A character’s choice of drugs reflects their behavior and motivations, serving as a reflection of their character. Sometimes, the reason why a character takes a drug is sidelined or left to speculation, with the act itself used mainly to emphasize the tragedy, carelessness, or villainy of the character who partakes in them. Although drugs are often treated as having the same narrative effect, their drug of choice reflects their personality.
Crafting drugs shows how intelligent a character is, as it requires skills in chemistry to know how to make it safely and guarantee how the drugs will affect the user. It shows guile and stealthiness because, to administer it to a character, they have to estimate the weight of the user and how to mask the smell of the drug so that it will be undetected. To get past security or guards in a non-violent way, they use drugs to knock them out. For villains, it shows their sadism because they carefully plan out what drugs will do to people and how to administer them tactically and in an undetectable way.
Drug abuse shows that a character is uncaring or apathetic, as they think the drugs are harmless and won't kill anyone. When administered to someone else, it shows that they don't see their target as a human being; they have no regard for safety, consent, or well-being. Polydrug use, i.e., someone who takes multiple and different drugs at the same time, suggests a pattern of reckless overindulgence and highlights how dangerously carefree they are, living hedonistically. For athletes and sports stars, it shows they are desperate or forced to cheat to win.
A subset of this trope is the pecking order between different users. Stoners distance themselves from harder drug users. With stimulants, snorting or freebasing cocaine is seen as high-class, but casual and intense, respectively, while amphetamine is seen as low-class, but all others look down on crack users. Among opiate users, those abusing prescription medicine consider themselves distant from heroin users. In contrast, the use of codeine cough syrup (aka Lean) is seen as above the others, a luxury, and not "really" abusing opiates.
This is about the reasons why a person would partake in drugs, not the justification or condemnation of their usage. A character's reasons for taking drugs can vary from curiosity, desperation, entertainment, and survival.
Drug Categories
Hallucinogens
- Hallucinogens
- Purpose: Hallucinogens induce dream-like hallucinations and can numb pain. Under their effects, characters experience euphoria and begin to see and feel things that aren’t there. These substances don’t just alter perception of reality; they also distort the perception of time, making it feel slowed down or sped up, and can lead users to develop unusual beliefs or become paranoid. Historically, when a person took hallucinogens, it was often done for cultural, ritualistic, and religious reasons. These drugs were believed to expand consciousness and were used as a means of therapy so that users could gain a newfound perspective about themselves and their personal issues.
- Character types
- Hippies frequently used drugs such as LSD to expand their consciousness and believed these substances could lead to spiritual awakening.
- Cult leaders have used hallucinogens to manipulate and control their followers.
- Oracles, prophets, shamans, soothsayers, etc., take these drugs to induce visions.
- Regarding the practice of licking toads to get high, it reflects a sense of carelessness and lack of common sense because toads carry dangerous diseases that can be found in the wild. It also reflects eccentricity because not many would think to lick a wild animal to get high.
- When administered to someone else.
- It demonstrates the hero’s skill in alchemy, chemistry, or science, as they can create a drug that alters a person’s perception of reality.
- For antagonists, it highlights their callousness and lack of empathy towards others, showing that they have no regard for the suffering their victims endure during horrifying hallucinations.
Opioids
- Opioids
- Purpose: Opioids are used to reduce pain and come as prescribed medication or illegal drugs. Opioids can make people drowsy and induce feelings of joy and happiness. They can, however, affect a person's decision-making and concentration.
- Character types
- As a medicinal drug, it's commonly used by characters with disabilities and physical health conditions, having to rely on the drug to manage chronic pain and relax.
- Opium is often associated with 19th-century China, and is often used by Chinese character stereotypes operating opium densnote .
- Opioids would be appropriate for a story about grief and bereavement note , characters using opioids because they are struggling to move on from losing someone they care about.
- Opioids also serve as an Anti-Escapism Aesop, as characters take the drug to avoid a painful reality or to repress painful memories.
- Antagonists could be a Dark Lord on Life Support, someone who relies on opioids to relieve pain.
- When administered to someone else.
- Antagonists may also be an Anti-Villain trying to help someone else cope with chronic or debilitating pain. Alternatively, they use the drugs to exploit the vulnerable into doing their bidding.
- Because of its associations with The Opium Wars, empires may introduce opioids to foreign civilizations and cultures to exploit and destabilize them.
- Most commonly seen in stories about the opioid epidemic, a Dr. Feelgood may prescribe these recklessly demonstrating that they are either incompetent or greedy, and a pharmaceutical company employee may entice doctors to over-prescribe, marking them as a Corrupt Corporate Executive.
Performance-Enhancing Drugs
- Performance-enhancers
- Purpose: As the name would suggest, performance-enhancing drugs are used to aid athletes and bodybuilders. They help build muscle, last longer in sports, recover faster from training, and give them more energy.
- Character types
- Athletes use these drugs competitively and to keep their title as the best. Since most organized sports competitions ban these drugs, and many such drugs have dangerous side effects, their use often reflects a desire to win at any cost.
- Aspiring athletes take the drug to improve their performance before participating. This is often done in a desperate attempt to keep pace with more experienced athletes, which in turn often happens after finding out that their competitors (and/or teammates) are using the same drugs.
- When administered to someone else.
- Performance-enhancing drugs reflect selfishness and a lack of regard for others because they are more concerned about pride and glory than the health of others.
Polysubstances
- Polysubstances
- Purpose: Polysubstances are two or more drugs that are taken simultaneously. Although not an official drug category, people may combine drugs to enhance, prolong, or counteract the effects of another drug. These are often taken carelessly, either during parties to induce euphoria or in a rush to get high.
