Random Drug Dive: Meprobamate

This one is obscure enough that it has only three experiences listed in the erowid experiences vault, but if you were an adult in the mid-20th century you'd probably be very familiar with it.

Meprobamate was first synthesized by a Brit named Frank Berger and his bestie Bernard Ludwig in 1950 while they worked at Carter Products, a pharmaceutical company in the US. The drug was branded as Miltown and was sold as a drug that helped with anxiety, stress, pain, really anything and everything, the implication was that it was kind of a wonder drug, one of the first of its kind in human history, and America loved this shit. Early studies found that it not only soothed the anxious, but it also calmed the psychotic and was promising in the treatment of alcoholism.

The main reason that Meprobomate was so popular was advertising. It was one of the first drugs to be massively advertised to the public. Unfortunately, despite every single publication talking about Meprobamate mentioning the importance of advertising in its spread, I cannot find any archived video ads for the stuff, the best I can find is this depiction of the mass production of the drug, if any of you can find a TV ad for Miltown send it my way.

The drug was a hit with the public, but it was also a hit with the rich and famous. Nowadays we joke about celebrities doing cocaine or heroin but back in the day this was the drug everyone was joking about. Comedian Milton Berle famously, (1950s famously), shilled for Miltown on his show, calling himself 'Uncle Miltown' which is still pretty funny honestly, imagine if Steven Colbert started calling himself Uncle Percocet on every show.

The hype kept rolling into the 60s when the US government brought Carter Products and another company, American Home Products Corporation, to court, alleging that they had conspired to monopolize the tranquilizer market. Which they had! As a result the patent for Meprobamate was given to anyone who wanted it, and off brands of Miltown and Equanil, (that's what American Home Products called it), flourished in the US markets.

As time went on and more research was done it was found that a. this shit was highly addictive even at pretty low doses, and b. it had some pretty nasty side effects. The most concerning thing about the addiction was that it had the potential for what's called 'deadly abstinence', where quitting cold turkey can kill you. Only a few drugs like alcohol have this unfortunate trait with their addictions, so this was not a good look for Meprobamate.

Anyways, what the frick does this drug even do? Most of the discussion on it focuses on its importance in the development of the pharmaceutical industry in the United States, and sure that's cool but if people were getting addicted to this stuff what high were they after?

Mild euphoria, moderately relaxed muscles and sedation, and a bit of pain relief. Again, reports on this stuff are sparse, but from what I can find that was pretty much what you got. The stuff doesnt last long without a higher dosage, and the risk of overdose is always present. It may seem kind of silly that people went crazy for this stuff, but at the same time it kind of makes sense. Thinking about this drug in the context of the 1950s people probably thought that it was amazing. Aldous Huxley said on the topic of the drug that he predicted that other drugs that altered the human consciousness would be developed in the coming years, that Miltown was just the start of it. Looking at it from the perspective of the average joe in 1955 the ability to quell anxiety and move through your ordinary life in a semi-blissful state probably did make you feel like you'd stumbled across the future of humankind, a future where pain and worry were a thing of the past due to the wonderful advances of science. Of course its barely worth mentioning that Huxley's later work in Brave New World would satirize and critique this idea of a drugged society where everyone takes Soma to feel happy, commentary that serves as a fitting bow on the post-war optimism that led to everyone getting high and driving to work.

By 1970 Meprobamate was placed on the controlled substance list in the US. It recently had its marketing authorization withdrawn by the European Union and Canada due to the high risk of serious side effects. Funnily enough Meprobamate has been replaced primarily by Benzos which are facing their own sort of reckoning with respect to addiction and side effects, that snake just loves eating its tail.

You're obviously gonna struggle to get your hands on any Meprobamate nowadays, but there's actually a guide to synthesize it on erowid. One of the only mentions of it on there. So feel free to give that a try, take some, watch some old black and white commercials, and let the mild euphoria of lost optimistic futures wash over you.

Further reading:

As aforementioned there's only three experiences in the erowid vault so I cant really recommend that, instead, if any of you know someone that would have been prescribed this stuff back in the day, go and ask them what it was like and write it down, put it up on erowid or someplace. There's lots of academic work done on Miltown, but what's often lacking in that work is the experience of the individual's that took the drug, and as it stands we're starting to run out of people that would have ever seen a Miltown ad or taken the edge off with a smackerel of Equanil.

Also here's some random paper ads I found for Miltown that are altogether far too small but you gotta take what you can get.

Until next time you alcoholic shitbags