# Quaaludes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 24, 2008, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406 "2008-10-24T18:39:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/1 "2008-10-24T18:39:36Z")
So . . . anybody got some? I kid. Real GQ: Do people still take them? I remember hearing a lot about them years ago. But I have not heard them mentioned at all in recent years. Still popular in the druggie culture? If not, why, and what has supplanted them? And . . . what was their basic selling point? ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/2 "2008-10-24T18:53:47Z")
As a kid I found them to be most effective when combined with alcohol. If memory serves correct, they are no longer made. Shame, that. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/3 "2008-10-24T19:02:44Z")
I can’t find any reference to them being no longer made. They are still apparently a problem in South Africa. In my younger days, we called them [Quinlans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Ann_Quinlan). Never cared for them myself - too much like swimming in molasses. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/4 "2008-10-24T19:24:00Z")
Methaqualone (Quaalude) was made a Schedule I drug in the U.S. in 1984 and is no longer prescribed. I don’t think there’s any trade for them from neighboring countries - I’ve never seen a defendant busted for Methaqualone. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/5 "2008-10-24T19:26:55Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I can’t find any reference to them being no longer made. They are still apparently a problem in South Africa. > [@](#): > > Quaaludes became increasingly popular as a recreational drug during the 1960s, and during the disco club scene in the 1970s. The drug was more tightly regulated in Britain under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and in the U.S. from 1973. With its addictive nature clear, it was withdrawn from many developed markets in the 1980s, being made a Schedule I drug in the US in 1984. > > … > Since methaqualone is no longer legally produced, illicit manufacture either in India, or in South Africa itself or other African countries produces methaqualone for the South African market. > **[Answers - The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions](https://www.answers.com/redirectSearch?query=methaqualone)** > > Answers is the place to go to get the answers you need and to ask the questions you want ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/6 "2008-10-24T19:29:59Z")
I remember all the anti drug stuff we had handed out to us in school mentioned “Ludes” and I always wondered what they were, because I had never heard of them before. As usual the anti drug folks hadn’t updated their information in two decades or so and therefore there were references to all sorts of street drugs that didn’t exist anymore like “reds” and “black beauties”. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/7 "2008-10-24T20:30:04Z")
Without doubt the single best drug EVER. Especially combined with cocaine, which would take away the one thing that sucked: the desire to go to sleep. They haven’t been made for almost thirty years. Fakes, yes. The real deal? Nope. The selling point is this: if you like the high from alcohol but dislike everything else about it (the smell, taste, nausea, the “warm” sensation throughout the body, I hate all of that, but love the buzz), Quaaludes would be for you. Loved 'em. They are the only drug I genuinely miss and would indulge in today if they were available. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/8 "2008-10-24T20:31:43Z")
There was a period in my life when I couldn’t get to sleep. My mom had a real drug doctor who was okay with prescribing them to an older teen, so I got everything, and nothing worked. Well…some of the stuff would put me to sleep, all right, but one of the problems I had with not being able to go to sleep was, when I did get to sleep, I tended to sleep through any number of alarms. So most of the pills I took made me wake up groggy–and late. I do remember my first encounter with a sleeping pill. I took it, brushed my teeth, and just barely made it to bed before I zoned out. (This was one from my mother’s prescription, before she sent me to her very obliging drug dr.) Quaaludes, which I got toward the end of all this (before I just gave up and started staying up until I felt sleepy), were different. They knocked me right out, but I woke up alert (well, for me). Unfortunately, they worked even better as barter. My roommate would clean her half of the place and mine too for a 'lude. My friends would do all sorts of errands for me. It was amazing to me that what they did was take the pill and _stay up._ How could anyone stay up? What was fun about that? I tried it once, and my conclusion was that I might as well get drunk, I had more fun. One of my friends got seriously addicted to the things. He’d take one in the morning (!), another one at noon, and a couple more when he got off work. He would do anything for them. We were old friends who were drifting apart when I got my prescription, and suddenly the friendship got recharged, in fact, did I want to get married? He thought it was a total waste that what I wanted to do was take the pill, go to sleep, and wake up refreshed like a normal person. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/9 "2008-10-25T01:15:44Z")
I believe that the current recreational equivalent to quaaludes are the family of anti-anxiety pills that include xanax and percocets. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/10 "2008-10-25T01:25:24Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > I remember hearing a lot about them years ago. But I have not heard them mentioned at all in recent years. Keith Moon ate them all. When he died the market disappeared overnight. ---
**Author:** ![bufftabby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bufftabby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bufftabby)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/11 "2008-10-25T02:04:36Z")
> [@Atomicktom](#): > > I believe that the current recreational equivalent to quaaludes are the family of anti-anxiety pills that include xanax and percocets. Seconded. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/12 "2008-10-25T04:38:54Z")
> [@Atomicktom](#): > > I believe that the current recreational equivalent to quaaludes are the family of anti-anxiety pills that include xanax and percocets. Ummmm…Percocet isn’t an anti-anxiety med; it’s a pain pill. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/13 "2008-10-25T05:29:56Z")
In the UK they were marketed as Mandrax and were absolutely essential for a good Saturday night out in the late 60s/early 70s. As I recall, they were relatively safe too in relation to fatal overdoses. , at least in comparison to the barbiturate drugs. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/14 "2008-10-25T05:36:55Z")
So what replaced them in the legal and illegal worlds of drug. I recall reading Karen and Richard Carpenter used them, as well as David Cassidy ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2008, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quaaludes/469406/15 "2008-10-25T06:34:13Z")
I didn’t get a high from the one lude that I tried many years ago. I just went to sleep. One of the problems with ludes was that you had to increase the dosage to continue to get the same effect. That is not the case with xanax. I’ve had a prescription for four xanax every night at bedtime for nineteen years now. I take three. I use the fourth one only if it is needed later. That amount is still sufficient. If I were to stop taking xanax, I would have to withdraw a half tablet at a time. Even that is not pleasant. But I don’t get any sensation of being “high” from xanax.