American comedian Bill Cosby, now more famous for his cases of sexual assault, used to sedate his victims using a drug called quaalude. Quaalude is a brand name for Methaqualone, a hypnotic sedative first synthesised in India in 1951 by Indra Kishore Kacker and Syed Husain Zaheer, who were conducting research on finding new antimalarial medications. It became popular as a recreational drug in the late 60s and 70s, known variously as "ludes", "sopers" ("soaps") "mandrakes", "mandies", "disco biscuits", etc. It is now banned.
rediscovering India one trivium at a time …