In the 1980s, as teenagers heading out to the nightclubs, we'd often stop at the late-night pharmacy so that a skinny girl could dash in to pick up a pack of THINZ, an inexpensive and popular brand of "appetite suppressant". We'd gently push a few gel caps out of the blister pack, then pop the caps and spill the beans, thousands of tiny balls, into our palms. A big fat lick, quick swig of soda pop, but you always tasted the bitterness. It was a cheap, reliable, and efficient way to blast our nervous systems into overdrive.
Ah, the wild days of youth. Returning to South Africa recently, I was surprised to discover that products containing 50 mg d-norpseudoephedrine HCL are still cheap and readily available OTC at all pharmacies. In fact, the first pharmacy I passed had a huge store-window promotion for Thinz, with towers of product boxes amongst sexy images of half naked women, "Redefine your shape" THINZ.
South Africans have horrendous spelling, but they also have a sense of humour - there is a brand of shortbread biscuit called EET SUM MOR and a brand of appetite suppressant called EETLESS.
Interestingly, Adcock Ingram, the maker of eetless, also make a product called REGMAKERS - "The wide awake maker". (To explain, the Afrikaans word "reg" means "right" or "all right" in English). You can pick up a pack of 10 tablets at the supermarket, each white tablet contains 150 mg caffeine.