These Are The Drugs The Nazis Were Using

During the World War II, German doctors prescribed Nazi soldiers with the methamphetamine drug Pervitin whenever they felt tired, depressed or in need of energy boost. While history books say that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler snorted cocaine powder to relieve his sinus problems, a new book details the list of drugs the Nazis were using.

CNN reported that German author Norman Ohler wrote a book titled Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich, which talks about the variety of drugs the Nazis were on including cocaine, meth and opiates. In this extremely brutal era where 6,000,000 to 11,000,000 Jews died in the Holocaust apart from millions of deaths brought by the Second World War, it is unimaginable for these German soldiers to be able to kill such number of people sober.

In an article published in the journal Nature, research professor Paul Weindling at Oxford Brookes University wrote about his review on Ohler's book.

"Norman Ohler's Blitzed depicts the pervasive drug culture that allegedly developed in Germany's Third Reich," Weindling wrote. "Nazi officials took high-performance drugs such as methamphetamine hydrochloride (crystal meth) and cocaine. German military units and aviators were dosed with the patent methamphetamine-based drug Pervitin (manufactured in Germany from 1937) to improve operational efficiency."

Furthermore, "drugs such as Pervitin and metabolic stimulants were tried out on students, military recruits and, eventually, in concentration camps," he added.

According to Kristen Keefe, pharmacology and toxicology professor at the University of Utah, meth and cocaine increase the release of the brain's two main neurotransmitters: dopamine and serotonin. This triggers the person to feel a sudden energy boost and experience a sense of euphoria.

However, nobody has yet concluded on how frequent these Nazis took such drugs as well as the manner of which these pills, powders or liquids were prescribed and used.