- Character types
- Partygoers and hedonists take multiple drugs to intensify or prolong feelings of pleasure and euphoria.
- Characters with severe substance dependence may use whatever drugs are available, reflecting desperation and the loss of control over their addiction.
- Taking multiple drugs recklessly can reflect impulsiveness, poor judgment, or a willingness to endanger oneself in pursuit of intoxication.
- Characters who deliberately combine drugs to achieve a specific effect may instead be portrayed as calculating or experienced, albeit while engaging in dangerous behavior.
- When administered to someone else.
- It reflects a disregard for the target's safety, as the administrator is willing to expose another person to the unpredictable risks of combining multiple drugs.
- Drug dealers or traffickers who knowingly encourage dangerous combinations may be portrayed as valuing profit over human life.
- Villains may use multiple substances to make victims more vulnerable or difficult to treat, emphasizing their cruelty and lack of empathy.
Stimulants
- Stimulants
- Purpose: Stimulants boost the user’s energy and alertness, keeping them wide awake during their highs. They also increase confidence, making users feel capable of performing at their absolute best. Stimulants were used for combat purposes, as they provided users with a boost of energy and alertness, which was especially helpful when standing guard at night or when extra strength and stamina were needed during periods of exhaustion.
- Character types
- Party animals and hedonists use cocaine to keep partying despite being exhausted and tired.
- Soldiers using cocaine to stay alert and energized.
- Over-achievers using prescription ADD medication to increase the amount of time they can spend working or studying.
- When administered to someone else.
- It reflects selfishness and lack of empathy as they are drugging someone else to keep them awake and energized, maybe even using them as a form of depraved entertainment.
Tranquilizers
- Tranquilizers: Tranquilizers (officially categorized as depressants) are known for their sedative effects, which reduce anxiety. They can produce feelings of calm and euphoria, relax the user, and often induce drowsiness.
- Purpose: Beyond recreational use, they are sometimes taken out of desperation to cope with chronic pain or severe anxiety disorders, conditions that can be so extreme that they cause insomnia and prevent restful sleep at night.
- Character types
- Characters may take cannabis to relax after a hard day’s work.
- Characters may use it as a sleep aid because chronic pain and anxiety keep them awake at night.
- Recreational users of cannabis are often stereotyped as lazy, negligent, or unproductive, depicted as spending the day resting and eating junk food.
- Characters who use tranquilizers to self-medicate are portrayed as doing so out of necessity, unable to afford legal medication to treat chronic pain or debilitating mental health conditions that affect their daily life.
- When administered to someone else.
- For heroes, it reflects either their resourcefulness or their guile, since they would have to use a tranquilizer to render someone unconscious to escape, stop their rampages, or capture them.
- For villains, it portrays the character as a predator who objectifies others and takes advantage of them for their own gratification. Because they would have had to spike someone’s drink or drug them without their knowledge. They view their targets as objects and a means to an end.
Disqualified examples
Because alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine are commonly used substances, they are generally exempt from this trope. Alcohol is often consumed recreationally or to cope with stress, so a character drinking it doesn’t automatically signal cunning, malice, or manipulation. Caffeine is a familiar stimulant used to stay awake or alert, making its use mundane rather than narratively significant. Nicotine is similarly common, often associated with relaxation or addiction, and does not inherently suggest resourcefulness or predatory behavior. Alcohol
- Hard-Drinking Tropes: Alcohol-related trope index.
- Alcohol-Induced Bisexuality: When characters become bi-curious or bisexual under the influence.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: When characters make foolish decisions under the influence.
- Barred from Every Bar: When characters are barred for their misconduct under the influence.
- Drink-Based Characterization: Alcohol's take on this trope.
- Drowning My Sorrows: When characters drink alcohol to cope with depression and sadness.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Female characters consume alcohol and become cheery and merry.
- Hillbilly Moonshiner: When US southerners are characterised as making their own alcohol.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Characters need a drink to cope with stress.
- Lady Drunk: Women drinking alcohol to reflect that a woman has become bitter and jaded.
- Wine Is Classy: Wine is a high-class drink for high society.
Caffeine
- A Whole Latte Tropes: Caffeine-related trope index.
- Asians Love Tea: Asian characters are depicted as having a fondness for tea.
- Brits Love Tea: A love of tea is a common stereotype of the British.
- Must Have Caffeine: Addiction to caffeinated drinks
- Real Men Take It Black: Coffee without milk implies a character is strong.
- Tea Is Classy: Tea is favored among high society.
Nicotine
- The Smoking Section: Nicotine-related trope index.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: A character smokes a cigarette when nervous or stressed to calm down.
- Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: A tobacco pipe is used to mark a character as older, smarter, and/or more dignified than their non-smoking peers.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: For when nicotine is a sign of a character's moral alignment.
- Smoking Is Cool: When smoking implies a character is cool or impressive.
- Smoking Is Not Cool: When smoking implies the character is a loser or failure.
- Must Have Nicotine: For when an addiction to Nicotine is on display.
No real-life examples, please.
This is a Super-Trope to:
- Cigarette of Anxiety: A character smokes a cigarette when nervous or stressed to calm down.
- Drink-Based Characterization: Alcohol's take on this trope.
- Higher Understanding Through Drugs: Using drugs to gain wisdom.
- Mother's Little Helpers: When housewives and mothers abuse prescription drugs to either break the monotony or to cope with a difficult marriage.
- Repulsive 'Roids: At least when "Steroids are for Bad Guys" — someone who uses a lot steroid is more likely to be a bully Compensating for Something.
