Use of drugs

[GRANVILLE]

Has anyone got more they can add to the information I've recently read in Gibb's 'The Battle's of the Somme' in which he makes mention of discovering German soldiers were being issued with drugs to help them cope with the strain of being under continual British shell-fire, and this despite the fact that most of them were anything up to 40' underground in excellent dugouts.David

[SiegeGunner]

Which drugs are we talking about, David? Bayer began marketing Aspirin in about 1899, and Bayer corporate advertising of the period also features 'Heroin, the sedative for coughs'. In those days, a number of drugs now regarded as powerful narcotics appear to have been freely available, advertised as remedies for comparatively minor and everyday complaints.

[Moonraker]

You may find this

old thread

of interest, and there are a couple of shorter ones about drugs in general.

Moonraker

[Sandie Hayes]

Fortnum & Mason included Heroin in their hampers for families to send to officers at the front!

[tn.drummond]

I've read that German officers were on occasion issued with amphetamines to keep them awake and functioning during prolonged shelling - can't remember where but it was recently so I'll back track some indexes and see what I come up with.

[Guest exuser1]

Have heard previous of the Forced March tablets ? were they issued and used by the troops ? sorry if covered previous ,also would this relate to the banning of cocaine in 1920 in the UK or is this part of a urban myth .

[GRANVILLE]

The old thread is very helpful thanks. I did do a search assuming this must have been discussed before, but couldn't find anything myself. The reference by Gibb's which prompts the enquiry can be found on p200 of 'The Battles of the Somme.' Gibbs writes:

_{^{"To give their men courage in hours when these German soldiers, who are brave men, might well give way to terror, the German chemists have manufactured tabloids which drug them with a kind of frenzy. There is no doubt of this, which sometimes I have doubted, because many of these drugs were found by a friend of mine - the medical officer of the Kentish men who helped to take the trenches north of Pozieres a few days ago. They contained ether and opium in sufficient quantity to intoxicate the strongest man. In German opinion it is good stuff before a counter-attack."}}

David

[martin_sole]

Wehrmacht soldiers were occasionally handed packs of tablets labelled Pervitin, which was apparently some form of amphetamine or methamphetamine

This was also an era when cocaine was legal and widely used for its painkilling properties.

I can't see any military body issuing opium to troops before a counter attack - unless nodding off was part of the battle plan

[Guest]

Alcohol (a drug) in the form of rum was issued in the British Army. I suspect this is not what you are referring to, but a finer definition of what is a 'drug' might help. MG

[GRANVILLE]

I used the term 'drug' chiefly because of the way Gibb's uses the term 'drug' in the quoted passage above. Personally I wouldn't have considered alcohol a drug in the same way a man-made tabloid of such as ether and opium, which has clearly been made to have some sort of powerful effect on the person taking it, is obviously a drug. Alcohol will only tend to do this when the consumer keeps opening their mouth and inviting ever more quantities into themselves. However; when you look at the actual definition of what a drug is, I guess alcohol falls into this category. The Oxford English Dictionary describes a drug as a noun:

• 
  a medicine or other substance which has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body:
  

[martin_sole]

I'm still querying exactly how the MO in question ascertained that the tablets were ether and opium. It seems a very unlikely combination to dish out to soldiers.

[GRANVILLE]

This is really what prompted me to make the original posting, as I have never read of this sort of activity in the trenches before and wondered if anyone could elaborate/corroborate. The question of how the MO knew what the tablets contained is one I can't see being answered, but something about the story appears to have completely convinced the journalist Gibbs, who openly admits to being dubious about the notion originally. David

[Guest exuser1]

Article in the Lancet November 2010 mentions Forced March Pills used by the Shackleton Expedition manufactured by Burrows Welcome,

Contained small amount of cocaine and caffeine recommend taken once every hour ! article states people were disturbed by British soldiers cavorting in public squares ,it goes on to state that due to incidents such as these and incidents of CRAZY soldiers and I assume other incidents that in 1920 Cocaine became a banned substance , a well known rising star of vaudeville died of a overdose in 1919 .

[martin_sole]

Amphetamine seems far more likely, particularly as Germany chemists had been making it since the turn of the century. It can also have a smell similar to ether.

I wonder if the MO simply associated opium with all mood altering drugs.

[bill24chev]

I believe that what is now known as "E" was first produced by German chemists in WW1 as a appetite depressant, this being a outcome of the RN blockade

[martin_sole]

I believe that what is now known as "E" was first produced by German chemists in WW1 as a appetite depressant, this being a outcome of the RN blockade

Likely to be an urban myth. Even though Merck KGaA synthesised MDMA in 1912 it was regarded as simply an intermediary compound in the production of medical haemostatic drugs, for which there was a huge market. Research on the properties of ingested MDMA itself didn't begin until the '20s and there is no evidence that it was manufactured fir distribution before the '50s.

