cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/5831395
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/GoCartMozart1980 on 2025-05-15 14:58:41+00:00.
Well, there are four reasons why even by modern standards that would have been a good idea.
- The last thing you want in an army is a bunch of soldiers with withdrawal
- A cigarette every so often is a good distraction from the horrors of war
- Non-smokers have something to barter with
- A mild stimulant like nicotine would be beneficial to a soldier
Can’t really imagine robbing a soldier of the ability to smoke in that situation. It’s not like their long-term health is being prioritized during deployment anyway so why keep up pretenses.
Alright, let’s get this out onto a tray…
“Experience has shown that an adequate health insurance system should distribute the cost of sickness among those responsible for conditions causing it and thereby lighten the burden on the individual"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Blue#Universal_sickness_insurance
If you’re about the be killed at any moment ya don’t care too much about getting cancer in 20 years.
If you fought in a war, smoke the cigarettes that the government gave you and then survived. Can you sue goverment for lung cancer??
US police frequently kills people and gets away with it… What do you think?
Makes sense, Nicotine is a mild stimulant. We give soldiers meth today
Plus even if you don’t smoke cigarettes make convenient currency.
My grandfather traded a couple packs for a sword at the end of WWII
There are multiple peer reviewed papers on the topic. E.g. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022053100927315
Do we? I feel like that’s urban legend territory
they’re used in the air force (US) mostly I think. I’ve read anecdotes discussing it on the aviation sub on reddit
“Go Pills”/Dexedrine.
Looks like it’s approved for pilots.
yeahh that’s the one!
That’s dextroamphetamine, not meth. This is the basis for many stimulant ADHD medications today.
yes I am aware, I wasn’t calling it meth to begin with
Yup, “Go Pills”/Dexedrine.
Interesting, thank you
Dexedrine is an ADHD medication. That’s not meth…stop spreading misinformation.
It’s not literally meth, but it is an amphetamine (in fact, literally amphetamine, it’s one of the two enantiomers of amphetamine, and the more potent of the two at that)
So same class of drugs, produces the same kind of effects to different degrees. You can kind of think of it in the same way that opium, morphine, heroin, and fentanyl are all in the same family of drugs, fentanyl is of course way more potent than opium, but at its core is still doing essentially the same thing.
And for what it’s worth, meth is also an ADHD medication, sold under the brand name Desoxyn, not super commonly prescribed but it is used for that purpose.
And since I’ve already touched on this concept- meth also exists in 2 enantiomers, Desoxyn and the street drug are dextro-methamphetamine, and levo-methamphetamine is sold over-the-counter in some places to treat stuffy noses as a “Vicks Vapor Inhaler.” Chiral chemicals like that can be weird, sometimes they can be almost entirely interchangeable, other times they can have completely different effects or mildly different potencies.
The person you replied to didn’t say meth but dextroamphetamine. Dextroamphetamine was used by the US in WW2.
Germans used Methamphetamine.
"From April to July 1940, German service members on the Western Front received more than 35 million methamphetamine pills. "
The person you replied to didn’t say meth but dextroamphetamine
But that person was replying to the thread with this top level comment
Makes sense, Nicotine is a mild stimulant. We give soldiers meth to day
Without context many will just read that as verification of the above claim.
I don’t understand why you’re being downvoted for this clarification. The top level comment is making a claim about meth(amphetamine), someone replies with information about dextroamphetamine, and replies aside from yours are clearly seeing that as confirmation, when it’s not.
Actually maybe people are mixing it up with Dedoxyn? Which is prescription grade meth?
Edit: it’s Desoxyn*
He’s being down voted because both are amphetamines that have been used by militaries. His reply stating “it’s ADHD medicine” ignores that it is an amphetamine used by the US military during WW2 to keep soldiers awake for days at a time with reduced need for food.
The person corrected the original post from meth to dex. Saying “it’s ADHD medicine” in context of its military use is wrong.
Maybe I missed an edit
deleted by creator
“Have a cigarette and relax.”
The government issued that on the tobacco dispensed to soldiers when my country went to war with our former colonies.
i read a psychology study paper about tobacco use in the population that interact with mental health community, aka the people who suffer from some mental illness, and the majority of the people that smoke found it was a way to self medicate. So long story short, it’s determined that it does contain some truth and it is a mentally calming treatment, but only has a limited effect. It’s why I don’t get down on beggars asking for cigarettes or change to buy some. It is a medication at that point
It’s good to know proper study has been done but you can talk with any smoker and infer - if they don’t admit it openly - from their words they use cigarettes to ease off the stress. And when the nicotine fails, it’s ugly to see.
Double edged sword tho. nicotine helps me relax for a little while, but going without just makes it worse than it already was.
And that is good. I was at war and wasn’t provided with cigarettes. Fuck my logistics!
