Bambi, Bambi, Bambi. Where is she? Well, I knew there was a very good chance that I would never see my $50.00 or even good old Bambi for that matter, but I was so intrigued by this whole underground business. I mean just how big was this secret group of people that spent money on this drug and how often did they spend this money? What were the effects of taking this drug and where in the hell did this drug even come from? There were so many questions I had and so little knowledge with my focus mainly on the monetary aspect. I did some research on this stuff called speed (Methamphetamine) to see if I could figure out what it was all about. Here’s what I learned:
“A scientist first developed amphetamine-type stimulants—including methamphetamine—as a manmade alternative to the ephedra plant. Ephedra is a type of shrub whose extract has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for over 5,000 years. In 1885, Nagai Nagayoshi—a Japanese chemist studying in Germany—identified the active chemical in ephedra, a stimulant called ephedrine. Methamphetamine was difficult to make until 1919 when another Japanese chemist—Akira Ogata—streamlined the process. He used phosphorus and iodine to reduce the ephedrine into a crystallized form, creating the world’s first crystal meth.” [1]
The whole Amphetamine craze really took off in the 1940s, especially during WWII where this drug was used and ultimately abused by pilots, seamen, and ground troops. Kamikaze pilots used very large doses of the drug to help them in carrying out their task of crashing their airplanes in a hyped-up type of rage. As with every type of drug, people were not always following the recommended dosages or uses. Amphetamines were used for conditions like hyperactivity, congestion, depression, and breathing problems. People who used Amphetamines lost weight and this in turn caused another explosion of use and misuse. As the original patents expired a slew of small companies manufactured a very large amount of over-the-counter weight loss pills which caused the FDA to step in and start to regulate all amphetamines and their uses.
Eventually, a different chemical process resulted in a crystal form of Amphetamine known as Methamphetamine which produced a very quick and very extensive euphoric response when ingested. Methamphetamine was widely used in the 1960s thru 1970s, especially by the flower-power-type hippies in the Haight-Ashbury area in California. It was known as “the love drug.” By this time the Methamphetamine produced did not contain the plant Ephedra and was being made with chemicals being purchased on the open market. It seemed everyone was getting into the production of Methamphetamine. The downside was that every chemical from battery acid to starting fluid that was being used to make Methamphetamine had skull bones somewhere on their labeling and these were all very harmful if ingested into the human body.
After a little research on the history of Methamphetamine, I wasn’t sure I was any better at understanding the drug but it sure had piqued my interest, to say the least. One thing I did know was that there was a crazy market for it out there and I was intrigued.
I don’t want to prolong this any longer. Bambi did show up and not only did she show up, but she did exactly what she said she would do as far as returning my investment with interest. So, I took the next step and well maybe it was a jump, but Bambi and I became not only business associates but we also dipped into other associate-type levels, if you are following me. As time went on not only did Bambi move in with me, but she brought a few other girlfriends which were for a better understanding, field salespeople. I mean what a feeling of a kingdom in a sense and I was the leader to some degree as I was supplying most of the money to make the drug purchases and I was supplying the housing for the team, which by the way was really something especially for a young man in his early 20’s. Granted I was still working my regular job, but when I wasn’t it seemed to be a constant party atmosphere. As you probably already guessed it, I too became a customer of my own product, be it at a very small level. l really felt it was important to you know, to see what it was I was financing. Okay, okay. I know that’s BS as I was really wanting to be part of the party, as not only did Bambi use, but so did her “sales team.”
It didn’t take long before this whole venture was bringing in more money in a week than I could make selling insurance in a month. Well, as the manager of this enterprise, it was time to make a few big decisions. Should I quit my regular 8-5 job? My one-bedroom apartment now had 4 people living in it, should I find a bigger place? Not to mention it appeared we were stirring up a lot of onlookers, especially close neighbors what with all the traffic and late nights or should I say all nights? I was amazed at how long we could stay awake. Sometimes it was days before we would crash and we were definitely spending less and less money on food and more and more on alcohol. It was time to expand, so I quit my job and secured a four-bedroom home in an upscale neighborhood. By this time, we had also expanded into about 8 pool hall establishments selling at least five nights a week at each location. I guess the hardest part of this whole venture was navigating all the different personalities and drama associated with mostly the team.
I had noticed that the amount of product (drug) which was being used within the home by those living there (the sales team) had really increased over the past few months. Also, I had made the leap from snorting the drug to now having Bambi inject me with the it, which was a whole other experience. To sit back and try to explain the effects of injecting speed into your veins would be next to impossible as the whole feeling, the rush was like something out of a storybook. It made you feel as though you could do anything and the pleasure triggers, well let’s just say I had figured out why it was labeled “the love drug” in the early 1960s.
There was another aspect to using speed that was not well known until the late ’70s. Adderall was being prescribed for hyperactive children. Yes, it was speed, but it had an opposite effect on hyperactive children and helped to calm them down. Well, you guessed it – even though I was not labeled as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) when I was a child – back then it was just called “misbehaving” – I fell right smack in the spectrum of ADHD. So that really played into my using speed, as it helped me sort things out and get things into perspective, into their proper compartments in a sense. That was true to some degree, but as time went on that definitely went out the window, because as you know progression is not a positive word when one speaks of drug use and addiction.
[1] https://www.history.com/topics/crime/history-of-meth