In 1946, amphetamines were the number one prescribed medicine for 39 different ailments, including seasickness, migraine, impotence, weight-loss and fatigue.
Most amphetamine-based cures were available over the counter until 1956, when the UK government, after news of rampant addiction in Japan, made them prescription only.
Thousands of users who needed to salve their addictions took to buying the inhalers, as it contained hundreds of times more amphetamine than the pills. Sales skyrocketed.
Amphetamine sales peaked in 1968-69, when cocaine and heroin were abruptly removed from the medicines list. Doctors dished out tons of injectable, highly addictive methyl amphetamine instead.
The government pressured doctors to stop but production continued in back street labs. Its products then spilled onto the black market and into mainstream culture.
There was no stopping it.