If you’re a product of the 80s or 90s, chances are you grew up blissfully unaware of the Quaalude.

Your first realization that this drug even existed at all might have come from watching Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. In the film, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character goes on a pretty crazy ‘lude binge, terrifyingly losing the ability to speak, walk, and yes, drive. Kinda makes you wonder why people liked this drug in the first place.

So, what’s up with Quaaludes?

According to people who were there, Quaaludes were the party drug everyone was doing in the 70s. Back then, their popularity in the club circuit led to the nickname “disco biscuits.” But Quaalude is actually the brand name for methaqualone, a sedative first synthesized in 1951 in India.

When the drug was first sold in Germany and Japan, it quickly developed a track record as an addictive substance. It reached the United States in the 1960s, where it was prescribed to treat anxiety and sleeping disorders — but doctors weren’t exactly scrupulous about handing out a prescription.

One historian says they handed them out “like candy.” Other sources refer to borderline illegal “stress clinics,” which offered people access to the drug without even seeing a doctor. Though these clinics were eventually eradicated, during their heyday they were doling out the maximum legal prescription.

They weren’t the only sedative being abused.

The Quaalude was actually part of an explosion of sedatives that hit the U.S. in the 1950s and 60s. Barbiturates, which fell out of favor in the 1960s, were gradually replaced by newer sedatives such as Valium and Quaalude.

The latter became popular with the college crowd, who took them recreationally. Users found that the drug lowered their inhibitions, and taking it was associated with free love and sexual liberty.

The powerful high kicked in after a half an hour and lasted up to six hours. When mixed with alcohol, though, Quaaludes are extremely dangerous. Still, an estimated 75 percent of Quaalude-related deaths were the result of traumatic accidents as opposed to overdoses — for example, drivers who lost consciousness at the wheel.

As the drug drew more and more negative attention, the pharmaceutical companies still manufacturing it came under fire. By 1985, Quaaludes were pulled from the U.S. market, with regulators citing their potential for addiction and widespread recreational use.

Are Quaaludes still around?

In the U.S., methaqualone is no longer manufactured — at least, not legally — and anecdotal reports suggest that ‘lude use is more or less nonexistent. Recreational drug users say Quaaludes aren’t really available on the streets, and anyone claiming to sell them is probably selling a combination of other sedatives purported to have similar effects.

Any legitimate Quaaludes brought into in the U.S. are likely brought into the country from abroad. In both 2014 and 2015, there were a handful of border seizures of methaqualone — but in all cases, the amount was small enough that agents assumed they were for personal use.

The ‘lude is still sold in South Africa, where it’s among the most widely abused narcotics.

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