When we think of users of crystal meth, we usually picture people roughing it on the streets, not an elderly royal trying to guide a country through a war.
But believe it or not, that’s exactly what happened in the Netherlands.
Queen Wilhelmina, the great grandmother of the current king of the Netherlands, used the drug Pervetine during the war years.
You may know the drug by its more modern name: crystal meth.
Why was the queen of the Netherlands on crystal meth?
Before you picture a very different royal kitchen, let’s clarify that the use of Pervetine was fairly normalised at the time.
According to Historiek, the drug was used quite widely to manage pain and helped soldiers to combat fatigue.
Now, if you were the ageing queen of a country at war who was offered pain relief and something to keep you awake, you’d probably take it.
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Although it sounds a bit less wholesome and a bit more meth-y when you learn that, according to Metro Nieuws, Wilhelmina claimed to use the drug to “take the edge off the day.”
That being said, the “official” reason for why Wilhelmina was using meth remains a secret.
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In order to learn more about this, the people would need access to the royal archives past the year 1934 — but for now, the king has them under lock and key.
So, did no one notice that their queen was on meth?
As you can imagine, people actually did notice that something was up with their queen.
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Although it wasn’t the general public, it was the ministers.
Marcel Verburg tells Historiek that for the people at the time, the queen was great. For the government, however, she was a disaster.
In his book Geschiedenis van het Ministerie van Justitie 1940-1945, Verburg describes how the queen insulted ministers during meetings, made strange decisions, and postponed important decisions.
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This behaviour apparently led the ministers to question “whether her majesty was normal,” Verburg writes.
How am I just learning about this now?
You’d think this would be the scandal of the century, but the Dutch have known about Wilhelmina’s drug use for a while now.
In fact, many historians have casually mentioned it, and it was not uncommon for many world leaders to use hard drugs at the time.
However, one TV show, Het Verhaal van Nederland — Oranje Nassau (The Story of the Netherlands — Oranje Nassau) has recently brought this chapter in history to life.
In a hilarious twist, the show not only recently dramatised the former queen’s drug use but also paired the scenes with a snippet of music from the famous TV show Breaking Bad, Metro Nieuws reports.
Did you know about Queen Wilhelmina’s drug use? Tell us your thoughts on this in the comments below!
Feature Image: Nationaal Archief/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