For one thing, the side effects of using MDMA as an appetite suppressant would have surely caused some alarm on the German Home Front

Edit- link to published paper from Merck archives on the company's work on MDMA

http://www.mdma.net/merck/ecstasy-mdma.pdf

Edited 8 August , 2013 by martin_sole

[centurion]

Article in the Lancet November 2010 mentions Forced March Pills used by the Shackleton Expedition manufactured by Burrows Welcome,

Contained small amount of cocaine and caffeine recommend taken once every hour ! article states people were disturbed by British soldiers cavorting in public squares ,it goes on to state that due to incidents such as these and incidents of CRAZY soldiers and I assume other incidents that in 1920 Cocaine became a banned substance , a well known rising star of vaudeville died of a overdose in 1919 .

Caffeine is still combined with opiates today. My wife was prescribed a mixture of such before she died. It seems that the Caffeine makes the opiate easier to absorb when taken orally. One can buy a variety of pain killer over the counter today that consists of Aspirin, Paracetamol and Caffeine - one variety of the Anadin brand for example.

[Guest exuser1]

Not sure the mixture of caffeine with the pills made by Welcome,or if these were private purchase only or issued by the MO on the Shackleton expedition they were purchased prior to sailing by Shackleton .

[centurion]

Before WW1 Valerian - Latin name cypripedium pubescence was popular in Germany as a nerve calmer - available in tablet form it is still available over the counter in most chemists. Makes more sense that any form of opiate

[martin_sole]

I'm not sure quite how effective a herbal calmer would be in the face of prolonged shelling and other frightfulness.

Amphetamine ticks so many more boxes from a military PoV - resistance to physical and mental fatigue, resistance to cold, suppressed appetite, the ability to stay awake for many hours, and above all a sense of euphoria and invincibility.

I agree that opiates sound very unlikely (amphetamine and coca are obviously not opiates).

[centurion]

I'm not sure quite how effective a herbal calmer would be in the face of prolonged shelling and other frightfulness.

Amphetamine ticks so many more boxes from a military PoV - resistance to physical and mental fatigue, resistance to cold, suppressed appetite, the ability to stay awake for many hours, and above all a sense of euphoria and invincibility.

I agree that opiates sound very unlikely (amphetamine and coca are obviously not opiates).

Ah but where is the evidence that what ever was used was effective?

[Guest exuser1]

Holland was a huge supplier of cocaine pre Great War , during the war Burroughs advertised in the Lancet that their products were storming German trenches! A German scientist Theodor Aschenbrandt produced a report in 1883 Die psychologische wirkung und bedeutung des cocain ? the report described cocain restraining hunger and increasing stamina when tested on soliders .

Articles produced in Germany post war also detail a increase in addicts amongst ex soldiers.

[martin_sole]

Ah but where is the evidence that what ever was used was effective?

Well, you stated that it "made more sense" that the unidentified drug was Valerian, a relatively mild herbal remedy which might calm the mood of a nervous Berlin lady, but would do precious little to calm a man at the end of his wits with fear and fatigue.

I don't see how that makes sense at all.

The argument against cocaine is that it's a deal more fiddly (and expensive) to manufacture, and the duration of effect is probably less than 1/10th that of the cheaper alternative amphetamine. Add to that the fact that oral ingestion of cocaine gives all the toxicity with almost none of the "benefits".

[centurion]

Well, you stated that it "made more sense" that the unidentified drug was Valerian, a relatively mild herbal remedy which might calm the mood of a nervous Berlin lady, but would do precious little to calm a man at the end of his wits with fear and fatigue.

I don't see how that makes sense at all.

The argument against cocaine is that it's a deal more fiddly (and expensive) to manufacture, and the duration of effect is probably less than 1/10th that of the cheaper alternative amphetamine. Add to that the fact that oral ingestion of cocaine gives all the toxicity with almost none of the "benefits".

More sense than an opiate. Germany was effectively cut off from the direct sources of Cocaine at the time so whilst there was some available from the Netherlands not in vast quantities. Amphetamine whilst first synthesised in the 1880s was not found to have any pharmaceutical use until 1927 when Gordon Alles worked on it and was not produced in commercial quantities until the 1930s

[martin_sole]

I thought we'd kicked the idea of opiates into touch some time ago?

Good points on amphetamine only being produced in commercial quantities after the war. I didn't know that.

Do you have sources on the problems of cocaine supply to Germany or figures for how much was held or able to be produced from existing German stocks?

I'm still skeptical about cocaine being issued as "tabloids" and the more I think about it, the more the Gibbs story sounds like a load of cobblers.