Ketamine, Amphetamine, and Testosterone

In recent historical periods of turmoil our society, especially its leaders, have been more than a bit addled, it seems. Hardly anyone seems to be sober, if one defines that as our natural state. Though is anything we do really unnatural? That’s a question for the philosophers. A public conversation is now happening about tech leaders and their addictive use of ketamine, and I can assure that its usage is even more widespread than the recent news articles suggest.²¹ Amphetamine-derived stimulant drugs indicated for ADHD have been a go-to, almost mandated productivity booster for the highest-performers and I have only seen that trend on the increase. I actually have ADHD and was recently prescribed the mildest of these drugs for the first time. I’m not sure they’re for me, but the way they changed my brain’s ticks and tocks help to explain some of the chaotic leadership across the world today. Drug use is just one of the ways it seems like we’re in the 1930s all over again.

Norman Ohler, in Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich, details the excessive and increasing usage of a variety of what we would consider hard drugs amongst Nazis, first leadership including Hitler and eventually even troops on the ground. Ohler argues the Blitzkrieg would not have happened were it not fueled by methamphetamine, which, newly introduced to soldiers with no tolerance, allowed them to stay awake and alert for several days in a row, completely steamrolling France. This miracle drug seemed to make the Nazis invincible, but really they were just on borrowed time. Soon they would learn the frights of addiction the hardest possible way, and their miracle would prove a curse. We shouldn’t think of this as solely a Nazi, codeword for evil, affliction.

Churchill was known to be addled on scotch and cigars from dawn til dusk, and I’m sure the British would have been just as inclined to indulge and disgorge if they too had their own Merck for unlimited pharmaceutical-grade synthetic salvation. But the wartime narcotic regime in Germany was certainly unmatched. Hitler himself, under the obsequious influence of Dr. Theodor Morell, became a regular user and addict of not only methamphetamine, but also, shockingly, oxycodone, morphine, barbiturates, cocaine, glucose injections, and testosterone shots.²² That last one in the list ties us back to today.

The newly bulging muscles of tech oligarchs are no coincidence and not quite natural. A recent trend has been to encourage the artificial boosting of testosterone levels to well beyond what is natural.²³ Maximus, one of the companies leading the charge as a telemedicine provider of testosterone boosters, presents them as a sort of panacea affording “higher libido, increased muscle mass, and more energy” to “feel younger” and “live stronger.”²⁴ It can even alleviate depression and anxiety. What they leave out is the obvious. I can say firsthand, higher testosterone makes one want to conquer and dominate. That might be useful at times. It might also tear humanity apart. And it’s not just men who are jacking up their testosterone. I’ve noticed that a trend amongst non-male identifying biohackers, including women and nonbinary transfolk, is taking tongkat ali as a natural testosterone booster under the rationale that it’s what is needed for success in this world. That very well may be, but perhaps we should take a step back and consider if our artificially boosted feelings reflect our innermost desires and innate compassion, or bring out the devils within us. I think I’ve tried it all and I feel the most me on nothing.