The German writer Norman Ohler['s] book ... The Total Rush" - or, to use its superior English title, "Blitzed" - reveals the astonishing and hitherto largely untold story of the Third Reich's relationship with drugs, including cocaine, heroin, morphine and, above all, methamphetamines (aka crystal meth). The story Ohler tells begins in the days of the Weimar Republic, when ... Hitler's inner circle established an image of him as an unassailable figure who was willing to work tirelessly on behalf of his country, and who would permit no toxins - not even coffee - to enter his body. When the Nazis seized power in 1933, "seductive poisons" were immediately outlawed. Some drugs, however, had their uses. A substance that could "integrate shirkers, malingerers, defeatists and whiners" into the labour market might even be sanctioned. Ohler describes [the methyl-amphetamine Pervitin] as National Socialism in pill form. In 1940, as plans were made to invade France through the Ardennes mountains, a "stimulant decree" was sent out to army doctors, recommending that soldiers take [Pervitin]. The invasion of France was made possible by the drugs. In Berlin, Hitler was [prescribed injections of] a designer opiate. He would combine it with twice daily doses of the high grade cocaine. The effect of the drugs could appear to onlookers to be little short of miraculous. One minute the Fhrer was so frail he could barely stand up. The next, he would be ranting unstoppably at Mussolini.