July 4, 2008

Life in the Fast Lane

By NICOLAS RASMUSSEN

Speed has sped back into American culture

Gordon A. Alles was hoping to discover a profitable new allergy pill when, in 1929, he created and first tried amphetamine. The drug did not do much for his sniffles, but it did make the freelance chemist cheerful, talkative at dinner with friends, and inconveniently alert through the night. Uncertain about how to turn his curious invention into a marketable medicine, Alles decided to sell the rights to Smith Kline and French, a pharmaceutical

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