The Truth Behind The Disco Biscuit

The 1970s were notorious for all sorts of reasons — bad fashion, bad hair, and some really bad drugs. One particularly notorious intoxicant popular in the '70s was actually legal right up until the '80s. Per the BBC, methaqualone was first synthesized in India in the 1950s and was meant to treat insomnia and anxiety. It became well known under one of its brand names, Quaalude. According to The Paris Review, the pharmaceutical company William H. Rorer Inc. started manufacturing Quaaludes in 1965. The name was a combination of a tribute to another one of their popular products, Maalox, and the phrase "quiet interlude." Despite the pills' intended use as a sleep aid, however, Quaaludes became colloquially known as "disco biscuits" because of their popularity in discos after users discovered that the pills caused feelings of euphoria and reduced inhibitions that made activities like dancing and sex even more fun than usual. 

The Paris Review reported that during the disco era, "Manhattan was littered with 'juice bars,' nightclubs where no alcohol was sold but quaaludes could be had for a song." It was also relatively easy to get access via "quack doctors who would, for the paltry sum of fifty bucks, write anyone who walked in off the street a prescription." Of course, today Quaaludes have a particularly nasty reputation because of their use in perpetrated sexual assault. Transcripts from Bill Cosby's 2015 depositions revealed him "admitting ... to obtaining Quaaludes to give them to young women he wanted to have sex with," as reported by Quartz.