# Favorite fictional ILLICIT drug? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 11, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740 "2004-02-11T23:19:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kiwiboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/35a633/32.png) [@kiwiboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiwiboy)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/21 "2004-02-12T03:59:39Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > There’s green honey, which seems to give a glimpse of paradise, in the Umberto Eco book I’m reading, but I’ll get back to you when I’m finished 😉 I’ve just finished _Baudolino_ it’s one of his best IMHO. The Green honey does sound pretty good but I think I’d prefer some of Huxley’s soma. ---
**Author:** ![emekthian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecae2f/32.png) [@emekthian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emekthian)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/22 "2004-02-12T04:19:42Z")
GTA 3’s SPANK. Whatever drug the entire civilization was addicted to in the Star Trek episode “Symbiosis”. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/23 "2004-02-12T04:31:39Z")
Miller: I think it may have been called simply “the wire”. Not exactly a drug though. Was spice illicit? Brian ---
**Author:** ![DogsLunch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@DogsLunch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DogsLunch)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/24 "2004-02-12T04:51:55Z")
Melange, from **Dune**. ---
**Author:** ![DogsLunch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@DogsLunch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DogsLunch)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/25 "2004-02-12T04:59:48Z")
Romulan Ale - **Star Trek** Argh, what’s the drug they use in **Logan’s Run**??? ---
**Author:** ![MrSarcasticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@MrSarcasticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSarcasticus)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/26 "2004-02-12T05:08:10Z")
Nothing beat the buzz of homemade Glint (aka Glimmer, Glow, Satan’s Harelip). ---
**Author:** ![blinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@blinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinx)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/27 "2004-02-12T05:49:18Z")
> [@Shill](#): > > I like **dreams** t\*\* from ‘Perdido Street Station’ by China Mieville (it’s great, read it!). It’s the droppings of creatures known as slake moths (who feed by sucking out people’s thoughts), and when people eat it they essentially live out the dreams of other people around them. It seems horrible at the time and you get a really bad hangover from it, but it’s horribly addictive too. I second that, and it really is a darn good book. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/28 "2004-02-12T06:04:21Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There’s one passage where a Lensman is forced thionite, and he has a hallucination of a completely civilized, lawful galaxy. “He also saw things and did things over which it is best to draw a kindly veil, for _every_ desire – mental or physical, open or sternly suppressed, noble or base – that Virgil Samms had ever had was being _completely satisfied_. EVERY DESIRE.” – _First Lensman_, chapter 8 ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/29 "2004-02-12T06:08:27Z")
> [@DogsLunch](#): > > Argh, what’s the drug they use in **Logan’s Run**??? The cubs in Cathedral put a breather mask over Logan’s face to try and force him to inhale **“muscle”** – which, while not described in the movie, is described in the book as making its imbiber move super-fast (if it doesn’t give him a heart attack). And also in the book, some gang or other gave Logan a dose of **“everlove”** , which forced him keep having sex over and over even after it had become very painful. Of course, drugs weren’t illegal in the _Logan’s Run_ universe. Only Running was. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/30 "2004-02-12T09:00:00Z")
> [@](#): > > What did they call that wire Louis Wu had plugged into the pleasure center of his brain? Tasp? Anyone out there who can score me some of that? Nitpicks: First, Wu didn’t have a wire in his brain. Second, a tasp is wireless, but operates on the same principle. Third, Nessus used the tasp on Speaker to Animals (who was humiliated at the prospect of an un-warrior-ly addiction), not on Wu. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/31 "2004-02-12T12:12:48Z")
The “wire to the pleasure centre” gadget is called a droud; the tasp is the wireless version. ---
**Author:** ![WILLASS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/54ee81/32.png) [@WILLASS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WILLASS)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/32 "2004-02-12T12:22:01Z")
I can’t remember the name of it but it is the other drug that features in the Red Dwarf book ‘Better than Life’. It is described as looking like soil and makes the user believe he is god for 15 mins but the resulting comedown lasts 25 years. It is also so addictive that you can get hooked just by looking at it. Anyone help me out with the name? ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/33 "2004-02-12T13:03:40Z")
I’m with the Perdido vote! Great book! But I think dreams\*\*\* it “great” only because is it a great fictional invention. I would NOT go anywhere near it if I lived in that world. ---
**Author:** ![HDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bb73d2/32.png) [@HDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HDS)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/34 "2004-02-12T13:34:50Z")
Drooz (think I spelled that right) from Omalas (again, not too sure of the spelling.) A nice buzzy creative feeling and not a bit addictive. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/35 "2004-02-12T14:01:05Z")
**Stroon** from Norstrilia and elsewhere in the works of Cordwainer Smith. Gives you immortality – but don’t try to steal it or you’ll run into Mother Hutton’s Littul Kittons. Smith also had an interesting psychoactive drug in “A Planet Called Shayol,” but I don’t recall the name of it – just “caps,” which were inferior and similar to a tasp. Alice’s magic mushroom. But overall, I’d take Roger Ramjet’s Proton Power Pills, which give you the power of 20 atom bombs for 20 seconds. ---
**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:** [February 12, 2004, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/36 "2004-02-12T14:18:55Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Yeah, the _moloko_ in _A Clockwork Orange_ was legal, like “Soma” in Huxley’s _Brave New World_. > > I’m too look it up, but, if I recall correctly, the Korova Milk Bar’s “Milk Plus” was Milk + Mescaline. (An emulsion, I guess.) There were three “mixes” – Synthemesc, Vellocet and Drencrom. I do not recall which one (or whether it was a combination) was then in turn slang-named “Knives”, which was Alex’ fave for getting ready to step out with the droogs in the height of fashion for a bit of the ol’ ultraviolent. ---
**Author:** ![malaka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@malaka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malaka)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/37 "2004-02-12T15:34:08Z")
Valkyr from Max Payne. “Valkyr had been meant to be a white-winged maiden that would lift you to a warrior’s heaven. But it had turned out to be a one-way demon ride to Hell. The Devil was in the drug. I knew, I had met him… And now I was going to kill her…” ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/38 "2004-02-12T19:27:23Z")
Louis Wu (Ringworld, for those not in the know) was simply “Under the Wire” and considered a “current addict”. As mentioned before, the Tasp was used by the Puppeteer on Speaker-to-Animals, a Kzin. Vurt was my suggestion, but it’s already been said. How about Neuroin from Minority Report (the movie, I haven’t read the story)? ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/39 "2004-02-12T19:41:52Z")
Does anyone remember the name of the drug in Lawrence Sanders’ “The Tomorrow File?” I only remember that when I read it I wished it existed. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740/40 "2004-02-12T19:52:06Z")
Man, I can’t believe I’m the first to mention Rudy Rucker’s works! (_Software_, _Wetware_, etc.) Lotsa weird stuff there. He writes of a drug called _merge_: two people take it, get into a bathtub, and have an ecstatic experience while the drug loosens their inter-cellular bonds and their bodies puddle together… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-illicit-drug/228740.md?page=3)