- The Stoner: In fiction, characters who smoke weed (or consume products derived from it) are likely part of the stoner subculture, which are stereotypically laid-back and spiritualists.
- Chemical Messiah: Drugs are worshipped and used to maintain society.
- Dr. Feelgood: A doctor prescribes or provides dangerous drugs in an unethical manner.
- Erudite Stoner: When weed smokers are wiser than other drug users.
- Junkie Prophet: Drugs induce a vision of the future.
- Undiscriminating Addict: A character who (for any number of reasons) is so dependent on drugs that they will use literally anything that will give them a moment of their favorite reaction, including things that are dangerous or only useful because of the Placebo Effect.
If the drugs lead to a rampage, it can go with Drug-Crazed Savagery. When addressing the ugliness of addiction, it can go with Fiending for a Fix. It can go with Drugs Are Bad, as it can be a means of establishing a lesson about the dangers of irresponsible drug usage. It can also go with Fantastic Drug when fictional drugs are used as examples. Contrast The Teetotaler, Straight Edge Evil, and Smug Straight Edge, who are characterized by not using drugs.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Afro Samurai: The titular Afro is a Master Swordsman on a bloody and stressful quest of revenge against the Big Bad Justice to avenge his father's death, with a lot of bodies in his wake. He's occasionally seen smoking cannabis to deal with his situation, as first shown when he lights up a joint after killing a gang of bounty hunters.
- Delicious in Dungeon: Fleki uses hallucinogenic mushrooms to help command her magical Familiars. It turns out that both are grounded in escapism: she likes her drug- and magic-induced visions far better than the real world.
- Gundam:
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam: Gentle Chapman previously won the Gundam Fight three times in a row, but is now past his prime and takes stimulants to help him fight. The audience is shown how not-right-in-the-head Chapman is anymore when he wolfs down a palm's worth of stimulants before his fight with Domon.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Rau Le Creuset suffers from frequent health issues due to his botched birth at the hand of his asshole dad that force him to take pills to combat how his body is effectively dying of old age in his mid-twenties. Before he steps into the Providence Gundam in the finale, Rau takes his usual dosage of pills before simply pouring the rest of the bottle into his mouth, symbolizing how he feels his belief the current battle will result in humanity's end extends to himself and his time is up.
- One Piece: Hody Jones of the New Fish-Man Pirates, and his elite officers rely on "Energy Steroids", a type of drug that increases their strength 10 times. Hody Jones has an overdose that turns his hair white. But it also has rather extreme bad side effects, Rapid Aging them once the effects wear off.
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You:
- Kusuri is a Mad Scientist with a penchant for creating Fantastic Drugs with various bizarre effects. Her most notable concoction is a prototype immortality drug that de-aged her and the rest of her family into 8-year-old bodies, which she created so that her grandmother wouldn’t die.
- Momoha is an alcoholic among her other vices such as gambling and Extreme Libido. Her parents even made a special sake that would keep her from smelling bad while drinking it.
Audio Plays
- Torchwood (Big Finish): Tyler Steele is a recreational user of drugs, particularly hard illegal drugs such as ectasy. His choice of drugs reflects how much of a hard party person he is, occasionally engaging in orgies. However, it also reflects his low self-esteem, with him outright admitting to Colchester that he deserves to be hurt from what he does, and that the drugs are both a way of coping with this revelation and a method of self-harm.
Comic Books
- Batman:
- In the Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight storyline "Venom", Batman begins taking the titular super steroid in a fit of depression after failing to save a young girl from drowning.
- Jonathan "Scarecrow" Crane uses fear gas on his victims, a hallucinogenic that induces nightmarish hallucinations. Scarecrow uses this on people because he's obsessed with how fear motivates a person, and it reflects his callousness, as his victims are unwilling test subjects.
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen:
- In the first volume, Allan Quartermain has fallen victim to hardcore opium addiction in the wake of a nightmarish eldritch encounter, befitting his nature as a shell-shocked hero fallen on hard times. Mina Harker first encounters him as a withered, semi-conscious wreck, in such poor condition that Captain Nemo has to put him through an extremely brutal rehab aboard the Nautilus, and it takes a long time before Allan's remotely fit enough to live up to his heroic reputation.
- In the finale of Century 1969, Mina's disappearance prompts Allan to fall back into drug addiction, this time levelling up to heroin, a reflection of how grief and immortal angst have pushed him over the edge of the Despair Event Horizon. Indeed, he's so desperate to numb himself that Orlando — no stranger to vice — finally loses their temper with Allan after catching him trying to sell Excalibur for drug money, and the issue ends with Orlando leaving him alone at a club, staring at nothing.
Fan Works
- Season of Mists: The Project uses a range of drugs on Ianto to sedate him and render him docile, including Haloperidol and Thiopental, with Simon mentioning that they had been very heavy on the drugs over a period of two years. This reflects how they see Ianto as nothing more than a subject, as they kidnap him after his resurrection to subject him to a range of deadly and gruesome experiments over two years to test his new immortality, as well as leaving him to sleep in a bright white room when not testing him and only relenting on their treatment to some degree when they realise that he may still have the ability to die.
Film — Live-Action
- 28 Days Later (Series):
- 28 Days Later: Selena gives everyone Valium (diazepam) as a sleeping aid during the outbreak. Justifying its usage as it'll calm you down enough to sleep, or if the infected find you, you'll be too high to care what's happening to you.
- 28 Years Later: Dr Kelson arms himself with a blowpipe loaded with morphine/xylazine-tipped darts which he uses to tranquilize oncoming infected, revealing him to be a wise and gentle Actual Pacifist. He also uses the drugs to give Isla a Mercy Kill when he realizes that her cancer is now terminal.
