Methaqualone in popular culture

Main article: Methaqualone

The following list is of references to Methaqualone in popular culture. Entries should either refer to an article that includes sources for these references or include footnotes to reliable sources to demonstrate the notability and verify the reference to Methaqualone.

Methaqualone is a sedative-hypnotic drug that is similar in effect to barbiturates, a general CNS depressant. Its use peaked in the 1960s and 1970s as a hypnotic, for the treatment of insomnia, and as a sedative and muscle relaxant. It has also been used illegally as a recreational drug, commonly known as Quaaludes (pronounced /ˈkweɪljuːdz/ kway-lewdz) (particularly in the 1970s in North America) or as Mandrax (methaqualone 250 mg combined with diphenhydramine 5 mg).

Methaqualone in popular culture

Books

• In Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City books, the character Mona Ramsay is a frequent Quaalude user.
• In the book The Wolf of Wall Street, Quaaludes are mentioned various times throughout the book.
• In Anthony Kiedis's autobiography Scar Tissue, he mentions using Quaaludes during his youth.
• In Larry Kramers 1978 novel Faggots, Quaaludes are frequently used by the characters as a party drug.
• In David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest", Don Gately's (adolescent) experiences with Quaaludes and alcohol are denoted by the phrase "The Attack of the Killer Sidewalks."
• In Cherie Currie's memoir, Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway, Cherie Currie talks about popping quaaludes like they were Skittles.
• In Bret Easton Ellis' 1985 novel, Less Than Zero, Quaaludes are mentioned in several places in the novel.
• In Keith Richards' 2010 memoir, Life, he tells of the speedboat he bought in 1971 while living on the French Riviera and recording Exile on Main Street. He named the boat Mandrax, an anagram of its original name, saying: "It was irresistible to call it that."^[1]
• In Stephen King's 1986 novel, It, Eddie Kaspbrak takes a great deal of drugs with him as he leaves his wife to meet his childhood companions in Derry, Maine; it is mentioned that Quaalude is among them.
• The movie The Boost was based on Ben Stein's novel Ludes: A Ballad of the Drug & the Dream

Film

• In the 1977 film Jubilee, Jordan's character Amyl Nitrate, an "anti-historian", says it would be great if "all of history could be written on a Mandrax."
• In the 2000 film Almost Famous, Kate Hudson's character Penny Lane overdoses on Quaaludes before getting her stomach pumped.
• Tony says that Elvira "wakes up with a Quaalude" and later states after an argument with Elvira "Another Quaalude, she gonna love me again" in the movie Scarface.
• In the Cheech and Chong movie Up In Smoke, Quaaludes are mentioned in several places. While driving the "van made entirely out of marijuana," which the narcotic Sergeant Stadenko is pursuing, Cheech and Chong pick up two hitchhiking women. One of them, 'Jade East,' offers Chong a 'lude. At The Roxy Theatre, she gives Chong pills she believes are uppers, but which are actually Quaaludes, before he attempts to perform. Chong's stage persona during his band's performance is "Captain Quaalude"; he is dressed in tights, a shirt emblazoned with a huge Quaalude and a cape. The apparent overdose of Quaalude that Chong has received causes him to fall all over the stage and his drums, until he is revived by marijuana smoke being drawn into the Roxy's ventilation system from the van burning in front of the club.
• In the movie Wonderland, John Holmes (Val Kilmer) aided and abetted in the theft of $100,000 in Quaaludes from the character Eddy Nash.
• In the film Blades of Glory, Will Ferrell's character, Chazz Michael Michaels, announces that he was high on Quaaludes at an event.
• In Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, he mentions to his son, Dewey-Raheem, that "Quaaludes and water-skiing do not mix."
• In Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sean Penn's character, Jeff Spicoli, states,"People on 'ludes should not drive," as he drives down the street in his friend's brother's car.
• In the commentaries for the film The Runaways, Joan Jett mentions that Quaaludes were her drug of choice when her character was shown snorting cocaine.
• In Scarface, Tony says "Another Qualude she'll love me in the morning".

