, the Nazi victory i n France is a stunning one.\n\n♪♪ By June 1940\, France has been broug ht to its knees.\n\n♪♪ The British army lies in tatters and\, soon\, L ondon itself is ablaze.\n\n[ Explosion ] ♪♪ [ Explosion ] [ Flames cra ckling ] The English are desperate to learn the source of Germany's succes s... ♪♪ and\, when a German plane goes down in the south of England\, they find the answer.\n\n[ Flames crackling ] Inside\, they discover a pac ket of an unknown substance that holds the key to the Nazis' boundless ene rgy.\n\nLab analysis will soon reveal the substance is methamphetamine\, G ermany's super-drug.\n\n[ Suspenseful chord strikes ] To find out more abo ut the British side of the story\, Jim's meeting pharmacology historian Dr . James Pugh.\n\n-So\, what have you got here?\n\n-So I brought some files along which I thought you might be interested in seeing.\n\n-Mm-hmm.\n\n- The first is a letter to Winston Churchill\, in fact.\n\n-Oh\, really?\n\n -And it's actually from his physician\, Sir Charles Wilson\, letting Churc hill know that the British have discovered that Germany is making use of a mphetamines in a military context.\n\n-Mm!\n\n-And suggesting to him that\ , perhaps\, this is something the British need to consider.\n\n-I mean\, t his is a really interesting line: \"In short\, it was concluded that the d rug would be useful to the majority of men if it is desired to keep them s trenuously and dangerously active for 24 hours at a stretch.\"\n\n-Germany has occupied France\, by this stage\, -Mm.\n\n-so anything that the Briti sh feel they can do to gain an advantage or to level the playing field aga in is something that they need to consider and I guess you could character ize this as maybe the beginning of a chemical arms race\, I suppose.\n\nOn e of the other ways that the drug was used is in its inhaler form.\n\n-Gos h\, look at that.\n\nGod\, it's like a Vicks inhaler.\n\nSo you just do th is\, you just go...?\n\n-Yeah\, I probably wouldn't do that\, at this poin t\, but.\n\n-[laughs] No\, but I mean\, that's the process?\n\n-Yeah.\n\n- The Allied version of Pervitin was called Benzedrine and\, like German spe ed\, it was already used by civilians before the war began.\n\nBoth drugs make users intensely alert\, flooding them with a sense of euphoria.\n\nWi th its added methyl group molecule\, Pervitin races across the blood-brain barrier a bit faster than Benzedrine.\n\nOtherwise\, the two drugs have v irtually the same impact.\n\n♪♪ During the battle of Britain\, exhaust ed Spitfire pilots were getting Benzedrine\, unofficially\, from local pha rmacies\, but Churchill seems to push things to another level.\n\n-So one of the very interesting things is that this is being sent to Churchill and what's important about that is he's a man of science.\n\nHe's very intere sted in novel developments and new technologies and stuff and so drugs kin d of fit that bill for him.\n\n-Soon\, the Royal Air Force begins testing Benzedrine under combat conditions.\n\nThey turn to a 30-year-old flight s urgeon\, named Roland Winfield\, to administer the drug to British air cre w and record the reactions.\n\n♪♪ By late 1941\, Allied bombers are hi tting back.\n\n[ Bombs whistling ] [ Explosions ] ♪♪ Long night missio ns over Nazi Germany\, with a fatality rate of more than 45%\, are a terri fying ordeal.\n\n♪♪ -You know\, that's one of those things where\, obv iously\, so if that can keep you awake and keep you alive\, then\, you kno w\, clearly\, that's a good thing.\n\n-I suppose\, on the other side of it \, too -- -Later\, Jim and James head out to explore a British Lancaster b omber\, the same type of aircraft in which Roland Winfield conducted the o nly known combat tests of amphetamines during the war.\n\n♪♪ -These bo mb bays are pretty impressive\, aren't they?\n\n-My goodness.\n\n[laughing ] That's gigantic.\n\n-They can take 6.5 tons.\n\n-6.5 tons?!\n\n-Yeah.\n\ nAnd they can be adapted to take a Grand Slam\, which is 10 tons.\n\n-10 t ons.\n\n-I mean\, it is incredible\, the lift of this.\n\n-Just absolutely overwhelmed by the size of it.\n\nThis is gonna be tight\, I reckon\, for you\, James.\n\n-I mean\, look at it.\n\n[ Knocking\, hollow ] It's a tin can\, isn't it?\n\n-So there's no armor here or anything like this.\n\n-N o.\n\nNo.\n\n-This is just thin.\n\n-And\, you know\, a cannon shell or a bullet's just gonna rip through.\n\n-Rip straight through.\n\n-On that Lan caster\, you're just thinking\, \"This is a piece of tin.\n\nI'm gonna be shot at.\n\nI'm gonna be scared.\n\nIf I need to escape quickly\,\" [laugh s] you know\, it's just next to impossible.\n\nThere are very few concessi ons to human comfort.\n\n-Yeah\, yeah.\n\n-For me\, this is designed for o ne thing\, and one thing only\, and that's dropping large amounts of bombs .