- 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple:
- The giant Alpha known only as Samson gets into the habit of repeatedly approaching Dr Kelson just so he'll shoot Samson with his blowpipe, apparently understanding what the darts do to him. Kelson speculates that maybe the morphine allows Samson to remember who he used to be, or perhaps the Alpha simply appreciates the fact that the drug can give him some peace and respite from the Rage Virus. Whatever the case, Samson becomes a Gentle Giant while under the influence and even allows Kelson to lead him on a dance. After a few sessions, he even remembers how to speak, eventually allowing Kelson to improvise a cure for tor the virus's mental effects.
- Later in the film, Kelson proves to be highly skilled in mixing up hallucinogens, which he uses to disorient the Jimmies during their visit to the Bone Temple, encouraging them to see him as "Old Nick" during his performance of "The Number Of The Beast", highlighting Kelson's cunning and eccentricity.
- Boogie Nights: Despite being heavy cocaine users, Dirk and Reed are extremely unnerved by Rashad Jackson's habit of pausing the conversation to go freebase cocaine out of a glass pipe contraption.
- Half Baked: When Thurgood tries to get help from Narcotics Anonymous to stop smoking weed, the other addicts boo him and tell him weed addiction isn't real enough.
Man: Marijuana is not a drug. I used to suck dick for coke. Now that's an addiction. You ever suck some dick for marijuana?
- Kingsman: The Golden Circle: Being a movie heavily centered on the use of drugs, many characters take them. While many take unspecified drugs due to stress or hedonism, we also specifically see two different instances of marijuana use:
- Eggsy's friends are recreational drug users. They bring weed to Brandon's birthday party and even goad Eggsy into taking some with them. Later, we see Jamal and Liam hanging out on their couch for a few scenes, lazily watching TV, until Liam becomes one of Poppy's victims after using a bong, with Jamal remarking that he needs to stop using it.
- Tilde smokes weed to try and calm down when she's upset with Eggsy, and has enough of it to where it's clear that she's no stranger to getting stoned. Unfortunately, this just results in her having the "blue rash", and prevents her from actually relaxing.
- Rocketman (2019): Thanks to severe mental health issues, Elton becomes addicted to many drugs, and even brags once that he's tried every drug known to man. However, alcohol aside, his consumption on-screen is largely limited to cocaine and prescription drugs, both taken at different points for different reasons:
- The cocaine is primarily a symptom of his hedonistic rockstar lifestyle, and he's shown taking it at places like a catwalk and a club. He also uses it to hype himself up for concerts, hiding his true feelings and getting the energy to perform, such as when he almost takes some before the show he ultimately ends up walking out of.
- The prescription drugs are used because of his depression, calming him down when he's stressed. His most notable moments of using them both coincide with his lowest points, such as when he swallows a bottle of pills and attempts to drown himself at a party, or when he nearly overdoses on them in despair after Bernie walks out at dinner.
- T2 Trainspotting: In the years since the original film, Sick Boy has swapped heroin for cocaine and has gotten hopelessly hooked to it, to the point that Renton has to yell at him for blowing all their heist money on coke. Needless to say, it suits Sick Boy's ambitious, energetic, wannabe-businessman attitude down to the ground.
- Unedited Footage of a Bear: The mother and main protagonist of the short takes a medicinal drug called "Claridryl" to cope with the stresses of being a single mother.
Literature
- American Gods: The modern god Technical Boy smokes synthetic toad skin cigarettes, fitting both his Animal Motif and his Wicked Pretentious personality; other characters find them both unpleasant and a bit silly.
- A Clockwork Orange: Alex and his droogs enjoy drinking drug-laced "milk plus", with Alex's preferred variant being "milk with knives in" — a stimulant mixture that can and does "sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of dirty twenty-to-one," befitting Alex's psychopathic thrillseeking behaviour and love of ultraviolence.
- The Dark Profit Saga: Healing salves give a euphoric rush as they erase injuries. Professional adventurers are at high risk of addiction, with even some once-honoured heroes like Kaitha becoming "salve-heads" who throw themselves into danger or commit Self-Harm just to enjoy the healing.
- Deathstalker: The hedonistic aristocrat Valentine Wolfe has a bizarre variety of recreational drugs for any occasion, many of them custom-designed for him. Some of them double as Combat Drugs and Bio-Augmentations: his debauched lifestyle doesn't make him any less dangerous.
- The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August: Both Harry and Akinleye end up as recreational heroin users over the course of their time together, though it's clear they treat it a different way: Harry uses it as a means of finding peace and relaxation after spending previous lives on more stressful pursuits, while Akinleye treats it as just another risk-taking thing she can do to enrich her eternal existence, solidifying her characterization as jaded and apathetic to mortal concerns. However, it ultimately ends in her contracting AIDS. On her deathbed, she's so depressed at how this latest life has turned out that she requests the Forgetting from Harry, so she can finally begin her next life with a clean slate.
- The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter: The protagonist Seiichirou Kondou is such a Workaholic that he uses Healing Potions to stretch his productive hours even though his vulnerability to magic puts him at risk of life-threatening side effects. In contrast, the only healing magic that's safe for him is Intimate Healing from Aresh, who constantly urges him to go easier on himself.
- Red Dwarf:
- Rimmer spends a lot of time during the leadup to exams trying to find amphetamines to enhance his study time, a reflection of his nature as a career-obsessed Workaholic. However, he often ends up taking dog deworming tablets in the belief that they contain amphetamine, and on the one occasion he gets hold of the real deal, he can't cope with the effects and passes out less than two minutes into the exam — a reflection of just how luckless and ineffectual Rimmer is.
