First Synthesized in 1887, methamphetamine is made from the drug ephedrine, an organic substance used as a medicine in China for hundreds of years. In the 1930s it was sold in the U.S. as a nasal spray for treatment of inflammation of nasal passages (ephedrine still is sold for this purpose) and as treatment for narcolepsy (sudden sleep disorder). During WWII, it was used by both sides to improve soldiers’ performance. This became a major problem in Japan after World War II as they experienced the first known epidemic of methamphetamine abuse. In 1970, the Controlled Substances Act regulated the production of methamphetamine.
Today much of the methamphetamine available on the street is illicit and produced in clandestine laboratories in the United States and more recently, Mexico. Because of this, questions always linger about the quality of the drug.
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