\n\n-Goodness\, me\, yeah.\n\n[ Bomb whistling ] [ Explosions ] -Physical ly exhausting and terrifying.\n\nIn the air war over Europe\, aviation tec hnology pushes men beyond the limits of human endurance.\n\n♪♪ -You kn ow\, I can understand why you would take a Benzedrine pill\, you know?\n\n -I think I can as well.\n\nJust going past the navigator's desk\, here.\n\ n-Again\, I mean\, look how cramped it is.\n\n-It is.\n\nAnd\, as you emer ge into the cockpit\, there's a little bit more space here\, I suppose\, [ laughs] until you try and get in the seat.\n\nCase -- Oh\, my goodness!\n\ nThis is snug.\n\n-Yeah\, it really is\, isn't it?\n\n-[laughing] Yeah\, t his is snug.\n\n-So tell me about Winfield's tests that he was doing.\n\n- Yeah\, he actually flies with the crews.\n\nHe administers the drugs in fl ight\, you know\; he also administers placebos.\n\nAnd then\, yeah\, he re ports back on the experiences the crews have.\n\n♪♪ -In all\, Winfield observed troops who were given amphetamines on 20 RAF missions.\n\n♪♪ -[Indistinct] -I mean\, just imagine this\, James.\n\nYou know\, you're s itting here\, you're piloting this plane.\n\n-We're over the lake now.\n\n -You know\, this is unpressurized\, this cabin.\n\n-Yeah.\n\n-You know\, - 45°\, freezing cold.\n\n♪♪ You've gotta watch out for night fighters and you've got lots of flak coming up.\n\n-Yeah\, yeah.\n\n-The whole thin g is terrifying.\n\n[ Rapid gunfire ] [ Explosion ] [ Explosion ] -So\, af ter crews have dropped their bombs\, they will experience what's known as the post-adrenal crash.\n\nSo their bodies have been flooded with adrenali ne for an extended period of time.\n\nThat adrenaline starts to leave the body at that point and they become extremely fatigued.\n\nThis is one of t he things that Winfield concludes and he recommends in his reports\, is\, if you take the drug about an hour and a half before you're going to drop your bombs\, the drug will start to sort of act upon your consciousness at that point.\n\n♪♪ -Of all Winfield's findings\, perhaps the most infl uential are his reports describing how air crews high on speed show increa sed aggression under fire.\n\n-One of the things that he notes in his repo rt is an example of an attack\, which the air crews actually dive down to a very\, very low height and attack a flak [indistinct] -Really\, they sta rt shooting it up?\n\n-Yeah\, yeah.\n\nOf course\, Winfield is also simult aneously concerned by some of this\, too.\n\nUltimately\, when the RAF com e to think about this drug\, they're actually concerned about those effect s... -Are you all right?\n\nYou get any of the baddies?\n\n-...where the c rews will start to lean on the drugs\, as opposed to using them as a tool to help manage their wakefulness.\n\n♪♪ -But if the RAF sees these sid e effects as a potential problem\, the British army sees them as a benefit .\n\n♪♪ Even more than keeping troops awake\, British ground commander s want a pill that can make the men fearless.\n\n[ Explosions ] ♪♪ By 1942\, the Allies are losing massive numbers of soldiers to a byproduct of industrial warfare: shell shock\, known today as Post-Traumatic Stress Di sorder.\n\nOver the course of the conflict\, as many as one in three front line soldiers will be incapacitated by it.\n\n-Oh\, God\, listen!\n\n-Benz edrine\, it is hoped\, might offer a solution.\n\n[ Suspenseful music fade s ] [ Piano plays melancholy tune ] For this hidden side of the story\, Ji m's traveling to a small museum connected to a hospital that first treated thousands of shell shock victims during the previous World War.\n\n♪♪ -Well\, I suppose\, when we think of\, well\, the concept of war neurosis \, shell shock\, it really goes back to the first World War\, doesn't it?\ n\nAnd is that the first time that it starts to become recognized?\n\n-I t hink the stress of combat has always been recognized\, certainly from the Crimean War onwards\, but what happens in the first World War\, is that in dustry has intensified killing power\, so large numbers of soldiers\, 60%\ , are killed by shrapnel\, by artillery\, by mortars.\n\n♪♪ After the Battle of the Somme\, when there's been something like 420\,000 casualties \, a significant number of those\, maybe 50\,000 to 60\,000\, would be she ll shock.\n\nSo it's not only a medical problem\, it's also a military pro blem because this is a war of attrition and\, if you're losing large numbe rs of men to battle exhaustion\, to psychiatric breakdown\, and you're not able to treat them\, then it's eroding your fighting strength.\n\n-So\, i n the treatment of combat fatigue\, when do they start looking at drugs?\n \nWhen do they start looking at pharmacology and Benzedrine?