Book Review: Speed-Speed-Speedfreak: A Fast History of Amphetamine by Mick Farren

The first thing you notice about Speed-Speed-Speedfreak is the design - it is literally a giant Dextroampethamine capsule. The second may be the author’s name, Mick Farren. As leader of The Deviants and Pink Fairies, Farren has first-hand knowledge of the subject at hand.

Honestly, I did not expect much out of this cleverly shaped, 208-page tome. Farren is no burned-out druggie extolling the virtues of meth though. With no axe to grind, he just lays out the facts. The bonus is how tremendously enjoyable I found his writing style to be.

Although herbal stimulants have been around for centuries, amphetamines were not synthesized until 1887. Much like hardcore speedfreaks themselves, the U.S. governmental attitude toward the drug have been completely schizoid. A substance that makes a person aggressive, fully alert, and uninterested in sleep sounds like a dream come true for the military. And as Farren details, troops have been given (covertly or otherwise) the drug since World War One. He even offers anecdotal evidence of the practice going on in Afghanistan today.

It is well known that Hitler was a speedfreak. But we never hear about JFK, who reportedly was addicted as well. As Farren shows, the whole post-War, New Frontier era was all about speed. Over the counter, pharmaceutical-grade amphetamines such as Benzedrine are what really what made the engine of the U.S. economy roar in those years.

He also does a marvelous job of laying out the ridiculous “War On Drugs” policies of the government. In 2010, you cannot come up with a more demonized drug than methamphetamine. But the same tired, patently false, and outrageously exaggerated tales have just been recycled. This whole fake Puritanical attitude is just bizarre when you think about it - and Farren’s book does make you think.

Look back to Prohibition. Well that sure worked, huh? Then it was pot, and Reefer Madness (1938). Post-War bohemians who listened to jazz were (by definition) hooked on heroin. The current War On Drugs really began in response to LSD, yet the rhetoric remains Reefer Madness. In the seventies it became angel dust. In the eighties we had crack. Today it is meth.

Article Author: Greg Barbrick

Greg Barbrick is a Seattle native who was first published in 1988, in his hometown music magazine, The Rocket. Since then his work has appeared in print and online for numerous sources. He Googles himself so often that his mother told him it would make him go blind.
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