White sugar impregnated with menthol, to be insufflated nasally, whether in clumps or lines, in other words, decaf cocaine.
Little known pleasure of Octoberfest, in Bavaria, and in other places in Europe, in other feasts.
You'd think this would be a "Junior High": a momentary thrill, completely legal, that high school kids might indulge in, bereft of the usual outlets of caffeine and alcohol.
Instead, this is an indulgence of older folks, and has an interesting history.
In the early 1920's, as many have noted, Germany had a crippling hyperinflation. This had some interesting effects in consumer spending: while the price of beer and wine increased several thousand fold, pharmaceuticals were fairly stable. Therefore, cocaine and the opiate drugs were much in demand, as in this cabaret song:
Once, not so very long ago sweet alcohol, that beast
Brought warmth and sweetness to our lives
But then the price increased
And so cocaine and morphine Berliners now select
Let lightning flashes rage outside, we snort and we inject
At dinner in the restaurant the waiter brings
the tin of coke for us to feast upon
Forget whiskey and gin
Let drowsy morphine takes its subcutaneous
effect
upon our nervous system
We snort and we inject.
These medications aren’t allowed
Of course, they’re quite forbidden
But even such illicit treats are very seldom hidden
Euphoria awaits us and though as we suspect
Our foes can’t wait to shoot us down
We snort and we inject
And if we snort ourselves to death
Or into the asylum
Our days are going downhill fast
How better to beguile them?
Europe’s a mad house, anyway
No need for genuflecting
The only way to paradise is snorting and…”
As for the young folks, I've been told they prefer Molly...