\n\n-Well\, Be nzedrine has been introduced to the UK in 1935\, but as the war gets close r and closer\, senior doctors and commanders recognize that this could hav e a major beneficial\, you know\, use\, in all three services\, in keeping soldiers awake\, alert\, and boosting their morale in times of stress\, s o I think the British army used Benzedrine to keep people awake\, but also to lift spirits.\n\n-So Dr. Jones was very interesting about the use of B enzedrine\, not just as a wakey-wakey pill\, which is what is was sometime s referred to\, but also one that would improve morale\, that would give t hose who took it a sense of kind of well-being and greater physical courag e.\n\n[ Suspenseful music plays ] -Jim's Glenside visit has given him crit ical insight.\n\nBy using the drug as a tool to heighten aggression and li ft morale\, Britain is raising the stakes in the pharmacological fight aga inst the Nazis\, who still primarily see amphetamine as a way to offset fa tigue.\n\nBy 1942\, British troops in North Africa are in desperate need o f a morale boost.\n\nThey've retreated across 600 miles of desert\, chased by Germany's renowned Africa Corps\, and are dug in around a tiny trading post: El Alamein.\n\nBut in October\, a feisty new commander\, who is lik ely familiar with the RAF amphetamine tests\, arrives: Bernard Montgomery. \n\nHe is ready to go on the offensive.\n\n-When Montgomery took over\, mo rale in British 8th Army was at rock-bottom and it was one of the things h e realized that he had to turn around\, by the way he was talking.\n\n-I w ant to impress on everyone that the bad times are over.\n\n-And\, you know \, \"There'll be no more retreats\,\" you know\, \"You're really well-equi pped.\n\nWe're gonna smash the Germans and the Italian forces\,\" and tryi ng to give them a greater sense of self-belief.\n\n-We can't stay here ali ve.\n\nThey'll never stay here dead.\n\n-But if there's a pill that could do part of that job for you\, then it's gotta be worth taking.\n\n♪♪ - It's always been a bit of a mystery whether Monty\, himself\, brought Benz edrine to the desert and whether he truly saw it as a morale builder\, but Jim's recently discovered a document from Montgomery's medical officer\, QV Wallace\, which proves orders for Benzedrine came straight from the top .\n\n[ Suspenseful music climbs ] -I've never before seen any direct\, wri tten reference in any official capacity\, to the mass use of Benzedrine\, but Brigadier Wallace's memo absolutely knocks that into touch because the re it is\, absolutely spelled out.\n\nThe troops that were involved in the opening stages of the Battle of Alamein were given Benzedrine\, not just to keep them going\, not just to keep them awake\, but also to give them r esolve\, to give them confidence\, to bolster their morale.\n\n♪♪ -By late 1942\, the Americans still have not put any boots on the ground in th e West\, but they do provide a new tank\, which will give the British a te chnological edge in battles to come.\n\n♪♪ -The Sherman is incredibly important when it comes in.\n\nThey get 300 of them straight into Egypt an d they're kinda tested up and made battle-ready.\n\nAt the time\, it is th e best tank on the battlefield.\n\nYou know\, it's got this incredibly acc urate gun.\n\nIt's pretty well-armored.\n\nIt's very easy to maintain.\n\n This is a very good tank\, which is now entering battle on the British sid e.\n\n-Just like long-range bombers\, modern tanks\, like the Sherman\, we re now pushing men to the limits of human endurance\, so how welcome would a pill that could offset these conditions be\, to those who served?\n\nJi m visits an old friend who might be able to help him find out.\n\n♪♪ - Okay\, so Jim Clark is a restorer of wartime military vehicles and he's go t a whole host of stuff.\n\nHe's got Jeeps\; he's got trucks.\n\nBut he's also got a Sherman tank.\n\n♪♪ So Jim\, one of the things I'm trying t o find out a bit is\, I mean\, obviously you know\, when you're in a tank\ , you're gonna get shot at and that's quite traumatic\, but the other thin g I'm quite interested in is just what it's like\, sort of existing and op erating in these tanks 'cause -Yeah.\n\n-it's a confined space.\n\nYou kno w\, man's not really designed for this.\n\nAh!\n\n-All right?\n\n-We're in !\n\n-Right.\n\n[ Engine wheezing ] [ Engine starts ] [ Engine revs ] [ Wh imsical tune plays ] ♪♪ -It's not an environment that is comfortable\, in any shape or form.\n\n♪♪ The smell of the fumes was immense.\n\nVe ry quickly\, you start to kind of catch your throat.\n\nOh\, dear\, I gott a say\, the amount of dust is incredible!\n\n-The fan that cools the engin e -Yeah.\n\ndraws the air in through the crew compartment.\n\n-it gets dra wn over you\, -[Laughs] -so you get covered in it.