Dexamyl

History

British prime minister Anthony Eden was prescribed Dexamyl; he was using it to treat abdominal pain. It has been suggested that the drug impaired his judgment during the Suez Crisis. The failure of his Suez policies led to his ousting while he was recovering in Jamaica.

In Britain during the early 1960s the drug was taken by "tired housewives", and was also abused by youths who took excessively large doses and nicknamed the triangular blue tablets "purple hearts" or "blues." This became a celebrated part of the Mod subculture. Dexamyl is the recreational drug of choice for the main character of the film Quadrophenia, who eventually suffers from amphetamine psychosis.

Henry Grahn, a general practitioner from Philadelphia who also conducted a study on the usage and effects of Dexamyl among his patients, would pronounce the effectiveness of the drug with the quote “This is a Dexamyl age, an age of unrest; probably no other period in history has been dominated by a mood of uncertainty and disquiet.”

A famous patient of Sigmund Freud, Sergei Pankejeff (also known as the Wolf Man), was supplied with these by Muriel Gardiner from the United States which he, himself, felt was the only method for treating his depressive episodes.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dexamyl spansules—a clear and green capsule containing green and white "beads"—became popular as a street-drug named "Christmas trees".

In his autobiography My Life of Absurdity, author Chester Himes writes of his use of Dexamyl in the mid-1950s. He also writes that he stopped taking the drug after his friend Vandi Haygood died from "steady doses of Dexamyl".

George C. Nichopoulos was indicted in May 1980 for having improperly prescribed Dexamyl and phenmetrazine (Preludin) to the singer Jerry Lee Lewis, despite knowing he was addicted to them.

Patrick A. Mazza, team physician for the Reading Phillies, said he prescribed Dexamyl, Eskatrol, Dexedrine, and Preludin for Steve Carlton, Larry Christenson, Tim McCarver, Pete Rose, Larry Bowa, and Greg Luzinski. The charges against Mazza were dropped after he contended that he had provided the prescriptions in good faith to the baseball players at their request. The pill was writer Terry Southern's drug of choice for many years.

References

References

1. ''The Primrose To Drug'', ''[[Charleston, West Virginia. Charleston]] Sunday Gazette-Mail'', March 28, 1965, p. 54.
2. (June 2005). "The effect of Prime Minister Anthony Eden's illness on his decision-making during the Suez crisis". QJM.
3. (16 November 2008). "Danger all ways". Guardian News and Media, Ltd..
4. (2008). "On speed: the many lives of amphetamine". [[New York University Press]].
5. (2021-10-13). "Freud's Patients: A Book of Lives". Reaktion Books.
6. (1973-04-02). "U. S. Sets Diet Drug Recall In Drive on Amphetamines". [[The New York Times]].
7. (1998). "My life of absurdity: the autobiography of Chester Himes". Thunder's Mouth Press.
8. (2012). "Medical Toxicology of Drug Abuse: Synthesized Chemicals and Psychoactive Plants". John Wiley & Sons.
9. (5 February 1981). "Charges dismissed in Phils' drug case". The New York Times.
10. (March 22, 2016). "Nights of Terror, Days of Weird". Oxford American.