Methaqualone and Related Topics

Detailed view of a neuromuscular junction:

Muscle relaxant

Drug that affects skeletal muscle function and decreases the muscle tone.

Chemical diagram of pancuronium, with red lines indicating the two acetylcholine "molecules" in the structure

A view of the spinal cord and skeletal muscle showing the action of various muscle relaxants – black lines ending in arrowheads represent chemicals or actions that enhance the target of the lines, blue lines ending in squares represent chemicals or actions that inhibit the target of the line

Other skeletal muscle relaxants of that type used around the world come from a number of drug categories and other drugs used primarily for this indication include orphenadrine (anticholinergic), chlorzoxazone, tizanidine (clonidine relative), diazepam, tetrazepam and other benzodiazepines, mephenoxalone, methocarbamol, dantrolene, baclofen, Drugs once but no longer or very rarely used to relax skeletal muscles include meprobamate, barbiturates, methaqualone, glutethimide and the like; some subcategories of opioids have muscle relaxant properties, and some are marketed in combination drugs with skeletal and/or smooth muscle relaxants such as whole opium products, some ketobemidone, piritramide and fentanyl preparations and Equagesic.

A photograph showing a person who had overdosed

Drug overdose

Ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended.

Timeline of US drug overdose death rates by race and ethnicity. Rate per 100,000 population.

Activated carbon is a commonly used agent for decontamination of the gastrointestinal tract in overdoses.

U.S. yearly overdose deaths from all drugs.<ref name="NIDA-deaths">Overdose Death Rates. And {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151128091723/http://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates |date=2015-11-28}}. By National Institute on Drug Abuse.</ref>

U.S. yearly overdose deaths involving benzodiazepines.<ref name="NIDA-deaths" />

U.S. yearly overdose deaths involving cocaine.<ref name="NIDA-deaths" />

U.S. yearly overdose deaths involving heroin.<ref name="NIDA-deaths" />

U.S. overdose deaths involving all opioids. Deaths per 100,000 population.<ref name=CDC-opioids>Opioid Data Analysis and Resources. Drug Overdose. CDC Injury Center. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Click on "Rising Rates" tab for a graph. See data table below the graph.</ref>

U.S. yearly deaths involving prescription opioids. is a category dominated by illegally acquired fentanyl, and has been excluded.<ref name="NIDA-deaths" />

US yearly overdose deaths, and the drugs involved. Among the 70,200 deaths in 2017, the sharpest increase occurred among deaths related to fentanyl and fentanyl analogs with 28,466 deaths.<ref name=NIDA-deaths/>

Methaqualone

Disco

Genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene.

Rock & disco drum patterns: disco features greater subdivision of the beat, which is four-to-the-floor

Major disco clubs had lighted dance floors, with the lights flashing to complement the beat.

The reflective light disco ball was a fixture on the ceilings of many discothèques.

Disco dancers typically wore loose slacks for men and flowing dresses for women, which enabled ease of movement on the dance floor.

Dancers at an East German discothèque in 1977

Italian composer Giorgio Moroder is known as the "Father of Disco".

The a cappella jazz group the Manhattan Transfer had a disco hit with the 1979 "Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone" theme.

Classic DJ Station. A DJ mixer is placed between two Technics SL-1200 MK 2 turntables.

Disco dance performance at the 30th anniversary of Kontula in Helsinki, Finland, in 1994

Like disco, house music was based around DJs creating mixes for dancers in clubs. Pictured is DJ Miguel Migs, mixing using CDJ players.

Strobing lights flash at a rave dance event in Vienna, 2005

Students from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Mexico City dancing to disco during a cultural event on campus

British singer Dua Lipa has been credited by music critics with leading the revival of disco following the widespread international success of her single "Don't Start Now" and her album Future Nostalgia.

There was also a thriving drug subculture in the disco scene, particularly for drugs that would enhance the experience of dancing to the loud music and the flashing lights, such as cocaine and quaaludes, the latter being so common in disco subculture that they were nicknamed "disco biscuits".

Hypnotic

To induce sleep (or surgical anesthesia ) and to treat insomnia (sleeplessness).

Le Vieux Séducteur by .
(A corrupt old man tries to seduce a woman by urging her to take a hypnotic draught in her drink)

Examples of quinazolinones include cloroqualone, diproqualone, etaqualone (Aolan, Athinazone, Ethinazone), mebroqualone, Afloqualone (Arofuto), mecloqualone (Nubarene, Casfen), and methaqualone (Quaalude).