\n\n♪♪ -If I'm feeli ng this amount of grit going into my eyes and up my nose\, just from going down a short stretch of track in the middle of winter in England\, what's it gonna be like in the desert?\n\nIt must've just been absolutely imposs ible.\n\n[ Suspenseful music plays ] -\"Tank men\,\" wrote one veteran\, \ "fought their war in an enclosed\, suffocating\, noisy metal box\, fearful of being struck and burned alive by an enemy they could not see.\"\n\n[ E xplosion ] [ Explosions ] ♪♪ -You really do get a feel of how physical ly draining it must be to just operate one of these things.\n\n♪♪ So\, you can see\, can't you\, the stress and strain -Yeah.\n\n-of doing that? \n\nYou know\, quite apart from the fact that you're\, almost on a daily b asis\, been in battle.\n\n-Yeah.\n\nThe toll of fightin' all day long and then no proper sleep\, no rest.\n\nUm -- Even if you're sleeping at night\ , there's probably shelling goin' on\, so you probably didn't have much de cent rest.\n\n[ Gunfire ] -[laughing] And this is just stuffed full of hig hly explosive material.\n\n-Yeah.\n\nIn the turret basket\, I think there' s about 15 or rounds.\n\nThere's probably 20 or 30 on each side.\n\n-Yeah\ , it's a good number.\n\n-Yeah\, a good number\, yeah.\n\nThen\, there was .50-cal rounds in the base.\n\nThen\, you got your 160 gallons of fuel.\n \nLike a mobile bomb\, basically.\n\n[ Explosion ] ♪♪ -At El Alamein\, the British 24th Armoured Tank Brigade is given the job of punching throu gh German defenses.\n\nAs the Wallace memo makes clear\, on the eve of the attack\, each man is given a huge dose of Benzedrine: 20 milligrams per d ay\, twice he amount recommended to RAF pilots.\n\n-I know that the 24th A rmoured Brigade were issued with Benzedrine because he wanted them to keep going.\n\nYou know\, what he said was the first bit of the battle was gon na be the dogfight.\n\nIt was gonna be the grinding\, attritional battle\, and\, for that grinding\, attritional battle\, he wanted his men to keep going.\n\n[ Explosions ] -Unlike modern pills\, Benzedrine tablets in '42 have no slow-release coating.\n\nThe full dose will hit all at once.\n\nFo r some soldiers\, alertness and euphoria will give way to a false sense of power.\n\n♪♪ In the coming days\, the men of the 24th will prove exce edingly aggressive\, fatally so.\n\nBecause\, for crewmen of either side\, the use of amphetamine will do more than make them more alert.\n\nIt may suppress a natural reaction in combat: fear.\n\n-Fear is about self-preser vation.\n\nYou're scared because you don't want to die.\n\nIf you take tha t away and you sort of don't care quite so much\, you're not quite so care ful.\n\nThe problem of being charged up on Benzedrine is that your ability to make rational decisions and that normal preservation instinct which ki cks in as a result of fear might be absent if you're absolutely pumped on speed.\n\n[ Suspenseful chord strikes ] ♪♪ -Even with their new Sherma ns\, hopped-up British soldiers face an array of lethal German anti-tank g uns.\n\n[ Blast ] [ Explosion ] -What the Germans have is the infamous 88- millimeter\, which is a dual-purpose antiaircraft gun.\n\nThis is somethin g that can hurl a shell 24\,000 feet\, vertically\, into the air and can a lso be used as an anti-tank gun on a horizontal position\, straight at som ething\, and this is firing at 2\,900 feet per second.\n\n♪♪ -If their judgment was impaired by high doses of Benzedrine\, what kind of fate awa ited them?\n\nJim's visiting a military explosives range for a demonstrati on.\n\n♪♪ Trevor Lawrence runs the COTEC live-fire range on Salisbury Plain\, where they test all new ordinance for the British military.\n\n-Tr evor Lawrence had been there\, seen that\, done it.\n\nI mean\, you know\, this is a guy who's been clearing mines\, clearing IEDs\, you know\, expl osives\, in Northern Ireland during the\, kind of\, height of the Troubles but he also served in\, you know\, Bosnia during the civil war there\; an d in Iraq\, so\, you know\, he knew a thing or two about explosives.\n\nSo \, Trevor\, what we're trying to replicate is the first Sherman tanks.\n\n They're arriving.\n\nThey're in action at the Battle of Alamein in Egypt i n October 1942 and they're under attack from German anti-tank guns\, eithe r the 75-millimeter Pak 40\, or the 88-millimeter.\n\nAnd what we want to do is replicate what it would be like being in that tank\, if you were hit by one of those shells.\n\n-O-kay.\n\n♪♪ I've arranged a metal framew ork.\n\n-Yep.\n\n-What we're gonna attach to that is a sheet of armored st eel and that's the sort of steel that you would've seen on a Sherman tank. \n\nNow\, rather than actually firing a hardened steel projectile into it\ , what I'm going to do is I'm going to attach an explosive charge to the p late here.\n\n-So\, for all purposes\, Trevor\, that is an 88-millimeter a nti-tank round?