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Fantastic Drug: Difference between revisions
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== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Code Geass]]'' has Refrain, which causes the user to relive their fondest memories, making it especially popular among the downtrodden Japanese. It's also rather important to the plot in several places.
* ''[[Serial Experiments Lain]]'' has Accela, a powerful nanomachine-powered stimulant that causes [[Caffeine Bullet Time|Accela Bullet Time]], heightened senses, and delusional thoughts.
** It also seems to physically link the user into the Wired, and susceptible to its more esoteric phenomena.
* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' has the Red Eye, a stimulant which is sprayed in the eye and grants incredibly fast reaction times and dissociation from reality.
* One episode of the classic ''[[Astro Boy (anime)|Astro Boy]]'' has "Yellow Horse", an intravenous drug made from "Space Dust" that causes euphoria & compulsive dancing followed by horrible withdrawal pains. The gang that created it, the bizarre Phantom Club (a group of mostly space colonists dressed up in ridiculous ghost costumes), in typical over the top cartoon villain fashion, apparently intended to get the entire population of Earth addicted so they could take over the world.
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* In ''[[Flash]]'' and ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'', one of Vandal Savage's businesses is selling Velocity-9, a drug that gives the users superspeed. And then they burn out and die.
* D.M.N. in the ''[[Superman]]'' titles is a drug that ''turns the user into a demon''. It was created by [[Satan|Lord Satanus]].
* Adam Warren's ''[[Dirty Pair]]'' universe has several fantastic drugs, this being the future filled with transhuman technology. Wardrugs are (possibly) inplanted applicators that inject a tranquilizing cocktail into the blood after a serious injury. Kei gets her leg half blown off, and starts 'glanding' wardrugs immediately, which makes her pretty loopy. There is also a chemweapon called 'Proust-in-a-Can', which places the victim into a coma while they are locked into re-experiencing a distant memory.
* Since ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'' is basically the adventures of [[Hunter S. Thompson]] [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]], there are several "future drugs" that protagonist Spider Jerusalem ingests injects and generally crams into every orifice. As noted in the Quotes section, among these is Mechanics, a nanotech drug that slowly turns your body into a cyborg system that turns addiction into a protocol.
** When Spider moves into an apartment, he finds his ''appliances'' are drug addicts. Someone went to the trouble of developing a drug that an AI can have plugged into its mainframe. (Those [[Cool Shades]]? The Maker was high at the time.)
* [[The Invisibles]] has the "Key" series of drugs (Key 17, Key 23) that cause people to hallucinate and mistake words for the thing they describe. Having been told he was infected with a flesh-eating virus, someone is tortured by being shown a hand mirror with a post-it saying "diseased face"; a villain drops to her knees, sobbing with regret and begging forgiveness in front of a "world's greatest dad" mug; and one of the [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] explodes when a flag-gun saying "Bang!" unfurls in front of him.
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* The "So Beautiful, So Dangerous" segment of ''[[Heavy Metal (animation)|Heavy Metal]]'' shows two alien starship pilots getting wasted on a white powder they identify as "plutonium nyborg" and then flying home utterly stoned. "NOSEDIVE!"
* Played with in ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]'' when a police detective accuses Sam of partaking in "mojo", which he assumes is a designer drug. "Mojo" is the name of the family's chihuahua, and the drugs are said dog's painkillers.
* [[Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man]] has Crystal Dream "...what it is, you don't shoot it, you don't smoke it, you don't snort it. Apparently, you put it in your eyes, and it tells you lies."
== Literature ==
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] introduced red sand, implied to be cocaine that's been exposed to [[Minovsky Physics|element zero]] radiation. Gets the user high, and also lets them temporarily use a weakened form of biotic powers.
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' also features pretty heavy drug use
** Milk of the poppy is basically opium, which is usually used to deal with pain, but can also get addictive. Gregor Clegane takes it to deal with his chronic headaches, and seems to guzzle it like water.
** Sourleaf is a mild drug apparently similar to tobacco that, when chewed, stains the user's teeth bloody red.
** Shade of the Evening is a psychotropic drug used by warlocks. It turns the user's lips blue.
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*** I'm shocked that no one has mentioned the drug in ''Finder'' that supposedly turns it users into elves... needless to say, it doesn't work.
