What happened to my favorite drug from the 70’s – Quaalude? I know they were made illegal, but this is the only drug I know of that completely disappeared because of that technicality. Are they too difficult to manufacture covertly? There hasn’t been any really good sex since ludes went away.
Funny story - one of my dad’s old hippie friends actually wrote a song with a line in the chorus, “What ever happened to Quaaludes?”
I knew a kid in the late 70s/early 80s who was on prescription Methaqualone. He was a very strange, fucked up character. He would take about half of his prescribed dosage and save what he didn’t take for resale. For someone so weird he was very popular.
But back to the OP, no I haven’t seen ludes for a long time.
It sounds like a supply side issue. If there is enough demand someone should have figured out how to get them back on the ‘market’. The fact that nobody has figured it out tells me either it’s too hard to make, or the demand isn’t as high as everyone thinks.
Per wiki, manufacture of the drug ended in 1985. I’m guessing the trouble of manufacturing it clandestinely is cost-prohibitive when contrasted with other depressants. Although with the rise of other nostalgia products perhaps ludes will become the new hipster drug of choice.
“Ludes, dude! Call up the ludes dude, fucking ludes, dude!”
Since they stopped making the real ones it was pretty apparent that all the ones that you saw were bootleg drugs that they were producing in Columbia for a time (and perhaps still do). Part of the pharmaceutical drug attraction is that you know that you are getting clean drugs, when they became an obvious street drug many people wouldn’t touch them (even if Dr. Huxtable offered you one). 
I assure you, there has been plenty of really good sex since the demise of quaaludes.
Quaaludes are a derivative version of barbiturates which are basically a pharmaceutical version of alcohol in pill form. The generic name is methaqualone and it was originally marketed as a safe alternative to the true barbiturates which it wasn’t of course (they were marketed during a time when pharmaceutical companies weren’t quite as honest as they are today believe it or not). Their method of action on the brain and Central Nervous System are extremely similar. They have extremely few clinical uses and its recreational uses are already covered by alcoholic drinks. They do have one recreational advantage though. They don’t show up on a breathalyzer and you can take them without anyone smelling anything. Teenagers might find it easier to abuse them in some situations than alcoholic drinks but that is not a good reason to continue to make them.
They have many flaws as a drug of abuse and addiction but one especially nasty one - they react synergistically with alcohol for life supporting brain functions. More than a few people found that out the hard way. Users would often think that they could handle Quaaludes quite well and they could also handle a certain amount of alcohol. Why not combine the two after the party really starts? That can be really bad to fatal news. It only takes a moderate amount of barbiturates and alcohol taken together to suppress respiratory and other life sustaining functions to cause a fairly quick death. Many people killed themselves accidentally that way and even more used it as a suicide cocktail because it is so effective.
What do they do to make sex better? Drugging a partner so they can’t participate doesn’t sound like much fun.
Supposedly ecstasy makes it super awesome by manipulating the brain’s perceptions. Do “ludes” have some kind of comparable effect?
Coincidently enough, The Wolf of Wall Street was just put up on Netflix. The movie is a non-stop paen to ludes. I had forgotten about 714s.
I only took one once, and soon after fell asleep for 12 hours. Two friends tried very hard to wake me up, with no result. I never had that happen after drinking alcohol.
(Yes, I know that people who drink too much alcohol pass out. But this was sleep. I even said, “I don’t feel any effect from this pill, but I’m tired, so I’m going to go to bed.”)
According to The Wolf (luded to above by Leo), the critical part was resisting the urge to go to sleep. Then, maybe half an hour later, you’ll get a nice buzz.
Not sure why I remember this, but… way back in high school, I was driving around town with a buddy of mine as a passenger. He was a real stoner. I stopped at a red light. There was a Honda Prelude in front of us. He said, “Prelude?? Is that, like, what you take, before a lude?”
Yeah, I sat in the movie theater thinking, “I wish I’d known that then.”
But once again, that’s not the way alcohol works.
The amount he was taking as a daily dose in that movie was I believe impossible, even with coke as a chaser.
Spoiler comment if you haven’t seen the movie…
I didn’t take them that often, but the one time I do remember was precisely as in the movie, but indoors, luckily, when I fell slid in painless slow motion down the stairs in my parent’s house.
Where on earth did that come from?
It probably wasn’t real - for a while most of the available 714’s were actually bootlegs with about 40mg of valium. The pharmaceuticals would (for most people) make you want to clean your windows - while naked. So sorry all you kids who never got to try a real lude, you’ll just never know !!
And as to the post about ‘drugging your partner’, I’d never waste a lude on someone who didn’t know what it was. Plus, people wouldn’t do anything on ludes that they wouldn’t do otherwise.
Most of my old friends still agree, the feeling when you first come on to a Quaalude is as good as you’ll ever feel in your life. But on the other hand, I’m kinda glad they’re not still readily available. I think this drug was banned due to the simple fact that it was too perfect.
From what I remember (and not from personal experience), Quaaludes, when combined with alcohol and/or marijuana, lowered sexual inhibitions. No, it wasn’t a date rape drug, but it lowered the threshold, if you will.
Before it was revealed how abusable this stuff was, it was very popular because apparently it’s almost impossible to commit suicide with it. You slept off an overdose and that was it.
Looks pretty easy to synthesize from legal precursors, although not ones you’ll find at local stores. Some purchases might get you a visit from the feds.
Listen up children, I’ll tell you what you need to know about quaaludes. First, most of what you hear about people passing out, vomiting, falling down, etc. are from people who weren’t around before pharmaceutical Quaaludes went away. The bootlegs looked the same, but usually were a combo of valium and Benadryl. Real ludes were more likely to make you want to wash your windows than to want a nap.
The upside of Quaaludes:
They were quick - usually came on within minutes.
They were pleasant - my friends from the ‘good old real lude’ days recall that coming on to a lude was the best they’ve ever felt. I’m not aware of any drug that comes close to matching that euphoria.
They were safe - literature published during that period indicated that it was almost impossible to OD on ludes without involvement of large doses of other drugs/alcohol. If you see articles stating otherwise, read the fine print. Quaaludes were mainly (and justifiably) promoted as a safe alternative to barbituates.
They weren’t by any stretch a ‘date rape’ drug. They did significantly reduce inhibitions so sex did seem like something you really would enjoy, but it didn’t take away one’s judgement - one could still say no. And they definitely weren’t a ‘knockout’ drug like rohipnal (the worst drug ever formulated). Again, I’m referring to genuine pharmaceutical ludes.
They were fun. Lots of laughs, lots of nudity - not talking orgies, just plain old walking around naked (but be careful if barbecuing).
Down Side: They’re gone. I’ve tried the South African analog, etc. Close, but miles away.
I think this was the only drug that was ever made illegal simply because it was just too damned perfect.