# Drugs In Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 5, 2017, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-movies/795529 "2017-09-05T06:18:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Green\_Meanie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9d8465/32.png) [@The\_Green\_Meanie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Green_Meanie)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-movies/795529/1 "2017-09-05T06:18:47Z")
I have a question I’ve always wondered about - In television and movies when actors are depicted using narcotics, what do they use? I don’t necessarily mean injectable drugs, I’m talking more about things like cocaine, marijuana, etc. Do they smoke/inhale prop drugs or the real thing? ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-movies/795529/2 "2017-09-05T06:24:03Z")
Props. The real stuff is back stage. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-movies/795529/3 "2017-09-05T08:09:27Z")
**Moderator Action** Since this is about how movies are made, Cafe Society is a better forum. Moving thread from GQ to CS. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-movies/795529/4 "2017-09-05T08:36:43Z")
In older movies, the “cocaine” was likely powdered milk or baking soda. Corn starch and baby powder have also been used. These days, the most common substitute is inositol which is a vitamin B compound and, while it is harmless, it is actually sometimes used to cut real cocaine. If the actor is snorting through a straw, the inside of the straw may be coated with vasaline so that most of the “drug” gets stuck in the straw and doesn’t even go into their nose. Herbal tobaccos are often used as a substitute for marijuana and herbal non-nicotine cigarettes are often used in place of real cigarettes. Since the herbs don’t look like weed, prop weed is often used for things like marijuana in baggies and such. This prop weed can be made out of anything from moss to cotton balls, and probably isn’t anything you’d want to actually smoke. There are also variants of marijuana that are real plants but don’t contain THC and are therefore legal to consume. Spring loaded trick syringes and even sometimes CGI effects have been used for injectable drugs. They’ve also done things like inject colored water into a fake prosthetic arm. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2017, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-movies/795529/5 "2017-09-05T08:41:42Z")
Michael J. Fox used powdered milk for cocaine in _Bright Lights, Big City_. Pacino in _Scarface_, too. [Inositol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inositol#Common_use_as_a_.22cutting.22_agent) powder is also used. [Previous thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=695143)