# Attention TV writers: There is no such psychoactive controlled substance as "drugs" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2012, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-tv-writers-there-is-no-such-psychoactive-controlled-substance-as-drugs/615034 "2012-03-07T14:42:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-tv-writers-there-is-no-such-psychoactive-controlled-substance-as-drugs/615034/41 "2012-03-24T19:35:27Z")
Obviously it depends on the purpose of the “drugs” reference. If it’s “Bobby was expelled.” “Why?” “Drugs.”, then it makes sense. But if Bobby is a character on the show, and you’re supposed to show how drugs are bad, m’kay, then having Bobby freak out because “He’s on drugs!” is just dumb. If his problem is pot, then he’s got a different problem than if he’s on heroin. On one, you need to tell him to cut that shit out because he’s not smart enough to keep up his grades and smoke pot at the same time. With the other, he needs to be in rehab. Thing is, “drugs” usually means “pot”. But if your characters are smoking pot and that causes a horrible downward spiral that’s just retarded. But having them on cocaine or opiates is too big of a problem, that’s serious shit. And the point of these anti-drug shows is to scare kids off pot, except they can’t treat pot realistically because that won’t scare kids. So they’re on “drugs” of an unspecified type, and it’s really bad, but can be solved in 22 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-tv-writers-there-is-no-such-psychoactive-controlled-substance-as-drugs/615034/42 "2012-03-24T19:41:56Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > But if Bobby is a character on the show, and you’re supposed to show how drugs are bad, m’kay, then having Bobby freak out because “He’s on drugs!” is just dumb. I agree that using “drugs!” that way is dumb, but do a lot of TV shows really still do this? The only show I watch that deals with this kind of thing is Law & Order, and in the episodes I’ve seen they’ve been reasonably specific. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-tv-writers-there-is-no-such-psychoactive-controlled-substance-as-drugs/615034/43 "2012-03-24T19:50:11Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > On that note: Dear Mr. Police Officer. If the suspect is carrying a pound of cocaine in his car, you did not confiscate “narcotics” from him. Narcotics are drugs which put you to sleep or make you drowsy. Cocaine is not a narcotic. Methamphetamine is not a narcotic. Heroin is a narcotic. But this battle is perhaps lost. Um, what? nar·cot·ic/närˈkätik/ Noun: A drug or other substance affecting mood or behavior and sold for nonmedical purposes, esp. an illegal one ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-tv-writers-there-is-no-such-psychoactive-controlled-substance-as-drugs/615034/44 "2012-03-24T19:54:28Z")
Check some other definitions and you’ll see it. He’s right, but a lot of people (including cops, I think) use it to mean almost any kind of drugs. At this point you would probably have to consider it a valid definition even if it’s not technically accurate. [M-W.com](http://M-W.com) has these definitions: > [@](#): > > a: a drug (as opium or morphine) that in moderate doses dulls the senses, relieves pain, and induces profound sleep but in excessive doses causes stupor, coma, or convulsions Which is the accurate definition and the other **thelurkinghorror** was talking about. And the less precise definition: > [@](#): > > b : a drug (as marijuana or LSD) subject to restriction similar to that of addictive narcotics whether physiologically addictive and narcotic or not ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-tv-writers-there-is-no-such-psychoactive-controlled-substance-as-drugs/615034/45 "2012-03-24T20:08:12Z")
So, is the injunction here strictly on the apparently completely illegal use of a generic term to describe something the speaker may or may not be familiar with, may or may not be an expert on, may or may not be interested in going into the details of at this particular moment restricted entirely to the content of the OP, or must people now also stop using expressions like the following: “Bring the car around” [possibly acceptable: “Bring the 2011 Toyota Camry XLE around.”] “I’d like to go horseback riding.” [possibly acceptable: “I’d like to go American Paint Horse-back riding.” “I looked it up on the internet.” [possibly acceptable: “I looked it up by accessing 173.194.76.100 in Mozilla Firefox 11.0, typing in ‘funny cat pictures’ and choosing the third resulting hit.”] ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-tv-writers-there-is-no-such-psychoactive-controlled-substance-as-drugs/615034/46 "2012-03-24T20:17:37Z")
