METHAQUALONE

'Methaqualone'¹ is a sedative drug which is similar in effect to barbiturates, a general CNS depressant. It was used in the 1960s and 1970s as an anxiolytic, for the treatment of insomnia, and as a sedative and muscle relaxant. It has also been used illegally as a recreational drug, particularly in the 1970s in North America. In the 2000s, it is widely used as a recreational drug in South Africa.

Contents

Effects

History

Illegal use as a recreational drug

South Africa

Names

Street names

Other names

In South Africa

In popular culture

References

See also

External links

Effects

Usual effects include relaxation, euphoria, and drowsiness, also reducing heart rate and respiration. Larger doses can bring about depression, muscular miscoordination, and slurred speech.
An overdose can cause delirium, convulsions, hypertonia, hyperreflexia, vomiting, renal insufficiency, coma, and death through cardiac or respiratory arrest. It resembles barbiturate poisoning but with increased motor difficulties and a lower incidence of cardiac or respiratory depression. Toxicity is treated with diazepam and sometimes an anticonvulsant.

History

Methaqualone was discovered by the Indian researcher M. L. Gujiral in 1955 during an anti-malaria research program. It was marketed as a sleeping pill during the 1960s under a number of tradenames including Renoval and Melsed and in combination with an antihistamine as Mandrax.
From 1965 it was sold on the United States market as 'Quaalude', 'Sopor' and 'Parest'; by 1972 it was the sixth most popular sedative in the US. The name Quaalude was apparently derived from the phrase "quiet interlude" with an added "aa" by the manufacturers in order to elicit a more positive public recognition, as was done with the drug Maalox. It was hoped that it was a "safer" drug than barbiturates to use for sedation; however, it was found to have similar problems of tolerance and dependence.
Up until the fall of Nicolae Ceauşescu's regime in 1989, methaqualone (along with other sedatives) was used to pacify orphans in Romania's state-run orphanage system. Internationally, methaqualone is a Schedule II drug under the Convention on Psychotropic Substances.[1]

Illegal use as a recreational drug

Quaaludes became increasingly popular as a recreational drug during the 1960s, and during the disco club scene in the 1970s. The drug was more tightly regulated in Britain under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and in the U.S. from 1973. With its addictive nature clear, it was withdrawn from many developed markets in the 1980s, being made a Schedule I drug in the US in 1984.
Smoking methaqualone, either alone or as an adulterant added to various legal and illegal smoking mixtures, gained popularity in the United States during the mid 1970s. When smoked, methaqualone gives the user an immediate trance-like euphoria that quickly wears off. Because the various binders and inert ingredients that were contained in the pill form were toxic when smoked, this practice was roundly decried by the medical community as a serious health risk. Smoking methaqualone pills leads to emphysema and other chronic lung disorders.

South Africa

Commonly known as Mandrax, it is not taken orally but is crushed and mixed in a pipe (or the neck of a broken bottle) with marijuana. Mandrax has become a major problem and is one of the most commonly abused hard drugs in South Africa. The low price (R30.00 average) of methaqualone together with the ready availability of cheap, low-grade marijuana means it (in addition to crystal meth) is the preferred hard drug of the low-income section of South African society.
Since methaqualone is no longer legally produced, illicit manufacture either in India, or in South Africa itself or other African countries produces methaqualone for the South African market. ^[1]

Names

Street names

★ 714

★ Buttons

★ Citrexal

★ Down and dirtys

★ Dreidels

★ Gorilla biscuits

★ Leg Openers

★ Lemmon 714

★ Lemons

★ Lennons

★ Mad Cows Crazy Laughing Juice

★ Jessop Jessop Jessop Jessop Jessop

★ Clarky Cat

★ Red Yellows

★ Lovers

★ Ludes

★ Mad dogs

★ Mandies

★ Mandrax (commonly misspelled ''Mandrex'')

★ Mind peelers

★ Ndanda

★ Q

★ Quaalude

★ Quad

★ Quay

★ Sopor

★ Turkey gizzards

★ Vitamin Q

★ Wallbangers

★ Whore pills

Other names

★ Beans

★ Cateudyl

★ Citexal

★ Dormigoa

★ Dormogen

★ Dormutil

★ Dorsedin

★ Fadormir

★ Holodorm

★ Hyminal

★ Hypcol

★ Hyptor

★ Ipnofil

★ Isonox

★ M&M's

★ Mandrax

★ Mandy's

★ MAOA

★ Melsedin

★ Melsomin

★ Mequelon

★ Mequin

★ Metadorm

★ Methased

★ Mollinox

★ Motolon

★ Metolquizolone

★ MTQ

★ Nibrole

★ Nobedorm

★ Noctilene

★ Normi-Nox

★ Omnyl

★ Optimil

★ Optinoxan

★ Orange AS

★ Ortonal

★ Parest

★ Parminal

★ Paxidorm

★ Quaalude

★ "Randy Mandy"