- In the final chapters of Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, Lister, Rimmer, and the Cat realize that they're hooked on Better Than Life, an electronic Fantastic Drug described as "the ultimate hallucinogen". Though they started using without being aware of the consequences, they continue even after they get past the BTL-induced Fake Memories, because their lives aboard Red Dwarf are so empty and miserable that they can't bear to return to the real world — even if BTL ends up killing them.
- Repeat:
- At the start of the novel, Brad Cohen is a habitual pot smoker, which he believes to be a source of inspiration for his writing. In reality, it's the only thing keeping his depression and self-loathing under control, and after a really bad day at work, even that's not enough. After finding himself stuck continuously reliving his life from the very beginning, Brad still occasionally indulges in drugs to cope with the Time Loop Fatigue: sometimes he just borrows some pot from his Dad's stash during his teenage years, but at other times, he can spend entire lifetimes getting high on just about anything to numb the pain of being separated from his wife.
- By contrast, Brad's wife Juliet is a master of treating patients with herbal drugs, highlighting her unconventional brilliance: she's responsible for the drug that induces Brad's stay in the infinite loop, apparently for no other reason than to help him through his depression, and it's left deliberately ambiguous as to whether she's actually given him a real magic potion or if she's just given him a really effective hallucinogen.
- Serge Storms: Coleman, Sharon, and Rachael all spend most of their waking hours taking whatever kind of drug is available, but Sharon and Rachael are mainly associated with cocaine and have constant bouts of sadism, impatience, and hedonism as a result.
- Sherlock Holmes: Holmes is known for his use of cocaine (in a 7% solution) that he uses whenever he doesn't have a case, in order to keep his mind stimulated in his off hours.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane is an Ax-Crazy knight who suffers from migraines as a result of his gigantism. He self-medicates with large amounts of milk of the poppy, i.e. unrefined opium in liquid form, and it's implied that aside from its painkilling properties the drug is the only thing keeping his violent impulses somewhat in check. His constant use of the poppy comes back to bite him when he gets stabbed and poisoned by Oberyn, and no amount of it is enough to deal with the pain.
Live-Action TV
- Bosch: Season 5 sees Harry go undercover as an opiate addict to investigate an oxycodone "pill mill". Among the legit opiate addicts he interacts with is Elizabeth Clayton, an Army veteran whose Dark and Troubled Past includes the murder of her teenage daughter Daisy, fitting the characterization of opiates as being relief from pain. In season 6, Bosch catches Daisy's killer, but upon learning he'll get off lightly in exchange for flipping on the human trafficking ring he was trying to kidnap Daisy to sell to, Elizabeth commits suicide by opiate overdose.
- The Boys (2019): A-Train takes Compound V as a performance enhancer because, as the top speedster of The Seven, he must defend his title despite the effects it's having on his body.
- The Brittas Empire: Helen Brittas normally takes anti-depressants, although she has expressed interest in anything with hallucinogenic properties (such as the leaves of the Somnium Senorum). Helen is shown on multiple occasions to be miserable living with Brittas and trauma from a poor upbringing, and she uses drugs to escape her life.
- Elementary: Discussed. This adaptation changes Sherlock Holmes's drug of choice from cocaine to heroin. He started using casually to dull his intellect so he could relax, but then after his girlfriend Irene Adler was seemingly murdered, he started using more heavily to dull his pain, and ended up in rehab. The series starts the day after he finished rehab and has his efforts to stay sober as a recurrent subplot.
- Farscape:
- In "Throne For A Loss," the brutal Tavlek gangs are addicted to a powerful stimulant they use in their Gauntlets, allowing them enhanced strength and endurance. According to the Farscape website, they were once soldiers given the drug on an official basis, but when it made them too aggressive to accept a ceasefire, they were exiled to the jungle moon encountered in the episode. Despite everything they've suffered because of the drug, they continue to use the Gauntlets because they don't know how to get by without them, as Zhaan's conversation with the captive Tavlek Child Soldier illustrates:
Kyr: Why would I want to be free? Our Gauntlet is our food! Our blood! Our life! It makes us capable of anything!
Zhaan: I know that is what you believe. But... what I wonder is what you alone are capable of.
Kyr: (confused silence) - In "Taking The Stone", the clans living on the royal funerary planet regularly indulge in hard drugs alongside their sadomasochistic extreme sports, most prominently a unique breed of quadruple-lobed mushrooms: three of the four lobes induce a dizzying high, but one kills you. For good measure, it's eventually made clear that most of the clansmen commit ritual suicide at age twenty-two, since the alternative is becoming one of the "Lost People" as a result of cumulative radiation poisoning, making the mushrooms a microcosm of their entire hedonistic-nihilistic society. Naturally, the drugs suit the already vice-prone Chiana while she's struggling to come to terms with her brother's death.
- In "Scratch 'n Sniff", the Pleasure Planet of LoMo is the source of the drug Freslin, a powerful euphoria-inducing aphrodisiac widely used as a party drug. Chiana and Jool, being free-spirited hedonists with a serious need to let off steam, get hooked on Freslin while D'Argo and Crichton are busy getting drunk, and end up falling in with Fe'tor, the drug baron selling the stuff. Unfortunately, it turns out that Freslin is made from the glandular secretions of humanoid beings — kept captive so they can be milked for more — and Chiana's glands produce a very potent brand of the drug that makes her incredibly valuable to Fe'tor.