* [[Zilpha Keatley Snyder]]'s Green-sky books (known to gamers as [[Below the Root]]) had Wissenberries. Also known as Sacred Berries, or just Berries. A narcotic with both medicinal and recreational uses, the Kindar also used it as a means of social self-control, even giving it to kids to quiet them down in class (Snyder was a school teacher, and the use of pharmaceuticals to make kids quiet and obedient is [[Older Than You Think]]). Addicts were called "Berry-dreamers". Snyder never said that Berries caused the dreaded "wasting" disease, but she did say that people with the wasting tended to eat a lot of Berries, even when they won't eat anything else. If you were really hardcore you could try pavo-berries, which come from a "parasitic shrub" and will kill you sooner rather than later.
* In the ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' Ravenor series by Dan Abnett, where a large part of the plot involves a drugs ring investigation, mentions several fictional drugs such as lho (which is the 40k tobacco), obscura, lodestones and flects.
* Continuing the previous example, several of these substances such as obscura and lho are also mentioned elsewhere in the ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' canon, such as the ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' series. Though they are fantastic drugs, their uses approximate that of opium and something between canibus and tabacco, respectively.
* ''[[The Name of the Wind]]'' by Patrick Rothfuss has Denner Resin, which acts like opium. Addicts can be spotted because of their very white smiles (and the fact that they will do ''anything'' to get their next fix). This becomes a significant plot point when {{spoiler|a local dragon finds a Denner Tree orchard, eats the trees, and becomes addicted. And then it runs out of trees...}}
* In [[Eddie and The Gang With No Name|The Seagulls Have Landed]] by Colin Bateman, one of these, called "Crush" becomes a critical plot point. A whole gang war is going on over the stuff.
* The Taduki herb is a hallucinogen in [[H. Rider Haggard]]'s later ''Allan Quartermain'' novels, which the title character uses to go on vision quests.
* Onadyn in ''[[Red Handed]]'' by Gena Showalter. The drug was made for aliens who couldn't handle oxygen, but humans started using it to get high.
* The [[Nightside]] series is prone to blend this trope with a [[Shout-Out]], featuring references to people who smoke [[War of the Worlds|Martian red weed]] or mainline [[The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde|some Hyde]] for kicks.
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*** It's not just an addictive drug, it's their only means of nourishment past puberty.
* In ''[[True Blood]]'' (and the original books ''[[The Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries]]'') [[Our Vampires Are Different|vampires' blood]], a.k.a. V-blood, V-juice, or V, is apparently more fun than every other recreational drug ever. It also increases the libido, the senses, and gives limited [[Super Strength]]. It even has medicinal value for those who are wounded. Too bad vampires as a whole don't take kindly to the commoditization of their life essence.
** It also creates adverse withdrawal symptoms if one gets addicted. In ''[[True Blood]]'', Jason's went static, and he became more aggressive and desperate. It also gave him a boner from hell when he overdosed on it, and had to have the blood painfully removed from his penis.
** Don't forget that taking the stuff will create a mystical bond between the user and the vampire it came from, allowing them to feel each others emotions, making the user sexually attracted to the vampire in question, and at least to an extent allowing the vampire to keep track of the user, though the extent of how well this works is unclear.
* ''[[Angel]]'' has Orpheus, a drug which vampires take by drinking the blood of a human who's injected it.
* Several episodes of ''[[RoboCop]] The Series''.
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*** To [[Anvilicious|hammer the point home]], the soundtrack piece which accompanies both this scene and parts of the magic shoe shenanigans is entitled "Addicted to Magic".
* ''[[Farscape]]'' has "Distillate of Laka" which helps take the edge off of John's Aeryn issues...when he doubles the dose.
* The [[Dinosaurs]] had a drug special which Robbie, Earl, and Charlene became addicted to a plant that they never really named.
** Robbie also develops an addiction to "thornoids" when trying to develop his muscle mass, a small [[Jerkass|annoying and insulting]] rodent covered in spikes that acts just like steroids when eaten.
* The survivors of the show [[Whoops]] found a mutated berry bush that make you high by smashing it on your forehead.
* Vampires' blood-drinking in Being Human is an addiction, not a biological necessity, and comes complete with painful withdrawal symptoms and a 12-step program (well, for a while anyway.)
* ''[[Tracker]]'' had an Enixian who was making a drug that his species used as eyedrops into their highly sensitive eyes. It was destructive and often fatal to humans, which meant Cole and Mel had to put the producer out of business.
