# Drugs in the movies

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-the-movies/56374>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 1, 2001, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-the-movies/56374 "2001-03-01T13:38:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2001, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-the-movies/56374/1 "2001-03-01T13:38:40Z")

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Having seen Traffic recently, it occurred that the drug-taking scenes looked pretty realistic. The same can be said for Pulp Fiction and numerous other films of recent times. So, assuming the actors aren’t really shooting up and snorting the real stuff on camera ;), what white powder do the movie people use to simulate cocaine that the actors can safely snort? What do they use to fake heroin that ‘looks right’ on the boil?

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**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2001, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-the-movies/56374/2 "2001-03-01T13:59:38Z")

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[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=60072](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=60072)

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**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2001, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drugs-in-the-movies/56374/3 "2001-03-01T14:20:54Z")

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Doh! Thanks **gigi**. Thought the subject was familiar and I did do a search before posting, honest, but I s’pose I didn’t look far enough.