- In season four, John Crichton begins using distillate of Lakah, an inhalant drug that numbs emotion, in order to deal with his feelings for Aeryn. His stated reason for taking it is to make him distant from Aeryn so that Scorpius won't try to exploit their love, but it's made clear that Crichton also takes it so that he won't be hindered by anxieties over Aeryn's safety or his depression over the tumultuous state of their relationship. As Noranti puts it, "one whiff, and the pain is gone."
- In "Throne For A Loss," the brutal Tavlek gangs are addicted to a powerful stimulant they use in their Gauntlets, allowing them enhanced strength and endurance. According to the Farscape website, they were once soldiers given the drug on an official basis, but when it made them too aggressive to accept a ceasefire, they were exiled to the jungle moon encountered in the episode. Despite everything they've suffered because of the drug, they continue to use the Gauntlets because they don't know how to get by without them, as Zhaan's conversation with the captive Tavlek Child Soldier illustrates:
- House: One of Dr. House's defining traits is his (mis)use of Vicodin to handle chronic pain in his right leg, revealed in "Three Stories" to be a side effect of a life-saving but involuntary surgery that removed necrotic muscle tissue caused by an infarction. He lampshades his Vicodin use in "Occam's Razor" during his snarky announcement to the clinic patients when he says "I do not have a pain management problem, I have a pain problem. But who knows — maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm too stoned to tell." Multiple episodes feature his efforts to keep himself supplied with the drug and the trouble it caused for him and the other doctors.
- Madam Secretary: Recurrer Dmitri Petrov develops a dependence to opiates after being treated for injuries from being tortured by the Russians for months, and ends up having to go into rehab once Henry discovers the problem.
- The Queen's Gambit: The orphanage Beth and Jolene met in gave all the kids daily tranquilizers, both girls stockpiling on them due to taking multiple at once giving pleasant hallucinations (ones that help Beth play chess, in her case). After the state bans the tranquilizers and forces all the kids to go cold turkey, Jolene seems disappointed but quickly moves on compared to how Beth breaks into the office containing the jar of pills and wolfs down as much of its supply as she can before she faints from an overdose. After being adopted by Alma, who takes prescribed versions of the same tranquilizer, Beth takes advantage of this to keep stockpiles of the pills due to her addiction and decision to compete in chess tournaments. When they reunite years later, Jolene is shocked to see Beth still stockpiles the tranquilizers.
- Six Feet Under: In the pilot, Claire has been talked into trying crystal meth for the first time with her boyfriend and his friends, when she gets the call that his dad has died in a car accident. When she starts freaking out about how she has to deal with all this while high on crack, the boyfriend Gabe rather smugly tells her "it's not crack, it's meth"
Music
- "You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack" by the rapper Viper posits that Viper is better at his job as a crack dealer than his competition because the others are afraid to sample their own product the way he does.
Video Games
- BioShock:
- Rapture was created as a utopia for those Andrew Ryan considered the best and brightest, allowing them to pursue their careers without "parasites" limiting them or taking credit for their work. One day, the discovery of the Adam slug led to the creation of a drug that could grant users superhuman abilities. As Rapture descended into war, its inhabitants were compelled to take the drug to survive.
- Steinman, a renowned plastic surgeon, was already a drug user long before going to Rapture. The novel reveals that he used cocaine recreationally and that his combined use of cocaine and ether drove him mad, leading him to believe that Aphrodite was speaking to him. Cocaine was likely used to boost Steinman’s energy while performing his duties as a surgeon. This also reflects Andrew Ryan’s willful ignorance and blatant apathy toward figures like Steinman. Ryan believes that the most gifted members of society are held back by others for foolish reasons, ignoring the many valid reasons why people like Steinman need to be vetted before being accepted. Without such oversight, they risk losing what remains of their sanity, and they'll start harming others.
- Frank Fontaine is Andrew Ryan's rival and crime lord within Rapture. Fontaine is the one who marketed the ADAM drug through Fontaine Futuristics until Ryan's soldiers killed him during the civil war and took over his businesses. Except, Fontaine didn't die and instead adopted the identity of Atlas so he can win the war against Ryan, using Ryan's own son as a sleeper agent. Once Ryan is killed, Fontaine drops the alias and betrays Jack. Although Jack survives, Fontaine resorts to overdosing himself with ADAM to overpower and kill Jack in a last stand, despite previously stating that he would never take the ADAM drug himself. Fontaine's fatal flaw is that he's impatient and refuses to lose with dignity, so when he deliberately overdoses and mutates himself, it reflects how desperate he is to win and beat Jack.
- Bully (2006): The jocks are rumored to be on steroids, a performance-enhancing drug. It's believed that Mr Burton, the gym teacher, is the one giving them the drugs because he's still bitter about his aspiring football career ending early.
- Dead Rising 3: Albert is one of the psychopaths appearing in the game, portrayed as a businessman turned organ harvester who exploits the outbreak for profit. He drugs his targets with a sedative that keeps them unconscious and is shown to have hallucinogenic properties, as Nick sees multiple versions of Albert. Although Albert laughs at and taunts Nick during the fight, he quickly panics once Nick grapples him and attempts to deceive him by invoking his daughter, claiming he is doing this for her. This only reveals him as a sadistic, greedy coward who cares for nobody but himself and is more than willing to subject others to the same fate.
- Dispatch: Sonar is a member of narcotics anonymous. Narcotics are known to induce sleep and drowsiness, which would make sense for someone with sensitive hearing. He's also shown taking cocaine during a bar fight, likely to boost his energy and not get tired. Cocaine itself is also the drug of choice for wealthy white-collar criminals, with Sonar being a Techbro who made his money via crypto rugpulls.