\n\n-Absolutely.\n\nAs the shock wave runs through the expl osive\, where it hits the plate\, it will produce the same sort of force t hat you'd get from a kinetic energy round striking the plate.\n\n-Wow.\n\n Okay.\n\nAnd can we put anything behind here\, so you can see\, actually\, the effect of falling shrapnel?\n\n♪♪ -Well\, here comes the tank cre w.\n\n-Here they are\, and little do they know the fate that awaits them.\ n\nWe can put some dummies close to it.\n\n-These are our tank crew.\n\n-C lose in the tank crew\, but also to get a better idea of what fragmentatio n we've got\, what we tend to use is a sheet of aluminium and the fragment ation that's falling will go through\, punch holes in that\, and it'll giv e us a good idea of just how much has been produced.\n\n-Wow\, that sounds amazing.\n\n[ Birds chirping ] -At Alamein\, imperceptible desert ridges often concealed German 88s.\n\nIf Benzedrine led British tank crews to aba ndon caution and charge recklessly into hidden enemy guns\, the results wo uld've been devastating.\n\n-Go ahead.\n\n-Stand by.\n\n[ Birds chirping ] -Three\, two\, one.\n\nFiring.\n\n[ Explosions ] -Whoa!\n\n♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Oh\, my goodness\, me.\n\nLook at that!\n\n-It does not loo k very well for our driver\, does it?\n\n-No\, it doesn't.\n\nOuch.\n\ n♪♪ So\, really interesting\, when we got there\, we had a look at it. \n\nYou could see that it was just this little kind of marble\, small\, li ttle kind of circle where it had actually punched all the way through\, bu t then\, you look on the reverse side.\n\nOh\, my goodness\, me.\n\nSo a h uge bit of metal has just disintegrated and it's just shattered.\n\n-There we go.\n\n-Oh\, my god!\n\n-Right in the center of the chest.\n\n-And loo k at all these.\n\n-But also\, look at\, see all this other fragmentation. \n\n-On the head.\n\n-'Cause\, although it's come off in one big scab\, it 's also sent all these other\, smaller fragments out.\n\n[ Melancholy tune plays ] -Both of them had been absolutely covered with little splinter ma rks all over\, each one of which could've been entirely lethal.\n\nThat's just the -- -That's just the blast has just smashed his chest in.\n\n-Shra pnel melted onto the aluminium\, and you can just imagine your crew member \, behind these two\, all into me\, into the shells.\n\n-Oh\, it would be impossible to survive.\n\nAbsolutely impossible.\n\n-I've interviewed so m any people that have been in this situation\, that have been in tanks\, ha ve served in tanks.\n\n♪♪ What I never fully appreciated was the press ure blast from the force of a shell like that hitting another and penetrat ing and transferring that huge force into the confined space of a tank.\n\ nIf you're in an environment like a tank\, that shrapnel that's falling wo uld've just pinged all around here and you think about all that ordinance we've just been talking about.\n\n-Yeah.\n\nYou know\, it's only got one o f those that's gotta penetrate one of the propellant charges on one of tho se shells and it's you're in big trouble\, -Yeah.\n\n-aren't you?\n\n[ Rum bling ] -Having taken huge doses of Benzedrine\, the 24th Armoured Brigade sets out for battle.\n\n♪♪ With new Sherman tanks leading the way\, t roops exhibit hyperaggressive behavior some historians attribute to the dr ug.\n\n♪♪ By battle's end\, the brigade suffers 80% casualties and cea ses to exist.\n\n♪♪ -By the end of it\, they're absolutely shattered.\ n\nWhere's the escape hatch?\n\nOh\, there.\n\n-There\, yeah.\n\n-Jesus.\n \n-But you've got seconds to do it.\n\nIf you think -Yeah.\n\n-you may be on fire and maybe your crew members are also in agony and you [indistinct] to save them or save yourself.\n\n-Yeah.\n\n♪♪ -Yeah\, you know\, it' s -- [sigh] There's protection here\, to a point\, but\, I don't really wa nna be in a tank crew.\n\n-No.\n\nIt is sad.\n\n-Yeah.\n\n♪♪ -So\, can you see if someone's -- If the medical officer of the regiment said\, \"L ook\, here you go.\n\nHere's a Benzedrine pill.\n\nThis will keep you goin g\,\" you'd be quite tempted to take that?\n\n-Yeah.\n\nI think\, if it wo rks\, I think I'd be well up for it.\n\n[ Suspenseful music plays ] ♪♪ -On November 8\, 1942\, a month after Alamein\, American GIs finally ente r ground combat in North Africa.\n\n[ Blasting ] [ Explosion ] [ Gunshot z ips ] They carry with them packets of Benzedrine.\n\n[ Blast ] After the B ritish victory at Alamein\, US General Dwight Eisenhower orders some half- million tablets for American troops.\n\n♪♪ But\, just as the Allies ar e doubling down on speed\, the Nazis are reconsidering its use.