During World War II, there were massive amounts of methamphetamines produced by both the Allies and Axis powers. After the war ended, there were huge stockpiles of methamphetamines left in many countries, especially in Japan and throughout northern Europe. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a huge surge in methamphetamine abuse was noted in Scandinavia and Japan following the dumping of these methamphetamine stocks onto the civilian market. It took these areas many years to get control of this drug epidemic.