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* ''[[Over the Edge]]'' has several imaginary designer drugs such as Slo Mo, which gives the impression that time has slowed down.
* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' features 'combat drugs' as options on several units, sometimes taken voluntarily. In-universe, these are basically a mix of stimulants, painkillers, and more exotic chemicals intended to keep a soldier going for as long as possible before dying. Usually in a berserk rage. The [[Ciaphas Cain]] '''[[Memetic Mutation|Hero of the Imperium!!!]]''' novels mention the names of several drugs: 'slaught, psychon, blissout, and others.
** Some background materials imply that the Emperor's Children, a legion of the settings worst abusers of combat drugs, manufacture those drugs from the basic components from [[Human Resources|broken down human bodies]].
** Combat drugs aside, there are several recreational drugs that exist in the background as well. The most ubiquitous being the narcotic lho-sticks, which are smoked like a cigarette and apparently an opiate. Others include obscura, gladstones, and grinweed. Another example that plays the trope much straighter is flects, which are warp-saturated bits of broken glass, "used" simply by looking into them; keep in mind that since they are tainted by the [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|warp]], flects are a much more insidious example than most others on this page...
* Both ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade|Vampire: The Masqueradee]]'' and [[Vampire: The Requiem]] go for vampire blood as a drug. Humans who take it can look forward to halted aging and a measure of supernatural power, but risk getting addicted and being "blood bound," entering a state where no matter how much they hate the vampire, they can't raise a hand to harm them.
** In various sourcebooks for ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'', there are examples of magically created drugs, from the enchanted tabs of LSD, to various [[Mad Scientist|Progenitor]] created drugs that are intended to have effects ranging from making the user aware of all things within a set area, more likely to believe certain realities, or become completely incapable of feeling emotions. Of course, this being Mage, players are able to make any kind of magical fantasy drug they want. Crack that turns you into fire? Go for it! Mushrooms that makes any hallucinations real? Of course! Drugs that [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|make you aware of how every action you take has been taken before]] and it's all been [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|codified by magical beings who observe you invisibly?]] Sure.
** Additionally, the blood of other supernatural creatures has various effects on vampires in ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'': werewolf blood is analogous to PCP, for instance, while mage and fairy blood act as powerful hallucinogens.
** The ''Mythologies'' sourcebook for ''Requiem'' actually introduces a drug specifically for vampires -- Solace. It's injected via the tongue, made partly from the blood of teenaged "cutters", and allows the vampire to temporarily feel like they're alive again.
** A suggested plothook in ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'' is the discovery of a goblin fruit known as "bloodroot", which has vampire-only narcotic properties, and the potential havoc that can ensue as unscrupulous changelings begin messing with vampire society and vampires, in turn, discover there is a drug they can actually ''feel'' and come hunting for it in turn.
** One running plot for the ''[[Orpheus]]'' line involved "pigment," a special type of heroin created by exposure to ghostly matter. Those who overdosed on it became their own special type of ghost - a "Hue," which could use [[The Dark Side|Spite]] with reduced penalty.
* ''The Book of Vile Darkness'' for ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' lists several fantastic drugs along with game rules for them (presumably because it's a book about everything that [[Drugs Are Bad|is bad]]). One of the nastier examples is distilled pain, which, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|well]]. There are naturally rules for addiction, but fortunately you can always remove that if you have access to the right spell.
** Also, in the Known World/Mystara setting for D&D, there's an Alphatian drug called zzonga.
* ''[[Exalted]]'' not only has fantastic drugs, it has fantastic ways to produce mundane drugs. Namely, the Beasts of Resplendent Liquid, immortal dinosaur-like beasts engineered in the First Age by a Twilight Caste bioengineer. They feed on pharmaceutically helpful plants and [[Solid Gold Poop|ferment]] the plants into an associated medicine. The Guild, however, got their hands on the Beasts, and now mainly put them to work on poppy fields so they can corner the heroin market.
* The future world of ''[[Shadowrun]]'' has come up with a ''lot'' of these. Perhaps the most interesting is "deep weed", an Awakened form of seaweed that causes you to astrally perceive when eaten... whether you want to or not. Then there's BTL (short for [[Red Dwarf|"Better Than Life"]]) chips/programs, which come in varieties ranging from "pornography" to "emotional overload" to "deliberate synthesia".
