An Educational Meth Timeine

The McMinnVille, Oregon News-Register has published a well-composed timeline of amphetamine production and use, under the Lucasesque title "Meth I - Roots of the Menace". The timeline takes us from the drug's discovery and use as an asthma treatment through June of this year (that's 2005, tweakers). The title suggests that there will be a "Meth II" section, perhaps dealing with outer space meth or the coming race war in America.

Meth's heyday would seem to have been in the 1930s, when "methadrine-brand inhalers, featuring methamphetamine as principal ingredient, are sold over the counter to treat asthma and allergies." Interestingly, for those following along in the lab, "users discover[ed] they [could] brew a powerful stimulant by boiling the cartridges in water or coffee."