★ Revonal

★ Riporest

★ Rorer

★ Roror

★ Rouqualone

★ Sedaquin

★ Sindesvel

★ Somberol

★ Somnafac

★ Somnium

★ Somnomed

★ Sonal

★ Soverin

★ Toquilone

★ Toraflon

★ Torinal

★ Tuazol

★ Tuazolone

★ Wobblies

In South Africa

★ Golf-Sticks

★ Mx

★ Pille

★ White Cracker

★ Swastikas

★ White pipe

★ Witpyp

In popular culture

★ Fee Waybill, the lead singer of San Francisco rock band The Tubes created a persona for their live show, called "'Quaylewd'". Quaylewd was a drugged-up, drunken, fallen-from-grace Cockney rock star who dressed in a silver spandex jumpsuit with 12" silver platform boots and sported a large dildo in his costume. Quaylewd came to be the highlight of the finale of The Tubes' live show. He vomited, spat and swore his way through songs such as "White Punks On Dope" and "I was A Punk Before You Was A Punk". The character was in fact a parody of many 70s rock stars who had fallen to a lifestyle of drug abuse.[2]

★ In the 2000 movie ''Almost Famous'', the character Penny Lane attempts suicide by swallowing Quaaludes. Her stomach is pumped, and she survives.

★ Jonestown Cult leader Jim Jones was known to be taking Methaqualone up until the mass suicides at the commune.

★ South African musician Koos Kombuis asks the question "Is daar buttons in die hemel?" (Are there buttons (street name for Methaqualone) in Heaven?) in his hit song ''Johnny is nie dood nie''.

★ Hardcore punk band Gorilla Biscuits got their name from the drug; it was the drug of choice in their neighborhood. The name was only meant to be temporary but stayed with them.

★ Redd Kross wrote a song called "Beer and Ludes" on their album ''Lovedolls Superstar''.

★ On cult television show ''Strangers With Candy'', the main character Jerri Blank talks about "the good old days" and how no one makes good quaaludes anymore.

★ Celia from the Showtime show ''Weeds'' claims to take the "last pharmaceutical Quaalude on Earth," in the episode entitled "A Lude Awakening."

★ In the David Bowie song "Time" (1973), one of the lines is: "Time—through quaaludes and red wine". In the song "Rebel Rebel" (1974), he sings, "You got your cue line and a handful of 'ludes".

★ Frank Zappa's "Pygmy Twylyte" (1973) tells a story about someone who is "hurtin' for sleep in the Quaalude Moonlight". In "Flakes" (1979), while Adrian Belew is impersonating Bob Dylan, Zappa asks, "Wanna buy some Mandies, Bob?"

★ The Lisa Loeb song "When All the Stars Were Falling" includes the lyric "I may not be a Quaalude living in a speed zone / but I could be restful."

★ The Dead Kennedys' song "MTV—Get Off the Air" claims that the MTVVJs "always talk like [they're] wigged out on Quaaludes".

★ In the 1983 movie ''The Big Chill'', Jeff Goldblum's character is shown taking a quaalude tablet during a house party.

★ Handsome Dick Manitoba declares, "Just give me a Sopor for the weekend!" in The Dictators' song "Weekend" off of their 1975 debut album ''The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!''

★ In Bret Easton Ellis' novel ''The Rules of Attraction'', a character goes to a party dressed as a Quaalude for Halloween.

★ In the sitcom ''The King of Queens'', after doing a favor for Doug, Supervisor O'Boyle mentions, "I wouldn't mind if a handful of Mexican quaaludes found their way into my drawer."

★ In the movie ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'', the character Jeff Spicoli, while driving erratically and smoking a marijuana joint and drinking a beer, says "people on 'ludes should not drive" when everybody else is driving slower than him.

★ In the movie ''Scarface'', Tony Montana referring to his wife says "Another Quaalude, and she'll love me again."

★ In Stephen King's book ''It'' mentions that the character Eddie Kaspbrak has six quaaludes in a Sucrets case.

★ In Russell Banks' novel ''Rule of the Bone'', Buster Brown sedates "Froggy", a six- or seven-year-old girl he kidnaps, with "ludes".

★ Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers talks about his experiences while on quaaludes to a great extent in his book, ''Scar Tissue''.

★ Robbie Williams sings of having "a body full of Mandrex" in his 2006 song "Rudebox".

★ Roger Waters of Pink Floyd recalls founding member Syd Barrett putting hair gel (purportedly mixed with crushed Mandrax) on to his head which subsequently melted down his face under the heat of the stage lighting.

★ In the novel ''Almost Transparent Blue'' by Ryu Murakami, the main characters take large quantities of Nibrole.

