While investigating an unrelated riddle it I found myself brainstorming for causes of excessive tooth decay in a woman’s teeth who was 15 at the end of the war. Did years of taking Pervitin cause thousands upon thousands of cases of Meth mouth. I imagine thousands of troops all suffering from tooth aches would have a crushing effect on Morale.
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Being as it was Meth it would stand to reason long term use would affect not only the mouth but body as well. Which included rotted teeth, open sores all over the body, underweight and withdrawal symptoms like the shakes, violent behaviours, mental instability and theft. My understanding is that the German Military handed it out as a weekly ration until mid 1942 to the entire military but scaled it back more and more as the war went on.
This wasn’t just a German issue as most countries gave their soldiers various forms of amphetamines but none to the scale the Germans did the closest would of been the American military who gave various units daily and weekly doses of amphetamines to improve performance and stay awake for sometimes 3-5 days at a time.
The downside is after the war every country had a huge problem with addiction to various drugs which also caused issues reintegrating soldiers back into society. It was a problem most countries did their best to hide or ignore few were proactive in dealing with it.
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