[QUOTE=Sergeant Joe Friday] Do the youngsters know what these goofballs are made of, son? [/QUOTE] 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-tv-writers-there-is-no-such-psychoactive-controlled-substance-as-drugs/615034/47 "2012-03-24T20:24:05Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Thing is, “drugs” usually means “pot”. But if your characters are smoking pot and that causes a horrible downward spiral that’s just retarded. But having them on cocaine or opiates is too big of a problem, that’s serious shit. And the point of these anti-drug shows is to scare kids off pot, except they can’t treat pot realistically because that won’t scare kids. So they’re on “drugs” of an unspecified type, and it’s really bad, but can be solved in 22 minutes. I remember that one of the kids on _Captain Planet_ got hooked on “bliss.” > [@Ambivalid](#): > > Um, what? > > nar·cot·ic/närˈkätik/ > > Noun: > > A drug or other substance affecting mood or behavior and sold for nonmedical purposes, esp. an illegal one And that is why I said that the battle is lost. But shift your gaze downward and look at the etymology. > [@American Heritage/tfd.com](#): > > [Middle English narcotik, from Old French narcotique, from Medieval Latin narcticum, from Greek narktikon, from neuter of narktikos, numbing, from narksis, a **numbing** ; see narcosis.] bolding mine, and > [@](#): > > narcosis > A condition of **deep stupor or unconsciousness** produced by a drug or other chemical substance. I’m not a hard prescriptivist so I do understand why the definition has shifted. If enough cops use it to mean “drugs” than it begins to mean that. But it was originally intended for things like opiates. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-tv-writers-there-is-no-such-psychoactive-controlled-substance-as-drugs/615034/48 "2012-03-24T22:25:17Z")
Attention TV writers: There is no such activity as “have sex” or “make love” There are many such, and each affects its users very differently from the others. So let’s never hear again how a character is having “sex” or wants to “make love” without further specifying if they “had regular ole missionary possition”, “got fucked up the ass”, “did it doggie style”, or “blew some dude in the bathroom”. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-tv-writers-there-is-no-such-psychoactive-controlled-substance-as-drugs/615034/49 "2012-03-24T22:47:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You do have to tell from context, but it’s fairly consistent. A drugstore sells prescription and over-the-counter medicines, plus a bunch of knickknacks (and in fact the knickknacks are usually the larger part of the business), and medicines can be referred to as “drugs” with a specifier (for instance, one might refer to Nyquil as a “cold drug”). But “drug” or “drugs” used as a noun with no adjective almost always either refers to the illegal ones, or is meant to evoke the illegal ones as a joke (like a pharmacist referring to themself as a “drug dealer”). I’ve never heard Nyquil called a “cold drug” in America. Most normal people would say “cold medicine” or something of that sort. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-tv-writers-there-is-no-such-psychoactive-controlled-substance-as-drugs/615034/50 "2012-03-24T23:13:13Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > I’m not a hard prescriptivist so I do understand why the definition has shifted. If enough cops use it to mean “drugs” than it begins to mean that. But it was originally intended for things like opiates. Around here the police and the crime beat reporters tend to prefer the usage ‘a “controlled substance” was found after a search.’ More technically correct though still unspecific. OTOH our average politician or talk show host will often say something like: ‘we must continue to fight against “narcotic drugs”.’ ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2012, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-tv-writers-there-is-no-such-psychoactive-controlled-substance-as-drugs/615034/51 "2012-03-27T14:46:52Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Attention TV writers: There is no such activity as “have sex” or “make love” > > There are many such, and each affects its users very differently from the others. So let’s never hear again how a character is having “sex” or wants to “make love” without further specifying if they “had regular ole missionary possition”, “got fucked up the ass”, “did it doggie style”, or “blew some dude in the bathroom”. Look, if we’re talking about how someone got in trouble with the cops or the vice principal, then “drugs” is fine, because the point was that it was illegal and you got caught, not what the drugs were doing to you. But if “experimenting with drugs” means “smoking pot”, then it’s not as scary, is it? If Jessica has a drug problem, but her drug problem is that she smoked pot at a party last week, then it ain’t a crisis. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-tv-writers-there-is-no-such-psychoactive-controlled-substance-as-drugs/615034.md?page=2)