From Jessie

For
me the back-to-back chapters on Speed and Total War, and Bootleggers,
Beatniks, and Benzedrine Benders were amongst the most interesting from
Rasmussen’s book. When thinking of amphetamines, and particularly their
abuse “Meth” is the thing that most readily comes to mind, as a modern
symbol of amphetamine abuse. However I was unaware of the extent of the
drugs’ widespread use and abuse prior to the last 20 years. I had heard
about Nazis using the drug during WWII, however I was a bit shocked to
find that all the major powers were utilizing the drug, throughout their
war efforts.

Recently I have been reading Ian Flemings novels in the James Bond
series, which were written in the 50s and I was shocked while reading
“Live and Let Die” about a month ago, when the author casually describes
the protagonist downing Benzedrine before saving the world. In the
context of “On Speed”, accepted use of Amphetamines seems to have been
much more prevalent then we might assume based on current drug control
policy. In fact I was a bit shocked to read Rasmussen’s descriptions of
the drugs prevalence in bootleggers, beatniks, and Benzedrine benders.
In the chapter the author describes how many soldiers were admitted to
military service despite prior use of amphetamines, something that would
be unheard of today. Additionally it was interesting to hear that
Amphetamine use was considered a “social menace” as early as 1947 (p.
91), long before the U.S. government’s official crusade we now know as
“the war on drugs”.