5. The Issuance of Methamphetamine to the German Military
Otto Friedrich Ranke was delighted by the results of the Pervitin tests. Elated, and as ignorant as the rest of Germany’s medical community of narcotics’ harmful side effects, he saw to it that the drug was approved for issue to the armed forces. It was duly ordered into mass production. In the Second World War, Germany’s military issued its men millions of packets of Pervitin. The pill’s effectiveness in keeping the troops alert was compared to drinking strong coffee by the gallon.
On top of that, Pervitin made the worries of Germany’s fighting men disappear and infused them with feelings of happiness and euphoria. Or at least it did so for a few hours, before the effects wore off, or the soldiers popped more pills to keep the high going on for as long as possible. In other words, what with Pervitin’s base of methamphetamines, or basically being crystal meth, the German military spent WWII tweaking. As seen below, German military personnel paid a high price for that high.
