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{{trope}}
If you need an addictive or psychedelic substance for a storyline, there's always one old standby: Make one up. This meshes perfectly with [[Speculative Fiction]] but would seem completely out of place in a realistic series. Alternatively, if it's a comedy, you could get away with [[I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!]] instead. Otherwise you can resort to the potentially [[narm]]y [[G-Rated Drug]]. Often can be the [[Spice of Life]]. Not be confused (usually) with [[Psycho Serum]]. For this trope [[In Space]], see [[Alien Catnip]]. [[Addictive Magic]] is closely related. And of course making up one of those instead of something known allows to pick arbitrary effects and related circumstances for the sake of plot, setting or humor.
Aside from a writer's hesitancy to show a beloved character using drugs, many viewers are surprised [[Media Watchdog]]s often cracked down on ''any'' depiction of drugs (even if they were negative) for many years. Lately it's been reduced to "heavily sactioned" at best, creation the unfortunate irony that incorrect portrayal of the effect of drugs has made audiences more liable to dismiss the true effects of drugs as propoganda.
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** [[Kiss of the Vampire|Red Court vampire saliva]] contains an addictive narcotic, which helps them keep control of their victims.
** The series also contains a [[Mundane Fantastic]]/[[Alien Catnip]] drug: faeries ''looooove'' pizza.
* Getting more specific in the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'', mind-altering drugs are typically called [
** Pure [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Glitterstim glitterstim] is made by giant underground spiders, is activated by light, and grants temporary ability to read nonhostile minds, although it also brings paranoia and apparently can make people stupider.
** [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Bota Bota] is a [[Magic Antidote]] to, well, ''everything'', and when a Jedi accidentally injects herself with a recently-prepared sample she momentarily becomes one with the Force. She tries it again later and it works a second time, and it then preoccupies her thoughts and causes her to doubt and and struggle with herself until she overcomes it, gives the samples to a droid, and sends it off to give to the Jedi Masters, who presumably will know what to do with it. Years later Vader, having read the report, takes it along with something that would make the effects more permanent. It doesn't work too well. Apparently bota goes bad.
** ''The Essential Guide to Alien Species'' mentions that Arcona can become addicted to ''salt''. Yes, sodium chloride. It's a hallucinogen.
* In [[Roger Zelazny]] and [[Robert Sheckley]]'s ''[[Azzie Elbub]]'' trilogy, demons, angels, witches, and other supernatural beings drink a substance called ichor in lieu of alcohol. Ichor is also shown to have a raft of other possible uses, most notably as a magical preservative. It is also implied that a number of the more esoteric alchemical ingredients can double as drugs, particularly "black hellebore," which is noted to both stunt your growth and give your hairy palms.
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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 ''[[Ravenor]]'', the ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''
* Continuing the previous example, several of these substances such as obscura and lho are also mentioned elsewhere in the ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' 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...}}
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* ''[[Labyrinths of Echo]]'' has a few, and established early on that people born in one world reacts abnormally on psychoactive substances of another, except alcohol and caffeine. So while locals, along with children, guzzle their Soup of Rest for a little relaxation and daydreaming, while Sir Max was instantly on high to the giggling idiocy followed by a withdrawal "as if trying to [[Going Cold Turkey]] after several years of heroin addiction" despite the help of highly skilled healers. On the other hand, Kakhar's Balsam is a psychostimulant strong enough that locals don't let each other drive under it, even though their traffic is excruciatingly slow by our standards, while Max drinks it to stay alert like strong coffee, and suffers even less side-effects. Conversely, when he accidentally acquired pot from our world and gave it to his [[Nigh Invulnerable]] friend with steel self-control to "relax a little", [[Hilarity Ensues]]; later he was berated for not having a clue after personal experience with such things.
* Lemon sap in Cherie Priest's ''[[Clockwork Century]]'' universe. It's distilled from a [[Deadly Gas]] and is highly addictive. The worst part, however, is that extended consumption turns the user into a rotting, flesh-eating [[Our Zombies Are Different|zombie]]. A ''zombie''.
* ''Predatory Things of Age'' (English translation named ''The Final Circle of Paradise'') by [[Strugatsky Brothers]] brilliantly used this to explore implication of hi-tech and [[Combinatorial Explosion]], and trying to solve human problems by attacking the symptoms. The narrator is to investigate suspicious deaths or unresponsiveness of other agents of his organization, while someone else tries a different approach. They imagine a War On Drugs, but see no obvious targets… and ironically come to suspect the only local group trying to fight the problem at all (if clumsily). It turns out that mysterious "sleg" is {{spoiler|but a combination of a quite widespread chemical, two equally common household devices and a bathtub of hot water, used in a very specific way}}; it induces wish fulfillment dreams, which obviously tend to cause mental addiction, but repeated use has significant morbidity, as eventually side effects lead to a heart attack. So
* The Reality Pill from ''[[The Butterfly Kid]]'' is a mild euphoric/hallucinogenic with the unusual (intended) side-effect of [[Reality Warper|producing ''solid, physical hallucinations that other people can see and interact with''.]] You can't overdose on it, either, but if you take too much, the effects appear to be ''permanent''.
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** 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...
** Naturally, ''[[Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay]]'' adds more performance, recreational and bizarre drugs. ''[[Rogue Trader]]'' even has as a randomly generated Resource sources of unspecified Exotic Compounds including such products.
* Both ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' 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.
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