\n\nIronica lly\, Hitler's Reich health leader has concerns about the addictive nature and dangerous side effects of amphetamine and\, although German soldiers will continue to use it sporadically\, the drug is severely restricted\, e specially for civilian use.\n\nStill\, Hitler's infatuation with science a nd technology remains strong.\n\n[ Birds chirping ] [ Melancholy tune play s ] By late '44\, with his navy in tatters\, the Fuehrer looks to a bizarr e wonder weapon\, that\, with the help of amphetamines\, might turn the ti de.\n\n♪♪ In the end\, Jim returns to Germany\, to visit the site of o ne of the first Nazi concentration camps.\n\n♪♪ -In November 1944\, so me 40\,000 men are stuck in this camp.\n\n-What's it designed for?\n\n-10\ ,000?\n\n-Okay\, so four times more than there should've been.\n\n-Four ti mes more.\n\n♪♪ Germany had lost the war -Of course.\n\n-already and t he sphere of influence of the German navy was reduced to the Baltic Sea.\n \nEverything else was controlled by the British.\n\nSo these small submari nes were constructed\, mainly for espionage.\n\n[ Suspenseful music plays ] -In addition to espionage\, Hitler's minisubs were also equipped with si ngle torpedoes\, designed to sink Allied ships moving supplies and troops across the English Channel.\n\n-They were very small.\n\nOnly one or two s oldiers could sit in it and they have to sit there for 48 hours\, without sleeping\, without getting up\, without anything\, so they needed a drug t o keep them awake for that time.\n\n-God!\n\nIt's just unimaginable\, isn' t it?\n\nSo you need this drug to keep you going and to keep\, but also pr esumably to keep your spirits up as well.\n\n-Yeah.\n\nThey were testing d ifferent drugs and comparing it\, wanting to find out which drug keeps the people awake for the longest time with the smallest side effects.\n\nThis is the secret report on the experiments and this gives the four different substances: A\, B\, C\, D. The first is cocaine\, [speaking German] in di fferent doses.\n\nSecond is cocaine in chewing gum.\n\nPervitin in a chewi ng gum.\n\n-But 100 milligrams\, I mean\, that's a huge dose!\n\n-Yeah.\n\ nIt's a huge dose\, indeed.\n\nThe men must have been completely stoned.\n \n100 milligrams is really a lot.\n\n-I mean\, can you imagine it?\n\nYou know.\n\nYou're a young member of the German navy\, you've been singled ou t to man one of these submarines.\n\nYou're chewing on gum that has been l aced with cocaine and methamphetamines.\n\nI mean\, we're talking crystal meth\, here\, and you're chewing away on this thing in this tiny\, tight l ittle cockpit\, and\, you know\, you're high on speed.\n\nI mean\, it's ju st\, it's insane.\n\nI mean\, it is absolutely insane.\n\n-To test the sti mulants\, the German navy decides to force Sachsenhausen prisoners to take the drugs and then carry sacks of rocks around the camp's infamous shoe t rack.\n\n-So this is the testing track.\n\nIt was.\n\n-This one\, here?\n\ n-This\, here.\n\nIt was once around the roll call area and it was covered with different materials.\n\nSo here you would have sand\, the next one i s concrete\, small gravel.\n\nAnd the reason for setting it up was the tes ting of artificial leather.\n\n♪♪ Germany did not have leather\; they always imported leather -Right.\n\n-and\, when they started the war\, [lau ghing] nobody wanted to sell them leather\, so they ordered companies to d evelop artificial -- -Fake leather.\n\n-Artificial leather\, yeah.\n\n-God \, it's absolutely fascinating.\n\nI had no idea.\n\n-And it's quite hard to walk on here\, isn't it?\n\n-It is\, yeah.\n\n-If you have to march\, i t's not so easy.\n\n[ Melancholy tune plays ] Sachsenhausen was designed b y an architect and the architect wanted to give a message with the archite cture of the camp.\n\nWith the one tower as the highest point\, every morn ing\, the prisoners had to stand on the roll call area\, being counted\, a nd\, up here\, there was a huge machine gun.\n\nFor the prisoners down the re\, looking into the eye of this machine gun up here\, the message was\, \"You're completely in our hands.\n\nYou're completely helpless and we can do whatever we want.\"\n\n[ Buzzing ] -I mean\, it's doing exactly what i t's designed to do.\n\nI mean\, you can feel it\, even just standing up he re.\n\n-Yeah.\n\n♪♪ -What a grim place.\n\n♪♪ -After the minisubs fail and his army falters\, Hitler\, who may himself have been addicted to drugs by war's end\, takes his own life.\n\nLuftwaffe commander and heroi n addict Hermann Goering does the same.\n\n[ Rattling ] But Benzedrine and Pervitin live on.\n\n[ Suspenseful music plays ] -During the Second World War\, one of the things that it certainly does do is it familiarizes hund reds of thousands of individuals with a drug that perhaps they otherwise w ouldn't have used.\n\nSo it sort of normalizes the use of that drug and it sort of reinforces its position as a useful tool.