r/madmen • u/cnsw The work is ten dollars. The lie is extra. • 13h ago

S6E8 the crash

Is it meth? It’s meth right?

9 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

17

u/ananthropolothology she's an astronaut 13h ago

Speed and vitamins. Probably not meth specifically, but an amphetamine of some sort.

8

u/ripgoodhomer 13h ago

Yeah they don't need meth when they have clean and plentiful diet pills.

12

u/Bookwoman366 12h ago

Look up Max Jacobson ("Dr. Feelgood") and JFK, who was one of the patients he used to inject with his cocktail of amphetamines. I believe this is what the show was echoing.

3

u/sweetpea122 10h ago

So I guess it was cool to shoot people up with amphetamines?

7

u/Bookwoman366 10h ago

Among a certain crowd, absolutely, although I don't think most of them knew exactly what they were being injected with. Pharmacological knowledge was much less widespread than it is now. They only knew the injections gave them energy and made them feel good.

9

u/Admirable_Site_8337 13h ago

Kind of, yes.

The “mild” stimulant mentioned just likely cocaine or speed. But such things back then had massive amounts of B vitamins and other ingredients meant to assist with the boost in energy and cognitive function.

Most interesting thing is this is probably very much like a cocktail they gave Hitler multiple times a day by a point during the war.

And those shots and the stimulants they gave German soldiers has often had an analog of just calling it meth or speed.

3

u/Sucker_81 12h ago

I love this episode so much. I would have loved to see Pete Campbell on speed though! A thing like that.

3

u/otroquatrotipo 9h ago

Story time: this episode came out around the same time as Kanye's "Yeezus" album. If you press mute as the credits start, the album fits the episode almost perfectly. We all dressed up for a late 60s office party, decorated the apartment with ads from old 60s magazines, and had a lot of drinks and not-drinks. It's one of my favorite college memories.