- Fallout 4:
- Cait is addicted to Psycho, a stimulant drug that boosts energy and combat effectiveness. Before joining the Sole Survivor, she was a slave-turned-gladiator who repeatedly used Psycho to gain an advantage in matches.
- Mama Murphy is a character who can see visions of the future as long as she takes specific drugs (jet, mentats, psycho, etc). Despite being told to stop because it will kill her, she brushes it off and claims she's going to die one day anyway, so she might as well make herself useful. Unless the Sole Survivor can convince her to quit the drugs, she will eventually overdose and die. Iliciting mass condemnation from your allies for willingly indulging in Mama Murphy's addictions.
- Fallout: New Vegas: The Fiends are a faction composed of violent drug addicts who dedicate their lives to getting drugs, getting high, and then getting more drugs once their supply runs out. The faction doesn't have any specific drug of choice; they have a polydrug culture reflecting their chaotic nature. Motor-Runner provides the drugs to maintain power and receives them from The Great Khans. When the Courier decides to help deliver drugs, they are told to wear the Great Khan uniform at all times to avoid being attacked on sight. The Fiends outside of Vault 3 are the ones deemed by their own faction to be too dangerous to be around and were exiled for the safety of the more able-minded Fiends. Despite their loose ties to Caesar's Legion and setting up ambushes and skirmishes against the New California Republic to assist the Legion, Caesar despises them and sees their drug use as an affront to the Legion's principles. If he wins the Second Battle for Hoover Dam, he will see to it that the Fiends are eradicated.
- Far Cry 3: Doctor Alec Earnhardt is a British chemist who came to the Rook Islands after his infant daughter died after falling out of a window. Although he seems eccentric, he's Jason's closest ally and aids him and his friends. After meeting Jason for the first time, he states his preference for the red pill drugs, which cause hallucinations and allow the user to relive their memories. Showing how badly his daughter's death affected him.
- Far Cry 5: Faith Seed is the adoptive sister of Joseph, and she reveals that she was once a drug addict who joined Eden's Gate for a new life under Joseph's rule. However, she relies on Bliss, a hallucinogenic turn her followers into zombies that will attack anyone on sight.
- Final Fantasy XIV:
- The sylphs of the East Shroud are prone to drinking the sap of the milkroot, which is known for having hallucinogenic properties akin to LSD. The people of Little Solace use it recreationally, sometimes to the point of inebriation, which is frowned upon both by the elder sylphs and by Gridanian authorities who want to ban it. The sylphs' "touched" counterparts deeper in the Sylphlands take it much further by mixing dreamtoad ooze into the batch to enhance its properties.
- In the Gunbreaker quests, a woman is so addicted to somnus, a drug with effects similar to real life opiates, that she tries to sell her own child into slavery for cash to buy more. She hires the Warrior of Light and Radovan, who are unaware of her addiction, to chase away her concerned husband who is trying to get her treatment.
- Grand Theft Auto IV: Various characters in the game are shown to abuse cocaine, which often has the side-effect of making them violently paranoid (most prominently with Elizabeta Torres and Mikhail Faustin). In particular, night club entrepreneur Gay Tony's cocaine abuse has left him not only high strung but prone to terrible decisions that his right-hand man Luis often has to save him from.
- Grand Theft Auto V:
- Trevor Philips is addicted to meth, a stimulant drug, and is a Card-Carrying Villain who doesn't deny that he is a terrible person and accepts his lifestyle as being wrong and illegal. He's shown to be manic, and one of his abilities is to become invulnerable for a short period of time. Trevor also isn't just a meth addict. He's also encountered getting drunk, drinking or huffing gasoline, and even doing all the drugs from a stolen van of pharmaceuticals. When Trevor encounters the Marijuana legalization activist, he scoff at him, saying that he prefers meth and weed just interferes with it, and he prefers drugs to be illegal because he makes more money selling them that way.
- Michael's son Jimmy is a habitual weed smoker and fits every stereotype of a lazy entitled millennial. During hangouts, Trevor tries to encourage Jimmy to get in shape by switching from weed to meth since he sees it as a weak man's drug (though Jimmy has enough sense to know that would just cause even worse problems).
- High on Life: Humans are abducted by The G3 Cartel because they can be used as narcotics. Users who partake in these drugs believe themselves to be superior to the human race and dismiss humans as a lower lifeform akin to cattle.
- Life is Strange
- Life is Strange (2015): Before the events of the game, Kate Marsh seemingly became flirtatious at a party, kissing random men. For this, she was bullied mercilessly, to the point that she could have taken her own life. In episode 4, it is revealed that Mark Jefferson, a famous photographer, drugged her for a photoshoot to capture a moment of helplessness. His ally and protégé, Nathan Prescott, attempted to do the same to Rachel Amber but accidentally murdered her by overdosing her, forcing them to bury her and cover their tracks.
- Life Is Strange: Before the Storm: Sera Gearhardt is the mother of Rachel Amber, who is a recovered heroin addict. When Era was younger, she was described as the life of the party, but the stresses of motherhood eventually led her to use drugs in Rachel's presence. The final straw came when James Amber walked in on her while she was strung out on heroin in front of Rachel, prompting him to cut all contact with her and remove her from Rachel's life.
- Mass Effect 2: The Ardat-Yakshi Serial Killer Morinth has developed a fondness for Hallex, a party drug known for inducing heightened senses and euphoria, befitting her nature as both a hedonistic party animal and a psychopathic hunter. However, Morinth also likes getting her future victims addicted to Hallex to make them more suggestible, allowing her to gradually wear them down into total infatuation with her before finally murdering them.
