Fantastic Drug: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[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.

* A wide variety of new drugs are available in the setting of ''[[Gunnm]]'' (AKA, ''Battle Angel Alita''), as is typical of futuristic dystopias.

* Similarly, ''[[Togainu no Chi]]'' has Line, which increases strength and reduces sanity.

 

== Comic Books ==

* 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]].

* 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.)

** Rapture was a legal designer drug developed by (and exclusive to) the Alchemax corporation that would be distributed to employees in order to keep them loyal to the company. A "very high-powered, mind-expanding hallucinogen," it causes the user to feel perfectly calm and collected ... unless he tries to fight the drug's effects, in which case it causes him to hallucinate wildly, "seeing monsters everywhere." It also bonds with the user's DNA in short order, becoming so addictive "you need it the way you need air to breathe." Geneticist Miguel O'Hara, who would become the Spider-Man of 2099, was slipped the drug by his boss when Miguel tried to quit the company. He tried to rid his system of Rapture by rewriting his own genetic code using a stored file of his genome which he'd been using for experiments. Things didn't go as planned, and Miguel ended up with spidery traits in his DNA as a result.

** A similar drug, Rhapsody, was mentioned in an issue of X-Men 2099, in which it was revealed that the Synthia corporation secretly laced its food products with the drug, so that consumers would become addicted to eating Synthia food, at the expense of their health.

** Chameleon 2099 turned out to be a drug rather than a person, which not only manipulated a user's DNA, it allowed him to shapeshift (either partially or completely) into whatever animal happened to suit the user's mindset at the time of taking the drug. Users have been seen assuming the characteristics of animals like bulls, mice, felines, and dogs. It was an Alchemax-designed drug, but "unstable even by their standards" to the point that users often die painfully from the toll it takes on their systems.

** Chain is one of the most illegal of drugs in that era. In 2099 A.D. Genesis, it was revealed that the legislation on Chain had been upgraded from a "thirty-year stretch" (being physically aged by three decades) for possession to a "death penalty" for even having it on one's person. In his only appearance in the 2099 comics, the Daredevil of that era planted a dime bag of Chain on a drug dealer just to make sure the dealer never pushes drugs again. At the time, the dealer had been peddling a drug laced with "a rider chemical" that "causes communicable sterility". In short, Daredevil signed a drug dealer's death warrant for trying to "kill all birth in Downtown."

* ''[[Top Ten]]'' has drugs that induce super speed and give hallucinations that other people can see.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[RoboCop]] 2'' has "Nuke," which is "injected" via disposable eyedrop vials.

* ''[[Star Wars]]: Attack of the Clones'' had death sticks, something which the writers of the Holonet News promo [https://web.archive.org/web/20120520150221/http://www.holonetnews.com/49/life/13328_1.html had some fun with]. The [[Expanded Universe]] featured harder drugs such as ryll and glitterstim (which was, incidentally, the "spice" that Han used to smuggle for Jabba the Hutt).

* In ''[[9]]'', [[Big Guy]] 8 is at one point seen holding a magnet over his head, making his eyes go all fuzzy in a [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]] way; presumably it messes up the electronics in his head.

* 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.

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[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.

* Soma in ''[[Brave New World (novel)|Brave New World]]'' is the ideal recreational drug. There is a [[Real Life]] drug of the same name, but it's clearly not the same substance.

* ''[[A Scanner Darkly]]'' had Substance-D, sometimes abbreviated as "D" or "Slow Death." It was a powerful hallucinogen with some schizophrenic side-effects.

* The ''[[In Death]]'' series has a lot, with names like Zoner (a marijuana [[Fictional Counterpart]]), and Zeus (a PCP analogue).

* The ''[[Red Dwarf (novel)|Red Dwarf]]'' novels had "Bliss", a brown powder that literally made you believe you were God, could supposedly get you hooked just by looking at it & would cause the user to become suicidally depressed for decades after coming down, which is probably what made it so addictive. Also, Better than Life, which was a sort of [[Lotus Eater Machine]] in the books rather than the more innocuous artificial reality video game of the TV series.

* The "ThreeEye" in the first ''[[Dresden Files]]'' book, which was supposed to give its users second sight. Harry was skeptical {{spoiler|until a junkie noticed a rather nasty psychic scar of his. Turns out it actually ''did'' work; it was a potion an [[Evil Sorcerer]] was mass-producing after he realized it was addictive.}}

** [[Kiss of the Vampire|Red Court vampire saliva]] contains an addictive narcotic, which helps them keep control of their victims.

* Getting more specific in the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'', mind-altering drugs are typically called [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Spice spice] and many of them are actually mined. Confusingly, perfectly normal food additives are also called spice, and a lot of spices also have medical uses - much like with the word "drugs" in modern English.

** Pure [//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 - in the [[X Wing Series]], a habitual glitbiter forgets that he's talking to Wedge Antilles via hologram and thinks he's under attack.

* 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.