* ''[[Unknown Armies]]'' features the magical school of Narco-Alchemy, which allows an adept to apply the principles of alchemy to the drug trade. There's a ''lot'' of fantastic drugs involved.
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* The plot of ''[[Max Payne (series)|Max Payne]]'' revolves around Valkyr, colloquially known as "V", a PCP-like drug {{spoiler|originally developed as a [[Super Serum]] for the military, but abandoned when it turned out to be addictive [[Psycho Serum]], spurring the manufacturer to recoup their losses by selling the stuff to the mob, who then turned it loose on the streets.}} V also appears to have hallucinogenic properties, sending the titular hero on a ''really'' bad trip when he gets forcibly dosed up with it at one point.
** On a related note, those painkillers he's popping regularly for most of the game must be something pretty spectacular.
* ''[[Deus Ex]]'' has Zyme, the drug of choice for teenage rebels and junkies in 2052, in game it just gives you the effect of at least a dozen bottles of alcohol (wobbly and blurry vision) the Shifter game mod allows you to use it for temporary bullet time (normal effects still come after it).
** [[The Nameless Mod]] has Melk (TM), it has religious uses with the Goat cult, who have fountains of the stuff {{spoiler|that allow their high priest to resurrect herself everytime she is killed, until they are shut off}}
*** There is also crystal melk, which functions just like Zyme in the original game.
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* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' series has Moon Sugar and its derivative Skooma, not to mention loads of fictional alcoholic drinks. Puts a whole new twist on the Alchemy skill.
** There are mods that allow you to produce Skooma out of raw Moon Sugar, which can then be sold for a decent profit to certain less than scrupulous traders.
** It should be noted that most honest merchants won't even barter anything with you if you have Skooma on you. You have to drop it first.
* Black Lotus is mentioned in passing several times in ''[[Baldur's Gate]] II'' - a backroom in the Cornet Inn suggest that it's an Opium Analog, and for a very mercantile city, Amn forbid the selling of it.
* In ''[[Saints Row|Saints Row 2]]'', the Sons of Samedi manufacture Loa Dust, which is popular amongst the potheads at college. Part of the Saints' campaign against the Sons is in figuring out how to make it themselves, then stealing the competition's market.
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* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' has red sand, a derivative of [[Minovsky Physics|element zero]]. It gives the user temporary [[Mind Over Matter|biotic powers]], or enhances them if the user is a biotic.
** Hallex, seen in Samara's loyalty mission, causes euphoria and heightened senses. It's probably one of many drugs that originate on alien worlds.
* The city of Billion in ''[[Gungrave]]'' is overrun with crime and a mysterious drug known only as "seed". It's highly addictive and gives the user increased resilience and strength, along with lowered inhibitions and euphoria. However, it eventually drives the user insane and leads to death. Turns out that seed is really {{spoiler|derived from a malevolent race of alien parasites whose [[
* Dream Leaf in ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn]]'' is an iridescent tree leaf from a semi-sentient (?) tree that acts as a sedative and gives the user good dreams. Its typical use is by old people and insomniacs. In war-torn Border Town, it is taken recreationally by those who want to dream of the good old days {{spoiler|or by our heroes, [[Guide Dang It|to access the Haures summon in the blocked-off part of town]]}}.
** When the Dream Tree is under attack by the ghostly monster Sludge, its leaves instead induce nightmares.
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{{quote|'''Marco:''' I have the strength of a bear that has the strength of '''two''' bears!}}
* An episode of ABC's version of ''[[Doug]]'' had a tobacco analogue called Nic-Nacs, which could cause people's mouths to freeze up.
* In an episode of ''[[Harvey Birdman]]'', Birdman became addicted to a tanning cream that gives him massive boosts of energy because he's solar powered. It showed him selling all of his stuff to get more and end up getting a sort of intervention.
* Bender from ''[[Futurama]]'' loves to smoke and drink, but that's okay since he's a robot. Robots can, however become addicted to electricity, as Bender did in "Hell is Other Robots". {{spoiler|It eventually caused him to be drug to Robot Hell...}}
* [[Metalocalypse]] had "Totally Awesome Sweet Alabama Liquid Snake", a drug that would get you "so high your brain will blow chunks into the Milky Way." [[Immune to Drugs|It has no effect on Pickles.]]
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