- Mouthwashing: To get past Swansea, Jimmy suggests spiking his drink to render him unconcious for a little while until he gets past him. While this initially presents Jimmy as being familiar with drugs and sedatives, the twist reveals that Jimmy raped Anya during the trip and likely spiked her drink to do so. He knew how to drug Swansea because Jimmy had a tactic of spiking women's drinks to take advantage of them.
- Outlast: In the Whistleblower DLC, Frank Manera is a cannibal who roams the asylum killing and eating anyone he can find. A document reveals that before being committed, Frank was just an overweight stoner who weighed 228 lbs. During his stay, he refused to bathe and groom himself because he couldn't eat human meat or human blood. This reflects his need for personal and self-gratification.
- The Outlast Trials
- In Mother Gooseberry's backstory, it's revealed that she sold cocaine to children and sells it as treatment for tooth pain. Until 1914, cocaine was available over the counter as a medication for children, used to relieve various pains and ailments, including shyness. This reflects Gooseberry's mental illness; she's refusing to adapt to the new laws and trying to allow kids to indulge in all their wishes and fantasies, despite the clear risks to their health.
- In life, Dr. Futterman, Mother Gooseberry’s father, was addicted to Benzedrine, a medically approved amphetamine in the 1930s that was believed to treat conditions such as depression and was also used to alleviate hangovers. According to documents about him, he was fond of gin and ultimately died under mysterious circumstances from an apparent overdose. Although very little is known about Dr. Futterman's real-life personality, his blue humor suggests that he was a hedonist who enjoyed drinking and flirting with his patients' mothers. His treatment of Mother Gooseberry further implies that he was cruel and abrasive toward her. While it is never explicitly stated what he did, it is also implied that he may have been sexually abusive towards Gooseberry, as hypersexuality is often a result of prolonged amphetamine use, and chemsex is a product of methamphetamine use.
- Franco Barbi is a drug runner addicted to heroin. Franco is a mobster who was raised to be a tool of his father's gang, and it's stated that it was such an unloving relationship that his father only expressed physical affection to him once. As an adult, he was exiled from the gang after being caught by his father having an affair with his fourth stepmother. When describing his association with heroin, "infantilizing the world", Dr. Easterman suggests that Franco has an underlying need for affection, to be valued, and be wanted by someone else.
- Riven: Gehn routinely kills poisonous frogs and smokes their extract in his pipe, presumably for the hallucinogenic qualities, reflecting both his self-indulgence and Lack of Empathy towards anything he sees as beneath him.
- The Secret World:
- Iain Tibet Gladstone, the Templar scholar, is a serious devotee of hallucinogenic drugs as both a form of recreation and a means of pursuing esoteric knowledge, to the point that almost all of his anecdotes seem to feature him tripping balls. Naturally, it only adds to his image as an eccentric, hippie-esque genius.
- Kirsten Geary, handler to players in the service of The Illuminati, has a notable taste for hallucinogens like peyote and magic mushrooms, even asking you to bring some back when you find some vision-inducing fungi — a reflection of the hedonistic eccentricities she hides under her slick, businesslike exterior.
- Illuminati scientist Dr Charles Zurn mentions taking regular doses of barbiturates, reflecting his work-induced inability to relax except through drugs, and probably explaining his unusual behavior, too. As a former participant in the MK-ULTRA program, he also administers drugs as well, using his knowledge of hallucinogens to provide you with a vision of the Tokyo Incident during your training, illustrating his brilliance as a scientist.
- Leah Cassini, the Illuminati sysadmin, reportedly spends her evenings doing "benzodiazepines on the rocks" — a sign that, much like Zurn, she's so absorbed by her work that she can't find any rest outside of it except through hard drugs.
- Daniel Bach, Intrepid Reporter and incorrigible risk-taker, downs amphetamine pills as an alternative to breakfast, befitting his fast-paced work-obsessed approach to life — especially now that he's covering a scoop he doesn't want to miss out on: Hell on Earth.
- We Happy Few: After the tragedy that killed a majority of Wellington Well's children, the town created a mandatory, hallucinogenic drug that forces people to be happy and suppress the trauma of what happened.
Web Comics
- Unsounded: The Boisterous Bruiser gangster Knock-Me-Down Frummagem is fond of glut, a Fantastic Drug that causes euphoria, emotional disinhibition, and excessive muscle growth, although her more levelheaded best friend Anadyne urges her to cut back.
Web Video
- Anakin Shrugged: Yoda is a Mood-Swinger who dabbles in drugs all the time, switching between uppers (like meth) and downers (like ketamine) depending on his current mental state. It's later revealed he learned the future of the Star Wars series from Count Dooku's prophecy and went mad from the revelation.
Western Animation
- American Dad!: Haley is Stan's daughter and is a recreational stoner who opposes everything Stan believes in as a staunch republican. In "My Affair Lady", she decides to get a job after realizing her dealer was right to call her a loser for being unemployed.
- The Owl House: The series' second episode introduces a drink called "apple blood", which is then brought up from time to time for the rest of the series. Exactly what apple blood is never gets clearly described, but it's definitely not apple juice and Eda the Owl Lady drinks a lot of it. What little we do get told, however, implies pretty strongly that it's basically some local variant of alcohol. That, in turn, implies pretty strongly that Eda is essentially a high-functioning alcoholic, which fits in quite well with the rest of her character.
- South Park: It is later revealed that Tweak's coffee addiction comes from the meth that his parents lace into his drink, explaining why he's such a hyperactive Nervous Wreck.