U.S. Food and Drug Administration agents inspect packages for illegal drug shipments at an international mail facility in New York

Controlled Substances Act

Statute establishing federal U.S. drug policy under which the manufacture, importation, possession, use, and distribution of certain substances is regulated.

Methaqualone (Quaalude, Sopor, Mandrax), a sedative that was previously used for similar purposes as barbiturates, until it was rescheduled.

A selection of MDMA pills, which are often nicknamed "Ecstasy" or "E".

Club drug

Club drugs, also called rave drugs or party drugs, are a loosely defined category of recreational drugs which are associated with discothèques in the 1970s and nightclubs, dance clubs, electronic dance music (EDM) parties, and raves in the 1980s to today.

Club drug users take the drugs because the substances' effects enhance the experience of rave and electronic dance music clubs' pulsating lights, brightly colored projected images and massive sound systems with heavy basslines.

A variety of Quaalude pills and capsules.

A selection of small bottles of poppers, a volatile drug inhaled at dance clubs for the "rush" it can provide.

Ketamine from the street drug trade, in the form of crystals.

A tablet sold as MDMA. It contained no MDMA; instead, it contained benzylpiperazine (BZP), methamphetamine, and caffeine.

Baggies of cocaine adulterated with fruit-flavoured powder and colouring.

A music fan who has had a drug overdose at the Woodstock Music Festival is placed onto a wheeled cot by paramedics.

Club drugs range from entactogens such as MDMA ("ecstasy"), 2C-B ("nexus") and inhalants (e.g., nitrous oxide and poppers) to stimulants (e.g., amphetamine and cocaine), depressants/sedatives (Quaaludes, GHB, Rohypnol) and psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs (LSD, magic mushrooms and DMT).

Recreational drug use

Use of a psychoactive drug to induce an altered state of consciousness either for pleasure or for some other casual purpose or pastime by modifying the perceptions, feelings, and emotions of the user.

Bhang eaters from India c. 1790. Bhang is an edible preparation of cannabis native to the Indian subcontinent. It has been used in food and drink as early as 1000 BCE by Hindus in ancient India.

A man smoking cannabis in Kolkata, India

A rational harm assessment of drugs<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Blakemore|first1=Colin|last2=Saulsbury|first2=William|last3=King|first3=Leslie A.|last4=Nutt|first4=David|date=2007-03-24|title=Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse|url=https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)60464-4/abstract|journal=The Lancet|language=en|volume=369|issue=9566|pages=1047–1053|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60464-4|issn=0140-6736|pmid=17382831|s2cid=5903121}}</ref>

This 1914 photo shows intoxicated men at a sobering-up room

alt=A chart showing dependence potential versus safety ratio.|An analysis of the dangers of drugs<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xpZhjBuDkuwC&pg=PA149|title=Drugs and Society: U.S. Public Policy|last=Fish|first=Jefferson M.|date=2006|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780742542457|language=en}}</ref>

Total recorded alcohol per capita consumption (15+), in liters of pure alcohol

Caffeinated alcoholic beverages, such as Vodka Red Bull, are widespread and legal routes of administration for multiple drugs.

alt=A chart showing relative drug harm.|A chart showing relative drug harm.

Quaaludes: A popular club drug in the 1970s. No longer prescribed or manufactured in many countries but remains popular in South Africa.

MDMA (Ecstasy) pills. The Convention allows only government-approved medical and scientific uses of this and other substances.

Convention on Psychotropic Substances

United Nations treaty designed to control psychoactive drugs such as amphetamine-type stimulants, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, and psychedelics signed in Vienna, Austria on 21 February 1971.

Despite its well-known presence in the rave scene, ketamine remains uncontrolled internationally due to its importance as an anesthetic in veterinary medicine.

Article 32 makes an exception for peyote and other wild psychotropic plants, to protect use in religious rituals in case such plants themselves were in the future added to Schedule I.

Psilocybin mushrooms are not controlled by the Convention, but the drugs contained in them are.

LSD and equipment used in its manufacture are subject to seizure under Article 22.

Crystal meth has emerged as a commonly abused drug, from the American and European rave scenes to East Asia.

methaqualone

Controlled Drugs and Substances Act

Canada's federal drug control statute.

10) Methaqualone (2-methyl-3-(2-methylphenyl)-4(3H)-quinazolinone) and any salt thereof

Mecloqualone

Mecloqualone (Nubarene, Casfen) is a Quinazolinone-class GABAergic and is an analogue of methaqualone that was first made in 1960 and marketed mainly in France and some other European countries.