\n\n♪♪ -By the 1950s \, amphetamines are being marketed as a diet pill and mood enhancer.\n\nBe nnie inhalers are offered on airplane menus.\n\nCelebrities\, ranging from Marilyn Monroe to Jack Kerouac\, are avid users.\n\nSoon\, millions are a busing speed\, in what is now considered America's first prescription-drug epidemic.\n\n[ Applause ] One likely user is a young combat vet from Mass achusetts\, named John F. Kennedy.\n\n-Picking this country of ours up and sending it into the '60s.\n\n[ Cheering ] -When I first embarked on this investigation\, I was a bit scandalized that so much speed was taken durin g the Second World War and how outrageous that was.\n\n-World War II milit ary leaders saw amphetamines as simply another technological tool\, like r ockets and radar\, tools that changed the world forever.\n\n-For us\, in t he 21st century\, drugs are bad\, amphetamines are bad.\n\nSpeed is a dodg y word.\n\nYou've got to see this in the light of the 1930s and the 1940s. \n\nWorld War II takes place over six years.\n\nA lot is being expected of the young men [ Gunshots ] of the major combatant nations\, and\, is it a ny wonder\, in this life-and-death struggle for the future of the world\, that people are going to be looking at drugs that can keep people awake\, that can keep morale improved?\n\nIt's absolutely no wonder at all.\n\n[ S uspenseful music climbs\, chords striking ]\n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\ n 1/25/2026\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n citation\n\n\n\n https://aalbc.com/tc/topic /12353-with-the-heritage-of-meth-drug-dealing-in-the-usa-from-the-1940s-wa s-its-current-potency-in-modernity-an-inevitability/#findComment-79703\n\n \n\n  \n\n\n\n osted just now\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n @Pioneer1\n\n\n\n   5 hours ago\, Pioneer1 said:\n\n\n\n \n\n I wonder what goes through peop le's minds when they first try drugs like Meth or Crack.\n\n What are they thinking....that THEY won't be addicted?\n\n\n\n why didn't you mention c ocaine? crack is merely cheap cocaine? crack is like those dollar beers fi scally poor people drink at times\, it isn't 100 proof vodka \, far from i t but it does have alcohol in it. \n\n\n\n Cocaine is more potent than cr ack and cocaine mountains have always existed downtown manhatten in white offices and homes of the upper or lower rich and upper poor whites. What a re white people thinking? \n\n\n\n I find it interesting you singled out meth and crack but didn't mention opium which is where the opiods from fro m\, or cocaine where the crack comes from? \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n @ProfD \n \n\n\n   5 hours ago\, ProfD said:\n\n\n\n German soldiers high as a k ite were able to brave the elements &\; sleep deprivation in order to f ight &\; felt nothing when they were killed.\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n don't e xaggerate\, \"felt nothing when they were killed\" next you will say\, the y ate things that made a billy goat puke . no need for all of that\n\n\n\n   5 hours ago\, ProfD said:\n\n\n\n Ovet the past 50+ years\, drugs b oth legal &\; illegal has been the most profitable war waged against hu mans.\n\n\n\n In my view the most profitable enterprise is enslavement. Th e key today post jim crow is how enslavement has been finessed into ways\, the days of crude\, shackle on the throat enslavement is rare to see in t he wealhy countries of the world\, but slavery is still king for me. \n\n \n\n Interesting you worded it\, war waged against humans... may I know wh o waged said war against humans? don't say the martians.\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\ n @Pioneer1\n\n\n\n   4 hours ago\, Pioneer1 said:\n\n\n\n Look at how many people are addicted to Red Bull and those Monster drinks.\n\n Now th ey're guzzling down those 5 hour energy shot which are straight up drugs i n my opinion.\n\n ...cocaine in a bottle.\n\n\n\n lets add gambling\, let' s not limit addiction to substanced\, i argue gambling is far more potent\ , if you consider how many people play the lotto in humanity\, i am speaki ng of the lotto exists in every country with money\, think about that: ind ia/china/russia/usa/england/australia/brazil\, every country has lotto or similar forms of gambling\, that use of wealth that goes nowhere but to th e tables pockets\, alot of drugs get daily use and not just powders and el ixers.\n\n\n\n @ProfD \n\n\n\n   3 hours ago\, ProfD said:\n\n\n\n Fo llow the money. The economy is fueled by all types of drugs and the condit ions\, industries &\; jobs created by demand for it including law enfor cement\, judicial\, hospitals &\; prisons.