History of Quaalude

Quaalude, a the name brand for a prescription sedative called methaqualone, was the recreational drug of choice in the U.S. for nearly 20 years until it was banned in the mid-1980s.

History

• Although methaqualone, was created in India in 1951 as a possible anti-malaria drug, it was ultimately the drug's sleep-inducing, hypnotic properties that interested drug-makers. Rorer Pharmaceuticals, the company that coined the name Quaalude for the drug in the U.S., pushed doctors to prescribe it as a safe non-addictive sleep aid, according to Narconon International.

Effects

• Quaalude was marketed as a safe, non-addictive alternative to barbiturates. Until Quaalude came on the market, barbiturates, although highly addictive, were the drugs commonly available for sleep problems. Quaaludes produced a myriad of effects on the body, including relaxation, calmness, euphoria, tingling or numbness throughout the body, self confidence, and sexual arousal.

Abuse

• Seven years after Quaalude was marketed in the U.S. in 1965 as a sedative, widespread abuse soon became a problem. By 1972, Quaalude was one of the most popular drugs in the country. Ludes, the street name for the drug, became popular with high school and college students. Young people would take the drug in large doses and wash it down with alcohol, with sometimes lethal results.
  According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, methaqualone abuse increased by almost 40 percent in 1979.

  According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, one of the reasons for the sudden increase in Quaalude-abuse was the creation of so-called stress clinics in New York, New Jersey and Florida. "The sole purpose of these clinics was to issue prescriptions for methaqualone. Investigation of these clinics was complicated by the fact that patients underwent physical examinations so that there was a facade of legitimate medical treatment," according to the DEA.

Time Frame

• In April 1973, the Food and Drug Administration declared that methaqualone was a public health risk and asked Congress for tighter controls over the sedative. In September, the drug was classified as a Schedule II narcotic, making it illegal to possess without a prescription. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, law enforcement began to focus their attention on doctors who over-prescribed. In 1979, a psychiatrist in New York was arrested on charges of writing 3,000 prescriptions during an 18 month period for methaqualone, which was about 50 times more than the average psychiatrist, according to an Aug. 16, 1979, article in The New York Times.

  In 1982, 38 indictments were handed down as a result of DEA investigations into stress clinics. Two years later, methaqualone was reclassified in the U.S. as a Schedule I drug, effectively eliminating production and medical use of the drug.

Aftermath

• A year after methaqualone was banned, emergency room incidents of methaqualone overdoses had dropped 83 percent. The Drug Abuse Warning Network no longer had it on its top 20 controlled substance list, according to the DEA.