The Prime Minister who lived on Benzedrine

Even though I may be schooled on the subject of drugs in culture, every once in a while I stumble across a piece of information that is totally new. Take this little blurb about Anthony Eden, the Prime Minister of England who succeeded Winston Churchill after WWII, and was apparently a huge amphetamine addict. From the "Altered Statesmen" report at Discovery Channel Asia:

When, in 1955, he at last became Prime Minister, Eden still suffered from being in the shadow of the great war leader, Churchill. To combat this insecurity and boost his confidence, Eden began to dose himself with more Benzedrine. But what Eden didn’t know was that, over time, amphetamine users acquire tolerance and tend to up their doses, thereby exposing them to irritability, mood swings, perceptual changes and paranoia. By summer 1956, Eden was a man with serious health problems who was regularly taking a mind-altering drug.

In July 1956, Eden faced a major international problem. Egypt’s Colonel Nasser announced the nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company that had been run by Britain and France since its construction in 1869. The Suez Canal was the main route that brought Middle Eastern oil to Europe, so Britain saw the protection of its interests as vital. Eden wanted to reverse the nationalisation, but he also displayed a paranoid personal animosity to Colonel Nasser that showed all the hallmarks of man in the grip of amphetamines.

On 16th October 1956, Eden agreed to collude with France and Israel in an underhand operation. The Israelis were going to invade Egypt, so that Britain and France could intervene as peacekeepers and re-occupy the Canal Zone. Eden in former times would never have considered this subterfuge, but by now he was, in his own words, “practically living on Benzedrine”.

The rest of the "Altered Statesmen" feature also has bits on JFK, Churchill, Reagan, and Yeltsin. It is a decent little web article, but I actually discovered this page on the Drug History Timeline at LifeLine.org.uk. They have an interactive Flash app for charting significant dates in UK drug history. Check it out if you have some time to kill.