Amphetamines In The 1960's

Amphetamines in the 1960’s During the Vietnam War, American troops were religiously supplied with amphetamines by the United States Government, leading it to be called the first ever “pharmacological war.” Amphetamines are classified as stimulants, and more specifically, central nervous system stimulants. They were used and still are used to treat many illnesses and conditions, but during the Vietnam War, amphetamines were used for their effects like heightened awareness and their ability to keep people awake, which resulted in enhanced performance for the soldiers; for these properties, amphetamines were often called “pep pills” or even sometimes referred to as “speed”. Soldiers were reported to take these pills as if they were candy, and

Due to these properties and uses plus the publicity from their effects, amphetamines became both widely used drugs and widely trusted drugs in the sixties. Many people used them for various reasons, some were medical, and others were simply for recreational use. Despite the good effects of the drug, the long-term effects and side effects were vastly misunderstood in the sixties. The result of this was many threatening health conditions from years of amphetamine use and abuse, due to these facts, Amphetamines should only be legal by prescription to treat specific conditions today. Amphetamines were first created by Lazar Edeleanu, a Roman chemist, in 1887. Edeleanu created amphetamines from a Chinese plant called Ma-Huange. In addition to Ma-Huange, Edeleanu used ephedrine as well as many other chemical compounds that were used in medications for more than a hundred years after. Edeleanu’s amphetamine

As of now, amphetamines are legal in the prescription form, typically in medicines like Adderall, for the treatment of ADHD. However, they are also legal in some performance enhancers. Due to the heavy abuse of amphetamines as energy supplements, however, amphetamines should be legal only by prescription. This way, the drugs are harder for abusers to get, but they are still readily available for people who need them to treat specific conditions. Amphetamines are commonly used to treat disorders such as obesity, narcolepsy, ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Parkinson’s Disease. These four disorders are treated primarily with amphetamines, so if these drugs were made completely illegal, the people who suffer from these disorders and rely on these medications would have a difficult time managing their disorders. While the legality of prescription amphetamines is imperative, the amount prescribed for each person should be and could be drastically lessened. As it is, doctors only prescribe about a month’s worth of amphetamine medication at a time, but this still has the potential of leaving room for amphetamine abuse. With a prescription for only a week at a time, it leaves less of a margin for misuse by the patients that need the drug. Prescribing patients a limited amount