Methaqualone is a sedative drug which is similar in effect to barbiturates, a general CNS depressant. It was used in the 1960s and 1970s as an anxiolytic, for the treatment of insomnia, and as a sedative and muscle relaxant. It has also been used illegally as a recreational drug, commonly known as Quaaludes (particularly in the 1970s in North America) or as Mandrax. In the 2000s, it is widely used as a recreational drug in South Africa.

Effects

Usual effects include relaxation, euphoria, and drowsiness, also reducing heart rate and respiration. Larger doses can bring about depression, muscular miscoordination, and slurred speech.

An overdose can cause delirium, convulsions, hypertonia, hyperreflexia, vomiting, renal insufficiency, coma, and death through cardiac or respiratory arrest. It resembles barbiturate poisoning but with increased motor difficulties and a lower incidence of cardiac or respiratory depression. Toxicity is treated with diazepam and sometimes other anticonvulsants.

Illegal use as a recreational drug

Quaaludes became increasingly popular as a recreational drug during the 1960s, and during the disco club scene in the 1970s. They were often used during sexual activity because of heightened sensitivity coupled with relaxation and euphoria. The drug was more tightly regulated in Britain under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and in the U.S. from 1973. It was withdrawn from many developed markets in the 1980s, being made a Schedule I drug in the US in 1984.

Smoking methaqualone, either alone or as an adulterant added to various legal and illegal smoking mixtures, gained popularity in the United States during the mid 1970s. When smoked, methaqualone gives the user an immediate trance-like euphoria that quickly wears off. Because the various binders and inert ingredients that were contained in the pill form were toxic when smoked, this practice was roundly decried by the medical community as a serious health risk. Smoking methaqualone pills can lead to emphysema and other chronic lung disorders, most notably talcosis.

South Africa

Commonly known as Mandrax or Buttons, it is not taken orally but is crushed and mixed in a pipe (or the neck of a broken bottle) with marijuana. Mandrax is one of the most commonly used hard drugs in South Africa. The low price (R30.00 average) of methaqualone together with the ready availability of cheap, low-grade marijuana means it (in addition to crystal meth and temazepam) is the preferred hard drug of the low-income section of South African society.

Since methaqualone is no longer legally produced, illicit manufacture either in India, or in South Africa itself or other African countries produces methaqualone for the South African market.

See also

• Cloroqualone
• Diproqualone
• Etaqualone
• Mebroqualone
• Mecloqualone
• Methylmethaqualone

References

• Bioavailability of Methaqualone

Robert D. Smyth Ph.D.1, John K. Lee M.Sc.1, Andrew Polk B.Sc.1, Pramod B. Chemburkar Ph.D.1, and Anne M. Savacool B.A.1

• The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and New Drugs , 1973; 13:391-400

© 1973 the American College of Clinical Pharmacology

• Nayak RK, Smyth RD, Chamberlain JH, Polk A, DeLong AF, Herczeg T, Chemburkar PB, Joslin RS, Reavey-Cantwell NH. No Abstract Methaqualone pharmacokinetics after single- and multiple-dose administration in man. J Pharmacokinet Biopharm. 1974 Apr;2(2):107-21. No abstract available. PMID: [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
• Chemburkar PB, Smyth RD, Buehler JD, Shah PB, Joslin RS, Polk A, Reavey-Cantwell NH. Abstract Correlation between dissolution characteristics and absorption of methaqualone from solid dosage forms. J Pharm Sci. 1976 Apr;65(4):529-33. PMID: [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

External links

• Methaqualone (Quaalude) Synthesis by Rhodium. General information and description of Methaqualone's synthesis plus many references
• The Meth Epidemic Frontline discusses quaaludes as part of the history of methamphetamine