The thread reminds me of a Spider Robinson story (“Satan’s Children”, IIRC) in which someone develops a drug that causes people to be completely honest (the drug itself isn’t addictive, but honesty is, once the initial hurdles are overcome and the initial consequences shake out).
The “double meaning” bit reminds me of a Randall Garrett (IIRC) story “The Best Policy” in which a captured human being questioned under a lie detector by aliens discovers that technically true statements don’t register as lies (e.g. “We are capable of mentally controlling certain physical energies which transport us across space.”).