Nice zombie thread.
The OTC white crosses of the 70’s and 80’s were ephedrine. You could buy them through the mail in bottles of 1000 and even 10,000 for next to nothing. I’d never understood why anyone would want 10K of them until I got into law enforcement in the early 80’s and learned they were used to make meth.
They gave a weird buzz. Made the hair on the back of your neck stand up and tingle. When mixed with a high dose of caffeine (some pills back then came with both in them) a guy could party all night. To a certain degree that combo negated the felt effects of alcohol.
I never liked them. Never felt quite right after taking them. My cousin thought he was Keith Moon and took an entire handful of them once and drank 12 beers.
Started spinning around like the Tasmanian Devil. That was in '77. We still don’t know where he ended up.