IIRC, ‘reds’ were (as was said earlier) barbiturates. They were also the “dolls” in Valley Of The Dolls. (FTR, the book is good, the move is awful, like not a in a ‘the book was better’ type way, the move really was just bad).
@I Love Me, Vol 1. Dexedrine is a time release capsule (technically spansule) full of little beads so you can’t cut it in half. You may be thinking of Dextrostat which is just dextroamphatimene IR. Funny story, without getting too into it, I used to ‘prepare’ the dexadrine, and when it was ready, to get my friend’s attention from the crowd she was in, I’d call out “Come on Eileen”, referencing Dexie’s Midnight Runners. Turns out they named their band name after the same drug. FTR, I do see some pictures of dexadrine tablets on GIS, but (other than one), they’re pretty iffy sites. All the rest are the half clear, half brown capsules with the orange and white beads that I’m used to seeing.
I’ve always assumed we were getting caffeine pressed into cross tops back in Hicksville Agricultural College … because every once in a while they’d be some kick-ass shit … like we got some actual speed … I ran with the microdot crowd hangin’ at Winterland so I have no idea what we were taking for the most part … anyone else remember four way birth control pills … [chorkle] … pretty cool …
I didn’t read the first line when I first glanced at this thread.
I’ve heard this song thousands of times and always assumed, for no particular reason, that the reds in question were cigarettes. “Reds” are also the name for [regular] Marlboros. You can go to a gas station right now and ask for a pack of Marlboro Reds and they’ll know exactly what to hand you.
Now that I think about it, I have no idea if the back was the same color, or even if they existed in the late 60’s/early 70’s.
But living on downers, uppers and vitamin C makes sense too.
Huh. I’m prescribed 10 mg Dextroamphetamine TID due to narcolepsy, though I rarely take more than 5 mg per day (any more makes me…even nuttier than usual…and can’t sleep for ever…and now I have a wacky heart rate that nobody but me seems concerned about, so I keep my intake to a minimum). Funny thing is, my last doc gave me that dosage on top of 70 mg Vyvanse (another stimulant) plus topiramate. Whee! I can certainly attest to the weight management properties of that combo, if nothing else. I was a lean mean manic machine in those days. Anywho, not sure what the pharmaceutical differences between Dexadrine spansules and plain old generic dextroamphetamine are (probably a time release mechanism), but my rX is a small pink pill with an X on top. It’s very cheap, too; I pay the cheapest copay for those, $10 a month I think, although I only refill every few months given how little I’m willing to ingest. It actually makes me wonder why illegal amphetamines are still such a thing when it’s so easy and cheap for me to acquire this stuff. I just don’t enjoy it in the slightest and take the minimum that keeps me semi-functional.
As far as an amphetamine-barbituate combination drug, I am not at all surprised that that was experimented with in the name of science. When my old doc gave me the super-speedy triumvirate I mentioned above, and I mentioned the side effects, he also prescribed me a pretty high dose of klonopin (benzodiazapine similar to Valium) to take as needed. Which I did need. He was…an interesting doc, to say the least. Lord knows what I would have been prescribed if I pointed him in another direction.
“Reds” in the Truckin song ABSOLUTELY refer to the common as grass in the 60’s Lilly f-40 seconal red capsules …these things knocked you for a loop! ALthough it was easy to build a tolerance and there were cats eating em like candy…I was in Jr highschool when I first tried em …my older sister scored em from older boys and I swiped em from her purse …at the time they cost 25cents a apiece “retail” …actually 4 for a dollar “a roll” …a “jar” was 1000 of the devils…If you had no resistance then one pill was like instantly being drunk off your ass only way better …very difficult to walk or drive so a LOT of people DIED on the road. Lots of ODs too. Kill you dead easy if mixed with drink. There were some real similar pills also like yellows Nembutal and “rainbows” Tuinal or “twoeeys” …hard to tell the difference if you ask me …but the ALSTAR downer got popular in the 70s! My favorite! Roher 714 Quaaludes “ludes” (methaqualone)…later bought by Lemmon identical round whit tablets just replaced Roher with Lemmon and 714 on the B side …these were AWESOME! Best drunk ever and no hangover! I had so much self confidence you would simply not believe the things I got away with if I told you …people would just say “no way you lying”…honest to God though…I ruled on those …and would have DIED sooner than later had they not utterly dried up…now you know son
The benzadrines petered out while I was in highschool …bought my last jsupply of em think in 11th grade… they look like the little double cross meth tablets except they were huge…“retailed” 10 for a buck …one or two you would sail all day long …very clean feeling amphetamine IMHO …though I was not heavy into speed then …teenagers are wired anyway if you ask me…not as euphoric as the time release dexys …not really my focus…once I discovered ludes THAT is what I was always trying to buy or score a script for or whatever…drugs in LA county in the 60s and 70s …you would have to have been there is all I can say…really put the crimp on a lot of lives though…If I had it to do over again? I either would have stayed miles away? Or bought as much as I could to stash away …which would have very likely killed me if I am honest…
This is not the place for this sort of discussion. Yes, I know that this website has the word “dope” in its name. No, that doesn’t mean that we’re a drug site.