* The ''[[Sprawl Trilogy]]'' from [[William Gibson]] has several. There are a wide variety of "derms" that can be stuck to the skin and several kinds of crystals that are ingested or inhaled.

*** 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.

* 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.

* Fisstech in ''[[The Witcher]]'' series is, for all practical intents, cocaine.

* In ''[[The Hunger Games]]'' we have morphling, a futuristic drug with probably heroin-like effects due to its name being derived from morphine, another opiate. Psychotic ex-Tribute Johanna has an addiction to it.

* 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 there are no gangsters, not even hippie gardeners, no names and addresses, no bugbears to fight at all, just {{spoiler|a word-of-mouth instruction any fool can follow and willingness to try}}. He also discovers that wide-area "dreamgenerators" that cause lesser high without any chemicals became an entertainment legal ''in public places'' and are extolled in local press, probably because those who could decide otherwise simply don't care: ''everyone'' in the region knows what sleg is, guesses the cause of death in circumstances suggesting its use, etc. Most have tried. It's just an "indecent" subject. The protagonist's conclusion is that ultimately, people will either find ''something'' to melt their brains anyway or steer clear of it on their own; if "[[Heart of a Dog|the ruin starts in the heads, not in the lavatories]]", it can be stopped in the heads, too.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* "Stims" were used before ''Galactica'', in ''[[Babylon 5]]'', with similar realistic effect. The abusing character, a doctor, starts out simply using them as necessary to keep up with his work, then grows addicted, almost kills a patient, gets investigated by the security chief (a recovering alcoholic who knows whereof he speaks), leaves his job, suffers withdrawal, and eventually almost dies in an attempt to "find himself." The security chief falls off the wagon once or twice, too, but only with conventional Earth alcohol...

** There's also "Dust", a substance that grants telepathy to "mundanes" (non-Telepaths).

** Season 5 has vampires feeding on drug-using humans-including Buffy's boyfriend Riley. It may or may not be the Orpheus from Angel.

* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', "The Game". A really lame video game with the power to seduce the entire crew's brains, to the point of ''unthinking loyalty'' to the game's creators, leaving the [[Creator's Pet]] and some-girl-we've-never-seen-before to save the day.

* In [[Syfy]]'s 2009 miniseries ''[[Alice]]'', Wonderland's economy runs on the sale of liquid emotions extracted from Oysters, or people from the human world.

* The Trolls of ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]'' have "dwarf moss" that makes you see fairies. However, the real example is the Troll King's invisibility shoes, which give their wearer such a great sense of power that they become more and more obsessed with wearing them all the time. Even touching them seems to be enough to begin the process; as soon as Virginia does so, she hides them in her backpack, thinks of nothing else, and acts increasingly paranoid, even clutching the shoes like Linus's security blanket. This is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by Wolf (twice!) when he claims "magic is very nice, but it's very easy to get addicted", and later tells Virginia she is "hopelessly addicted to those shoes... and I'm not too far behind!" Whether this is meant to be a parody or an object lesson is never made clear, but it certainly plays out with extreme hilarity.

** A later example would be the scene in the Deadly Swamp, where Tony and Virginia eat the magic mushrooms, drink the swamp water, and sleep ([[Genre Blind|after being explicitly told not to]]) and hallucinate a [[Dream Sequence|bizarre dream]]. The fact that [[Procol Harum]]'s "Whiter Shade of Pale" plays throughout is of course only window dressing for setting the scene...

*** 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".

* Dealing in kassa, an addictive corn-like grain, is a major source of income for the Lucian Alliance in the [[Stargate Verse]]. Some of the SGC's military actions in the last couple seasons of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' involved kassa interdiction.

** There's also the Blood of Sokar, a Goa'uld-developed hallucinogen used by Apophis to interrogate SG-1 in "The Devil You Know".

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Over the Edge]]'' has several imaginary designer drugs such as Slo Mo, which gives the impression that time has slowed down.

* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' 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...

** 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 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.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Sly Cooper]]'' has Spice, harvested from Indian flowers. In large amounts, it causes uncontrollable rage and hatred in the user, acting a little like [[G-Rated Drug|G-rated PCP]].

* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series features a wide array of drugs, from Mentats that boost your brainpower to Jet, a stimulant extracted from Brahmin manure with severe withdrawal symptoms. Also Buffout (short-term boost to physical strength and endurance) and Psycho (increased damage resistance). The player character can become addicted to any or all of them; certain traits taken at character creation can affect how effective and addictive they are.

** Well, if you pretend that hit points are a simulation of the amount of pain a person can withstand before giving into said pain, it would make sense that injecting oneself with morphine would increase pain tolerance. It would not, however, delay death, especially considering [[Ludicrous Gibs|what most deaths look like in that game]]...

* ''[[Silent Hill]]'' has the hallucinogenic White Claudia/PTV.

** 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).

*** There is also crystal melk, which functions just like Zyme in the original game.

* ''[[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.

