What drugs were they giving the girls in Queen's Gambit?: Decoding Fictional 'Xanzolam'
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4 min read
In the acclaimed Netflix series *The Queen's Gambit*, fictional chess prodigy Beth Harmon and the other girls in the Methuen Home orphanage are given mysterious green and white pills. These tranquilizers, which they call 'vitamins' but are later named 'xanzolam,' serve as a pivotal plot device and represent a real-world class of addictive sedative medications commonly used in the mid-20th century.
