# Hitler was a meth addict? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 11, 2003, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037 "2003-04-11T14:28:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mmm.forbidden\_doughnut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e68b1a/32.png) [@mmm.forbidden\_doughnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmm.forbidden_doughnut)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/1 "2003-04-11T14:28:51Z")
I was watching a program last night about the history of illegal drugs and how they became illegal. It was on A&E I believe. Anyway, it claimed that all the German army had been on amphetemines thereby having the ability to storm across Europe at lightning speed. It also said that Hitler was injected up to 6 times daily with meth and that he was a meth addict (I should say so! Six times a day! YIKES!). It kind of makes sense since Hitler was a raving lunatic, and all. Strange though that I’ve never heard it before. A google search only hit on an AryanNation website–not a reliable source imho. I’ve a degree in American History with an emphasis in WWII and I’ve never heard this purported. Any Dopers every heard/read this? mmm… ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/2 "2003-04-11T14:42:02Z")
Hitler was given a variety of medication by his personal physician, Dr. Theodore Morell, who seems to be widely regarded by historians as a quack. He did recieve daily methamphetamine injections, and had all the classic symptoms of a speed freak: megalomania, paranoia, tremors, etc. On the other hand, he was a megalomaniac long before he got on speed, he may have had Parkinson’s or syphillus, (speed apparently wouldn’t have been the cause of some of his one-sided body twitching) and people were trying to kill him. How much of his nuttiness was due to the speed and how much was due to other factors is debatable. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/3 "2003-04-11T14:43:28Z")
[From BBC news Asia-Pacific site:](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/asia-pacific/1973383.stm) > [@](#): > > Sixty years ago, soldiers were given a good sniff to help them carry on and Adolf Hitler had daily injections of the drugs. [Methamphetamine history.](http://www.methamphetamineaddiction.com/methamphetamine_hist.html#early) > [@](#): > > During World War II, amphetamines were widely used to keep the fighting men going (during the Vietnam war, American soldiers used more amphetamines than the rest of the world did during WWII). ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/4 "2003-04-11T14:58:43Z")
Doesn’t the US military still give them to soldiers and pilots? ---
**Author:** ![oldman\_withers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9fc29f/32.png) [@oldman\_withers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldman_withers)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/5 "2003-04-11T15:06:03Z")
I doubt they do, **bernse** , but if so I doubt they’re telling anyone they perscribe illeagal drugs to their soldiers. But I’m no millitary man or expert on drugs, that’s just my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/6 "2003-04-11T15:12:42Z")
Well, for what its worth:[http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/2020\_pilotpills021220.html](http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/2020_pilotpills021220.html) > [@](#): > > Majs. Harry Schmidt and William Umbach are facing up to 64 years in prison for a friendly fire incident over Kandahar, Afghanistan, on April 17 that killed four Canadian soldiers and wounded eight others. > When the two were sent on their mission over Afghanistan and Iraq, the Air Force gave them $30 million F-16 fighter jets, laser-guided precision munitions, state-of-the-art technology, and something that came as a complete surprise — amphetamines. > > Amphetamines, a prescription drug, are known on the street as uppers or speed. Yet, a 20/20 investigation has found, the amphetamines, the speed pills, are now standard issue to U.S. Air Force combat pilots, to help them stay awake on long combat sorties ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/7 "2003-04-11T15:15:35Z")
Sorry, **doughnut** , I didn’t intend to hijack this thread! ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/8 "2003-04-11T15:16:22Z")
Apparently they do make them available on long range missions. The U.S. Air Force admitted that the pilots who accidentally killed Canadian troops in Afghanistan last year were on amphetamines, but deny the drug played a role. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/9 "2003-04-11T15:18:37Z")
Which I now see **bernse** already posted, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/10 "2003-04-11T15:19:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Doesn’t the US military still give them to soldiers and pilots? There is apparently a new drug being used by the military these days. It’s a very specific form of sleep inhibitor which allows the user to operate normally for days at a time without any sleep at all. Then, when it wears off, the normal sleep cycle kicks back into place and everything is jake again. I first heard about this stuff just a few weeks before the invasion of Afghanistan from a completely unofficial source. As far as I know, nobody has made an official announcement of the use of the stuff, and I’ve seen no connection asserted between this sleep inhibitor and the unusual spate of [murders](http://www.unansweredquestions.net/timeline/2002/independent080202.html) by elite troops returning to Fort Bragg during the Afghan campaign. But it certainly occurred to me. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/11 "2003-04-11T15:27:39Z")