** Narc is described as having 'the addictiveness of heroin and the hallucinogenic effects and potency of LSD'. Presumably it also gives you the ''high'' of heroin, because, otherwise, what'd be the point when you could take normal, non-addictive LSD?

*** One character in ''Policenauts'' has the ability to not even respond physically to being shot due to the anaesthetic effects of Narc, and the main ingredient is from poppies, so it's presumably more opiate than hallucinogen.

* Instead of the benign [[Mana]] potions [[Standard RPG Items|found in other games,]] ''[[Dragon Age]]'' features lyrium, an addictive mineral that can either be inhaled as a powder or made into elixirs. Side effects include delusions, paranoia, dementia, obsessive behavior, hallucinations, [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|dry mouth]]...higher doses or exposure to large amounts of naturally occurring lyrium can cause overdose-like symptoms along the lines of brain damage and death.

** The [[Artifact of Doom|pure lyrium idol]] in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' is responsible {{spoiler|for Bartrand and Meredith both going insane}}.

** When the Dream Tree is under attack by the ghostly monster Sludge, its leaves instead induce nightmares.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has Bloodthistle, an herb that can only be taken by Blood Elves. When taken, it can increase spell power for ten minutes. On the other hand, it has a twenty minute 'withdrawal', which lowers your spirit. Oh, and it's outlawed in Shattrath City.

* The Medic in ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' can apparently get high off the fumes from his Kritzkrieg [[Healing Shiv|medigun]]. It also heals him by +11 health! So, as it turns out, [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|huffing fumes to get high is sometimes good for you]].

* ''[[Escape Velocity]] Nova's'' [[All There in the Manual|official timeline]] mentions FATE, a "highly addictive narcotic" created accidentally when scientists tried to use a spaceborne chemical called TCTLIDS to create medicines. [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot|The drug does not appear in the game proper, however.]]

** A [[Game Mod|fan-made sequel]] has 324-florazine iodase (street name "stardust"), which is a regulated but legal antidepressant for humans, and an illegal drug for several alien species.

* The ''[[X (video game)|X-Universe]]'' has spaceweed (think [[Recycled in Space|space marijuana]]) and space fuel (a.k.a. Argon whiskey). Both are illegal in the Commonwealth, and both are highly prized by players for pacifying the [[Space Pirate]] population.

 

== Web Comics ==

* ''[[Homestuck]]'''s [[Our Trolls Are Different|trolls]], a race of aliens plagued by violent night terrors, sleep in coccoons filled with a powerful sedative gel called sopor slime, which has effects similar to marijuana when eaten. [[Love Freak|Gamzee]] [[Juggalo|Makara]] is a [[The Stoner|chronic user.]] {{spoiler|[[Split Personality|For]] [[Mad Artist|a]] [[Ax Crazy|good]] [[Monster Clown|reason!]]}}

* ''[[The Lydian Option]]'' has both Janta Leaf (a future "soft drug") and highly addictive blue alien fruit.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

== Western Animation ==

* 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...}}

{{quote|'''Pickles:''' I grew up smokin' government weed everyday, you know...}}

* ''[[The Smurfs]]'' episode "The Lure Of The Orb" hides a story of the effects of drug addiction behind the use of a magic orb that's supposed to give enlightened inspiration to whoever uses it.

* The ''[[My Little Pony]]'' special "Escape from Katrina" features a [[Catgirl]] witch named Katrina who was addicted to a powerful [[Psycho Serum]] called "Witchweed Potion", and tried to enslave some of the ponies into gathering the ingredients so she could make more. She eventually kicks the habit and makes a [[Heel Face Turn]].

* On ''[[Ovide and the Gang]]'' a.k.a. ''Ovide Video'', there was a certain flower that, when sniffed, would make anybody extremely happy and relaxed. As in, ''very'' mellow, laid-back, and agreeable. The villain of the show hated the flowers, as he didn't like getting along with others, but many episodes ended with him being ''forced'' to take a sniff. So in a nutshell, all the good guys on the show would sniff a flower to get high, and the villain didn't want to but was usually coerced into doing it. ''On a kid's show.''

{{quote|''A pony gets thrown out of a saloon called "The Salt Lick"''

'''Saloonkeeper:''' That's enough salt for you!

'''Salted pony:''' Can't I at least get a glass of water? }}

{{quote|'''Abe:''' Hm. I don't really feel anything... Well, I have a strong constitution, so I don't really ''I CAN TASTE THE SUN!!!''}}

 

== Real Life ==

* There have been a number of cases where jokes from comedy and Internet hoaxes have been taken seriously: cake, bananadine, and jenkem (supposedly a fadding drug among teens, created by storing raw sewage in a plastic bag for a week or so) have each raised their share of moral panic before people realized they were fake.

* On surveys about school environments, students will sometimes be asked how many times in the past thirty days they've taken Panda B; there is no such drug, and if someone says they've taken it, their survey answers can be disregarded because they're obviously lying.