Music

• Cheap Trick released "Voices" from their album Dream Police as a 45 RPM single. The cover of the single released in Japan and The Netherlands has a picture of the members of the group showing police badges. The badge their bassist Tom Peterssen held had the number "714" on it. While this was the badge number of Joe Friday on the series Dragnet it is also the number on the Methaqualone pill produced by under the brand name of Quaalude.
• During the mid-1970s, when the band The Tubes performed their signature hit song "White Punks on Dope", they threw out imitation "Quaaludes" to the audience. The lead singer of the band, Fee Waybill, took on their stage persona Quay Lewd and performed in platform shoes with very tall heels.
• In the Marilyn Manson video clip for "I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)", the mother of the family featured on the clip holds up a number of word cards and flicks through them quickly. The words on the cards are "Masturbate – Repent – Dope Star – Suicide – Qualudes".
• In the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "That Smell", Ronnie Van Zant sings, "So they call you Prince Charming, can't speak a word when you're full of ludes", a reference to guitarist Gary Rossington.
• In the Funkadelic song "Stick Finger", they chant, "I don't want to get up, Quaalude me down".
• In the 2Pac song "Everything They Owe," he claims that police came into his home and said "Where is the quaaludes?".
• The Social Distortion song "Lude Boy" is about Quaalude abuse. Also, in the documentary film Another State of Mind, Social Distortion bassist Brent Liles can be seen wearing a shirt displaying a Quaalude reference during the San Francisco show scene.
• In the Kottonmouth Kings' song, "Johnny's Got a Problem", he states "I ain't got no problems whut the fuck's wrong with you, get me a blue and a twelve pack of brew, some chicks to screw who know whut to do, plus 2 quaaludes for when the night's through."
• Rapper Mickey Avalon mentions Quaaludes in his song "Dipped in Vaseline" with the lyrics "Hustling gay dude for Quaaludes, out by the pool, in a baby-blue bathing suit. Waiting for Jesus to bring the juice."
• The Dead Kennedys song "M.T.V. – Get off the Air" has the line "Hi, I'm your video DJ. I always talk like I'm wigged out on Quaaludes."
• The Minor Threat song "Straight Edge" contains the line, "Laugh at the thought of eating ludes..."
• On Robin Williams' 1979 record Reality, What a Concept, the comedian continually references the drug in regards to his "stoner character".
• The David Bowie song "Time" has the line "Time – in Quaaludes and red wine." Also mentioned in the song "Rebel Rebel"; "You got your queue line and a handful of ludes..."
• The song "Blue Highway" by Billy Idol has the line, "Quaaludes and red wine for love, yes there's a time, a time for love."
• The Lemonheads song "It's all true" has the line "Sorry 'bout dropping that 'lude, it just seemed like the best thing to do."
• The John Prine song "Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard" includes the line "Selling bibles at the airports, buying Quaaludes on the phone".
• Shel Silverstein's album The Great Conch Train Robbery contains a song titled "Quaaludes Again", which is about a woman's addiction to Quaaludes and the fact that she is doing them again.
• Straight edge hardcore band Gorilla Biscuits take their name from New York slang for Quaaludes.
• Them Crooked Vultures' use 'ludes' in the title of their song "Interlude With Ludes".
• Great White had a rare song on side two of their "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" single called "Wasted Rock Ranger". One of the verses said "I had Bennies with my breakfast toast, Quaaludes with my evening roast and assorted snorts of powder in between. I don't think a day's gone by, that I wasn't drunk or high. It's the only way I keep my sanity."
• The Reagan Youth song "Degenerated" has the line, "Johnny wastes his days eating ludes, he's a teenage vegetable."
• In Ian Dury and the Blockheads' song "Billericay Dickie" , one of the verses states "another thing with Sandy, what often came in handy, was passing her a 'Mandy', she didn't half go bandy".
• Frank Zappa can be heard asking "Wanna buy some Mandies, Bob?" in the song "Flakes" on his Sheik Yerbouti album. In "Pygmy Twylyte" from the Roxy & Elsewhere album, he sings "Hurtin' for sleep in the Quaalude moonlight".
• Iggy Pop references "quaaludes" in the song "I Got Nothin'" on the Kill City album (credited to Iggy Pop & James Williamson).
• The Descendents song "Bikeage" contains the lyric "Take a quaalude, relax your mind."

Television

• In Season 4 episode 3 of the HBO series Sex and the City, Samantha Jones (played by Kim Catrall) discusses using Quaaludes during threesomes.
• In Denis Leary's 1992 Showtime special No Cure for Cancer, Leary makes reference toy ludes as a drug he did in the 1970s, claiming that they were "the only possible explanation" for the prevalence of bell-bottoms during that era.
• In the first season of the Showtime series Weeds, Elizabeth Perkins' character, Celia Hodes, claims to have in her possession the "last pharmaceutical Quaalude in the world." The episode was called, "Lude Awakening". The last scene of the episode shows the character exposing her breasts to a teenage boy. When the boy's mother walks in, "I took a Lude" was the woman's excuse.
• On the HBO Show Entourage, talent Representative Ari Gold quotes "The Last time I blacked out, I took four Quaaludes and Fucked Chatel Luttenberg."
• In the "Walk Softly Through the Night" episode of Quincy, M.E., Dr Quincy confronts an unethical physician who prescribes Methaqualone to addicts for a profit. He sees to it that the physician is investigated by the local chapter of the California Board of Medical Quality Assurance.
• In an episode of Desperate Housewives ("The Game") Tom Scavo asks Stella Wingfield (Lynette Scavo's mother) if she had put Quaaludes in the cocoa she gave his children before putting them to sleep.
• In an episode of Will & Grace, Grace jokes about the drummer of one's prom band putting a "Quaalude in your Fresca".
• In the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode "The Gang Reignites The Rivalry", at the Frat house, Frank (Danny DeVito) asks if the fraternity brothers have any ludes.
• In an episode of The King of Queens Doug's boss requests "Mexican quaaludes" in exchange for hiring Doug's cousin, Danny.
• In an episode of 1000 Ways to Die there was a hairstylist known for seducing women with quaaludes and vodka. After being under the influence of quaauludes and a cocktail from an earlier fling, he passes out with his neck landing on top of a curling iron. As the curling iron burns through the hairstylist's neck, the dead tissue blocks his trachea and he asphyxiated and died.
• In the Childrens Hospital episode "That 70s Episode," the entire hospital staff are shown to have a soft spot for "ludes" during the 1970s.

References

1. ^ Richards, Keith and Fox, James "Life". Little, Brown and Co. 2002. p.292.