The story of amphetamine-its rise, fall, and inevitable return-is the story of the first psychoactive prescription drug, a drug valued almost entirely for its mood-altering effects. But once Alles and SKF brought amphetamines into public consciousness, they never truly went away: the crystal meth and Ritalin of today are essentially the same drugs used (and abused) 70 years ago.Īmphetamine fueled American soldiers marching into World War II, served as the chatty muse to famous 1950s Beatniks, and worked as a ‘little helper’ for disappointed 1960s housewives. Amphetamine and its variants would be hailed as medical miracles, then demonized as an addictive, life-destroying social scourge.
It was the chemical copilot for long-haul truckers and the “speed” that roiled the Flower Children. Amphetamine fueled American soldiers marching into World War II, served as the chatty muse to famous 1950s Beatniks, and worked as a “little helper” for disappointed 1960s housewives. By the late 1930s college students used “pep pills” to increase their productivity. In exchange SKF would devote its considerable marketing muscle to transforming amphetamine from an experimental compound into a “wonder drug.” SKF would get a first look at anything the chemist produced. They agreed to royalty payments, a salary, and lab space. The large, established company was still getting its bearings in the new era of drug development and needed young scientists like Alles. The company already produced one amphetamine product, the Benzedrine inhaler, patented almost simultaneously with Alles’s compounds. He approached Philadelphia pharmaceutical firm Smith, Kline, and French (SKF) about a partnership. If for some reason Alles couldn’t defend his claim to have invented the compounds (Edeleanu had preceded him), he still had a patented claim on their use as medicine.Įven with his patent in hand developing the drug would require greater resources than Alles possessed. It also recognized him as the discoverer of their medicinal value, a common second claim in the realm of drug law. patent declared him the inventor of amphetamine sulfate and amphetamine hydrochloride. In the meantime Alles protected his intellectual property: a 1932 U.S. Perhaps it could be used as a heart stimulant or for relief from menstrual pain. He began sharing the drug with a small, informal group of doctors and researchers for experimental use. As an asthma treatment, the chemical seemed to have no future.īut Alles saw potential in a euphoria-producing stimulant-even one lacking any obvious medical application. The next week a 50-milligram shot relieved her asthma attack but left her nauseated and headache-stricken. He gave an asthma sufferer 20 milligrams by mouth two hours later she was still wheezing, despite feelings of euphoria. Bolstered by apparent success, he began testing with actual patients. Similar effects characterize a group of drugs now known as amphetamines, as Alles later named them. Mind seemed to run from one subject to another.” Still, he recorded, “Rather sleepless night. Some eight hours after taking the drug his blood pressure had nearly returned to normal. After 17 minutes he noted heart palpitations but also a “feeling of well being.” He grew chatty and at a dinner party that night considered himself unusually witty. Seven minutes later he sniffed: his nose was dry and clear. If amphetamine worked as he hoped, he’d have a lucrative, patent-protected drug that could go head-to-head with ephedrine. He took what he estimated was a nonlethal dose-five times greater than later recommendations-and prepared himself. In this case Alles had tested his compound on guinea pigs, though he couldn’t know exactly what to expect when he became his own guinea pig. In addition to feeling they had a moral duty to future test subjects, they believed their training and familiarity with a compound made them the best observers of its effects. In the early days of scientific drug discovery researchers routinely experimented on themselves.
On June 3, 1929, a doctor injected 50 milligrams of amphetamine into Alles’s body.
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