Turn On
Quaalude History & Resources
I can still feel the buzzzzzz
The Story of ‘Ludes
The end of an era came in 1990, with the sale of American pharmaceutical firm Rorer Group Inc. to Rhone-Poulenc S.A. for $3.14 billion. Their most infamous product was Quaaludes, of course, often simply known as ‘Ludes.
Synthesized by researchers in India in 1951 and outlawed in the U.S. by 1982, Rorer’s ride with methaqualone was certainly an interesting one. In business since 1910, Rorer’s fortunes shot up dramatically in the fifties with their creation of Maalox, the household antacid staple. Rorer would also manufacture, package and distribute pharmaceuticals created by others under license. By 1965, Rorer was pressing methaqualone powder into tablets bearing the memorable ‘714’ identifier. Lemmon Pharmaceuticals Inc. was later licensed for production as well.
Originally prescribed as a sedative and muscle relaxant, Quaaludes were also used to treat insomnia. Sales for the intended users were respectable, but forces beyond the combined imagination of Big Pharma and Big Brother conspired to put Rorer on the map!
Millions of bottles of tablets previously sold on prescription now awaited discovery by curious, liberated teens and young adults. By early 1967, the mainstream media started spreading the message of personal liberation. The Summer of Love began. Turn on. Tune in. Drop out.
‘Ludes weren’t alone. People began turning on in all sorts of ways. New tribes formed, with new rituals and sacraments. Stoners baked and chilled. Acid eaters tripped. ‘Ludes became popular with people who liked to dance, vertically or otherwise. During the Summer of Love, hemlines were raised and bras were banned. We lived in new and exciting times, and conveniently our favorite party favors were scored so splitting a tab was easy. Sharing this sacrament led to the horizontal mambo more often than not. Can we get an Amen?
So it went through the 70s. Hippies, bikers, musicians, artists, seekers, adventurers, poets… groups once out on the fringes, the counterculture, were gaining acceptance and uniting around a new, guiding principle:
Our mission:
Better Living through Chemistry
Parties reached their fever pitch in the glam rock clubs, the discos, and the dorms. But the forces of Evil were conspiring to turn out the lights and prevent the mirrored balls from spinning. Henry J. Anslinger, the great demonizer of Marijuana (Reefer Madness et. al.), passed the buzz-kill baton from The Federal Bureau of Narcotics‘ to the DEA in 1973. Arguably the cruelest trick ever by President ‘Tricky Dick‘ Nixon, we suspect that the sound of goose-stepping jackboots probably still echo in the halls of The White House.
With their shiny, new goon squad, the Feds now actively planned to bring a quick end to the enjoyment of any substances not approved. Their simple maxim: Outlaw anything not regulated and taxed. Popular drugs with well-established power bases like tobacco and alcohol would merely require oversight, but the Fun Police began regulating and outlawing recreational drugs with the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Methaqualone dodged the bullet until 1982, but as legal sales channels started to wither first Rorer and then Lemmon halted production. Methaqualone was last produced legally in South Africa in 1989 under the name “Mandrake”.
Still legal elsewhere, ‘Ludes were smuggled in from Mexico and Colombia, and bootleg tabs were available for a time here in the US. By the ‘90s the public’s taste had shifted, so even these producers switched to newer drugs with higher demand. By the end of the millennium, the disco ball was still. The Quaalude party was over.
Enjoy the Memories!™
Mr. Q
Keep the party going with Mr. Q’s Quaalude Emporium
Keep the party going with Mr. Q’s Quaalude Emporium
Quaalude Resources
These resources tell parts of the Quaalude story better than we ever could or from perspectives we do not have.
Others have been recommended by our customers, the elders in our quaaludebottle.com tribe. These resources provide context since Quaaludes did not exist in a vacuum – they were the perfect compliment to the times.
These resources take you away from our site, and godspeed traveler in your quest for truth.
FRONTLINE details our government’s inability to learn from history as they connect the dots between the DEA’s ‘win’ over ‘Ludes, and their current efforts with meth. The drugs are not the problem; continually trying to legislate morality is. For many, the only problem they ever experienced with Quaaludes centered around acquisition.
LIBERTY! EQUALITY! FRATERNITY! Our French friends at The Paris Review have a longstanding tradition of catching the groundswell of the next, big American thing since publishing Kerouac’s Mexican Girl in 1955. We dig their take on our favorite distraction.
WHEN JORDAN BELFORT, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in a truly masterful moment of full-body acting, wrenches himself from the steps of a country club into his white Lamborghini to drive to his mansion, moviegoers are meant to be horrified. Show of hands… was this a ‘teachable moment’ or ‘been there, done that’ for you?
RECREATIONAL DRUGS: A classic example of the administration’s failure to supervise a drug manufacturer, and how this failure permitted millions in revenues for underground entrepreneurs. It’s a simple marketing lesson. Will they EVER learn?
WIKIPEDIA – METHAQUALONE: A sedative-hypnotic drug that is similar in effect to barbiturates. Its use peaked in the 60’s & 70’s as a hypnotic, for the treatment of insomnia, and as a sedative and muscle relaxant. It’s also been used illegally as a recreational drug… Shhhhh. No show of hands here.
QUAALUDE TIMELINE: He started drinking as an undergraduate at Columbia and discovered Quaaludes in 1971, fresh out of the University of Miami Medical School. At first, the pills surfaced only at parties, then at bedtime, then whenever he felt nervous…
YOUTUBE VIDEOS: COMMENT “I had a script from 4 different doctors. No sooner did I cash my scripts, chicks were calling me ready for animal sex”…
Have a Resource for Mr Q?
Shoot us over your Quaalude finds and we’ll publish them here with our other resources!
“Quaaludes represented less than 2% of our sales but created 98% of our headaches”
THE CHAIRMAN OF RORER, JOHN ECKMAN, JUST PRIOR
TO THE SALE OF THE RIGHTS TO MANUFACTURE
METHAQUALONE TO LEMMON, INC. IN 1978.
