The Nazis were crack addicts!

[abaris]

OK, that's a comprehensive list of what Pervitin does and how it is classyfied. It's in German, but I'm going to translate the crucial quoted part here.

Pervitin unterdrückt Müdigkeit, Hungergefühl und Schmerz. Es verleiht kurzzeitig Selbstbewusstsein, ein Gefühl der Stärke und dem Leben eine ungewohnte Geschwindigkeit. Zu den Nebenwirkungen gehören Persönlichkeitsveränderungen, Psychosen und Paranoia aufgrund von Schlafentzug oder bei Prädisposition.

Pervitin supresses tiredness, Hunger and pain. It makes you feel confident, gives you a sense of strenght and the illusion being quicker than everybody else. Side effects are personality disorders, Psychosis and Paranoia because of sleep depravation or because of preexisting conditions.

Sound suspiciously like speed.

http://www.chemie.de/lexikon/Pervitin.html

That's an article on Czech addicts using Pervitin as their drug of choice from 2007.

http://www.encod.org/info/PERVITIN-NEW-D...CE-IN.html

Due to its ubiquitous popularity and highly addictive character, pervitin has not only made its way into small towns and dance parties, but is also rising in use elsewhere in the region. The report states, “Methamphetamines have become the No. 1 problem drugs for individuals seeking treatment in Slovakia, and a high usage level is now being recorded in certain subpopulations in Hungary.”

So, it certainly doesn't look as if it was less dangerous than it is now.

And that's from the German magazine Der Spiegel, relating stories of Pervitin use in WWII

http://www.spiegel.de/international/the-...54606.html

The effects were seductive. In January 1942, a group of 500 German soldiers stationed on the eastern front and surrounded by the Red Army were attempting to escape. The temperature was minus 30 degrees Celsius. A military doctor assigned to the unit wrote in his report that at around midnight, six hours into their escape through snow that was waist-deep in places, "more and more soldiers were so exhausted that they were beginning to simply lie down in the snow." The group's commanding officers decided to give Pervitin to their troops. "After half an hour," the doctor wrote, "the men began spontaneously reporting that they felt better. They began marching in orderly fashion again, their spirits improved, and they became more alert."