\n\n\n\n well said and I may add\, this goes back to the end of the enslavement era in the usa\, 1865. and back to the issue of bankruptcy and financial failure. \n\n\n\n All w hite wealth in the usa stems from cheating in the marketplace not penalize d in contracts /illegalities not penalized in the courtroom/crimes legally allowed. This is financial fact. So it makes sense that any crime legally allowed\, like drugging people\, or illegalities not taken to courtroom l ike burning black towns and assaulting black people\, will have its versio ns in the future. OR lastly but very important in the modern\, many whites are able to benefit from the wealth gained by their bloodline in the past through various illegalities or criminalities that in modernity are inher itances\, which non blacks similarly never or rarely have.  BUT\, my thou ghts go to the black populace in the usa. \n\n\n\n The relation is simple \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n What is black wealth over time in the usa?\n\n\n\n Bla ck labor[education or time]+ Black drive[ambition]+ black inheritance[pare nts or community financing\, mostly nonexistent until the 1980s]+Black net working[ connections to those black with wealth]\n\n\n\n What is white wea lth over time in the usa? \n\n\n\n white inheritance[ existent since 1492 through all means of criminal or illegal behavior]+ White education[labor or time]+White drive[ambition]+White networking[ connection to whites wit h wealth\, ala ivy league schools original purpose]\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n Bla ck wealth over time in the usa by those elements can never be greater than white wealth over time unless one thing happens\, white inheritance has t o reduce tremendously. \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n With that it invalidates black people who mention black wealth in the usa\, because I don't see the numb ers add up. White networking has hundreds of years of advantage over black networking which whites wouldn't allow till the very late 1900s.  White inheritance has hundreds of years of advantage over black inheritance whic h whites wouldn't allow till the very late 1900s. so... I don't see how th e numbers add up for black people in the usa who talk of financial leaping when the white neighbor has a huge advantage built by their forebears at the detriment to our own over centuries. \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n @Pioneer1\n\ n\n\n   2 hours ago\, Pioneer1 said:\n\n\n\n Now you have to go to a W hole Foods or GNC or some independent health food store to get the real st uff that actually works or that is potent.\n\n\n\n the answer is grow your own\, but again\, who stole or took black peoples land int the usa or the colonies that preceded it for hundreds of years... The sad thing about DO Sers in particular is we all know if we know anything about our bloodlines history that whites took advantage of us. took land by all sorts of  mea ns from our forebears\, to  make sure we today didn't have land to be inh erited. and then now in 2026\, after white people took land our forebears could had given us over and over again over centuries\, we are supposed ju st magically acquire land absent any inheritance what so ever. magically g ain wealth absent any inheritance. magically just financially come up with gold. \n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n 1/25/2026\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n Citation\n\n\n\n https://aalbc.com/tc/topic/12353-with-the-heritage-of-meth-drug-dealing-in -the-usa-from-the-1940s-was-its-current-potency-in-modernity-an-inevitabil ity/#findComment-79734\n\n\n\n ted just now\n\n\n\n @Pioneer1\n\n\n\n    3 hours ago\, Pioneer1 said:\n\n\n\n street drug\n\n\n\n yeah drug\, i will love for black people to say suburban drug\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n\n   3 hours ago\, Pioneer1 said:\n\n\n\n You must have read that post in betwe en your visits to the blood bank to make your hourly deposit....lol.\n\n\n \n  \n\n\n\n in for a penny\, in for a pound\n\n\n\n   3 hours ago\, P ioneer1 said:\n\n\n\n However gambling usually doesn't pose a danger to o thers outside of those who are participating....usually.\n\n\n\n no pionee r\, deeper research\n\n\n\n   3 hours ago\, Pioneer1 said:\n\n\n\n You rarely hear about gambling addicts trying to rob a store or selling their children to support their habits.\n\n\n\n yeah in the same way you rarely hear about white priest crimes or white welfare recipient violence or... well\, white opiod addiction not too long ago... when white people commit crimes\, most in the usa rarely hear anything about it. but you got to hav e money to gamble\, people of color historically don't have that.\n\n DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250123 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR