Good Question: What Are Quaaludes?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - In a 2005 deposition, Bill Cosby admitted giving Quaaludes to a 19-year-old woman before they had sex in Las Vegas in 1976. But his lawyer would not let him answer whether that woman or others knew they were getting the drug.
So, what are Quaaludes? Good Question.
"It's similar to a barbiturate, which is a class of medication in the hypnotics/sedative category," said Jean Moon, a doctor of pharmacy at the University of Minnesota School of Pharmacy. "But there's not really another medication like Quaaludes."
The central chemical in the drug is methaqualone. It works on the central nervous system as a depressant. It can cause a person to be sedated or tire, and it reduces the heart rate and breathing. If a person takes too much of the drug, they could fall into a coma, cause kidney damage or die.
The drug was invented in India with the hopes of treating malaria. By the 1960s, it was marketed as a sedative in the U.S. to help with anxiety and insomnia.
"When it first came out, it was marketed as being a safer alternative to barbiturates," Moon said. "They thought it wasn't as addictive, but then they found out pretty quickly that it was."
By 1972, it was one of the most prescribed sedatives in the country and, at that point, it had already become a popular recreational drug. The 1977 Lynyrd Skynrd song, "The Smell," featured these lyrics: "Can't speak a word when you're full of ludes."
By 1984, the U.S. banned prescriptions and manufacturing of the drug.
According to Carol Falkowski, with Drug Abuse Dialogues, Quaaludes are still available in Mexico and South Africa. There's also an underground market.
"Very few people enter addiction treatment programs reporting sedative hypnotic drugs as their primary drugs of abuse," Falkowski said.
