Quaalude-300 was a brand name for methaqualone, a drug first patented in the US in 1962. It was prescribed as a sedative, a muscle relaxant and as treatment for insomnia. Come 1965, it was the UK’s most frequently prescribed sedative, and by the early 1970s, it ranked sixth on the list of best-selling sedatives in the US.
The advertisement above claims that Quaalude-300 is a non-barbiturate, and while this is true, the drug does have barbiturate-like effects. Methaqualone depresses the central nervous system, reduces heart and respiration rates, and numbs the fingers and toes. Frequent users of Quaalude-300 could have developed a tolerance to the drug, and methaqualone overdoses can also result in death. In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, people increasingly used the drug recreationally, and it has been off the market in the US since 1982.