I knew something rang a bell there. A similar-sounding chemical was alluded to by **dylan\_73** in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=170353&highlight=narcolep%2A), where he offers [an article](http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2003/narcolepsy.shtml) about a chemical called orexin, and which says this: > [@](#): > > The US Army is interested in the potential . Its pilots currently make use of amphetamine drugs to help them combat tiredness. Yet it is hard to think of an environment in which the drugs’ downsides -twitchiness, panic attacks - could be more risky. Any drug that was able naturally to boost alertness would be a vast improvement for them. The ‘voluntary’ use of amphetamines by US Air Force pilots was raised as a factor in the friendly fire deaths of four Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan in April 2002. ---
**Author:** ![Winnie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e480ec/32.png) [@Winnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnie)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/12 "2003-04-11T17:05:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sofa King \* > \*\*There is apparently a new drug being used by the military these days. It’s a very specific form of sleep inhibitor which allows the user to operate normally for days at a time without any sleep at all. Then, when it wears off, the normal sleep cycle kicks back into place and everything is jake again. > > I first heard about this stuff just a few weeks before the invasion of Afghanistan from a completely unofficial source. As far as I know, nobody has made an official announcement of the use of the stuff, and I’ve seen no connection asserted between this sleep inhibitor and the unusual spate of [murders](http://www.unansweredquestions.net/timeline/2002/independent080202.html) by elite troops returning to Fort Bragg during the Afghan campaign. But it certainly occurred to me. \*\* I think [Provigil](http://www.provigil.com/patient/index.asp) might be the drug you’re talking about. My husband is on this for a form of narcolepsy and gets lots of updates in the mail on how it’s being used for the military and people in the healthcare industry to safety stay awake for certain periods of time. ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/13 "2003-04-11T18:34:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by oldman\_withers \* > \*\*I doubt they do, **bernse** , but if so I doubt they’re telling anyone they perscribe illeagal drugs to their soldiers. But I’m no millitary man or expert on drugs, that’s just my opinion. \*\* Just a nitpick, but with a valid perscription, there is nothing illegal about amphetamines. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/14 "2003-04-11T19:28:08Z")
Just a smaller nitpick, but shouldn’t valid prescritions be based solely on medical issues rather than national interests, or are the needs of the patient less important during wartime ? ---
**Author:** ![cleops](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2acd7d/32.png) [@cleops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cleops)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/15 "2003-04-11T19:45:15Z")
Hitler was not the only national leader to enjoy regular amphetamine treatment. Our own JFK was not averse to all kinds of medicines for his various ailments, one of which was some type of amphetamine concoction (sometimes mixed with painkillers), administered by Dr. Max Jacobson, who made himself regularly available. Kennedy didn’t care if it was “horse piss,” as long as it worked. It seemed to have. ---
**Author:** ![Myque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Myque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myque)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/16 "2003-04-11T19:49:09Z")
i remember seeing something during the current war coverage where Ted Koppel said the soldiers were being given amphetimines “similar to what truck drivers take” to help them stay awake as they made their inital entrance into Iraq. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/17 "2003-04-11T20:09:46Z")
**casdave** I think the rationale is awake=alive. Amphetamines are bad for you, but the I imagine the negative health impact is outweighed by the greater risks of being fatigued when you concentration to save your life. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/18 "2003-04-11T20:12:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pravnik \* > when you concentration to save your life. \*\* English no my first language is. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/19 "2003-04-11T20:55:02Z")
I must be on some kind of drugs myself, because when I first read the thread title, I thought it said Hitler was a **math** addict! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DaveV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b77776/32.png) [@DaveV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveV)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-was-a-meth-addict/168037/20 "2003-04-11T22:35:58Z")
The germans not only gave them to their soldiers, they invented them.