How Nazi Germany's modern day equivalent to a latte macchiato was crystal meth

In the years leading to World War II, the Nazi regime manufactured a drug aimed at boosting the population's productivity and the country's economy: The product, called Pervitin, was actually methamphetamine (crystal meth)."Germany didn't have colonies. It couldn't import coffee from its possessions overseas, so it had to produce its own stimulants with its own resources," Norman Ohler, author of "Blitzed: Drugs in the ThirdReich," told Business Insider.Berlin company Temmler invented Pervitin in 1937, which contained pure methamphetamine. "Pervitin was easy to make, cheaper to manufacture than to buy coffee from other countries," said Ohler."Methamphetamine was not seen as a drug at the time. It was a stimulant that was not stigmatised.""You could compare it a latte macchiato these days. It was taken across all flights of life ' be it workers, housewives, hairdressers, actors, business people."Produced and filmed by Claudia Romeo. Special thanks to Leon Siciliano.Join the conversation about this story
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