★ In the Armistead Maupin series of novels Tales of the City, the character Mona is a frequent user of Quaaludes.

★ Alice Cooper sings "Little Betty ate a pound of Quaaludes" on the live version of the song 'Dead Babies' featured on the DVD "Good to See you Again".

★ Free's guitarist Paul Kossoff became heavily addicted to the drug, which led to his eventual death from drug-induced heart attack.

★ In the Marilyn Manson music video for "I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)", one card reads "Quaaludes" during the scene that shows a girl holding up flash cards.

★ In the Cheech and Chong movie ''Up In Smoke'', Quaaludes are mentioned in several places. While driving the "van made entirely out of marijuana," which the narc Sergeant Stadenko is pursuing, Cheech and Chong pick up two hitchhiking women. One of them, 'Jade East,' offers Chong a 'lude. At the Roxy, she gives Chong pills she believes are uppers, but which are actually Quaaludes, before he attempts to perform. Chong's stage persona during his band's performance is "Captain Quaalude"; he is dressed in tights, a shirt emblazoned with a huge Quaalude and a cape. The apparent overdose of Quaalude Chong has received causes him to fall all over the stage and his drums, until he is revived by marijuana smoke being drawn into the Roxy's ventilation system from the van burning in front of the club.

★ In the Tom Clancy novel ''Without Remorse'' one of the main characters fights an addiction to Quaalude.

★ In ''The Comic Strip Presents...'' episode "A Fistful of Traveller's Cheques", Nigel Planer plays a hitchhiking freeloader who repeatedly asks if people have "Got any Mandies?"

★ At the beginning of the Supergrass song "We're not supposed to" (from their 1995 debut album "I Should Coco" one of the band (in a sped-up to high pitch, smurf-like voice) asks, "Anybody got any Mandies?"

★ The second track on Earth's album '' is called "Tibetan Quaaludes".

★ In Judy Blume's book ''Smart Women'' a character named Sara mentions that a girl at her school does Quaaludes every weekend.

★ The unreleased Guns N' Roses song "Crash Diet" includes the line "Crash diet of reds n' ludes."

★ Four different versions of the Ben Sinister song "Fistful Of Mexican Quaaludes" appear on the "Giggle & Stink" (2006), "Gigglepuss" (2006), & "Ad Lucem" (2007) albums.

★ The Lynyrd Skynyrd song "That Smell" includes the lines "Now they call you prince charming, Cant speak a word when youre full of ludes"

★ The song "Little Man's Bangin' Lude" was on R&B artist Ginuwine's album 100% Ginuwine

★ In the movie Blades of Glory figure skater Chazz Michael Michaels played by Will Ferrell says he does not remember the competition at Oslo because he was on Quaaludes.

★ In the movie Summer of Sam hairdresser Vinny abuses Quaaludes as his relationship with Dionna deteriorates.

★ In Sex and the City, Samantha blames falling asleep during sexual intercourse on the 'ludes'.

★ In the Rick James hit song Super Freak a line is "in room 714 I'll be waiting".

★ Ian Dury's song "Billericay Dickie" includes the lines: "Another thing with Sandy, what often came in handy, was passing her a Mandy: She didn't half go bandy."

★ In Danny Sugerman's "Wonderland Avenue" biography, he mentions a time in the early 70's when Quaalude was his drug of choice.

★ Nick Lowe's song "Marie Provost" [sic] (about the silent film actress Marie Prevost who was partially devoured by her pet dachshund after her death) contains the line "Those quaalude bombs didn't help her sleep". For some reason this is often mis-transcribed as "Those twin balms didn't help her sleep"

★ In the 1995 box office bomb/cult hit "Showgirls," Stardust choreographer Gay tells new girl Nomi that she met her dentist husband after she chipped her tooth on a Quaalude.

★ The Starz's song "Subway Terror" includes the line "I got my ludes, I'm in the mood."

★ The first line of The Doors' song L.A. Woman, "Well, I did a little down about an hour ago," is a specific reference to Quaaludes.

★ The band KIX's song "Yeah Yeah Yeah" contains the line's: "I had 2 left...2 Ludes... and the girl of my dreams. Now,again, she drinks my beer, She drinks my whiskey, She does my Qualudes"

References

1. van Zyl EF. A survey of reported synthesis of Methaqualone and some positional and structural isomers. Forensic Science International (2001) 122: 142-149.

See also

★ Cloroqualone

★ Diproqualone

★ Etaqualone

★ Mebroqualone

★ Mecloqualone

★ Methylmethaqualone

External links

★ ''Methaqualone (Quaalude) Synthesis by Rhodium. General information and description of Methaqualone's synthesis plus many references''

★ Quaaludes Again Shel Silverstein's satirical song

★ The Meth Epidemic Frontline discusses quaaludes as part of the history of methamphetamine