# Realistic drug use in movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 20, 2004, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869 "2004-12-20T22:09:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/21 "2004-12-22T02:12:51Z")
> [@Quasimodal](#): > > Traffic - A movie about drug trafficking portrays drug use fairly accurately I don’t know, it seemed like Erika Christensen (Michael Douglas’ daughter) went from naive preppy to smacked-out drug whore practically overnight. I don’t think a full character collapse happens quite that quickly. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/22 "2004-12-22T18:50:48Z")
> [@adam yax](#): > > Can you fix that link? Hmm, let’s try again, shall we? [Link.](http://imdb.com/title/tt0125812/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9anVua3kncyBjaHJpc3RtYXN8aHRtbD0xfG5tPW9u;fc=1;ft=3) ---
**Author:** ![kka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/54ee81/32.png) [@kka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kka)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/23 "2004-12-22T19:18:56Z")
I always thought [Clean and Sober](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094884/) was pretty realistic. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/24 "2004-12-22T19:53:05Z")
Aside from the aforementioned “Requiem for a Dream” I can’t think of a movie that accurately depicts drug-use. I can think of one movie “Blow-Up” (from 1966) in which a woman at a party rolls a joint, and I wanted to leap out of my chair and yell “that’s not how you do it!” lol. Anyway, I think the pot-smoking scenes in “That 70s Show” are pretty accurate. Even though I grew up in the 80s, those scenes pretty accurately reflects my teen years. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/25 "2004-12-22T20:15:47Z")
_Blow_. Dulli’s, “I’m fucking stoned. I’m fucking stoned. I’m fucking really stoned, man. I’m fucking stoned.” while Tuna laughs his ass off is fairly reminiscent of days past. Mr. T’s (Bobcat’s character), “I can’t feel my face. I mean, I can touch it, but I can’t feel it.” HAHA! Paul Reubens as Derek Foreal is pure genius. I won’t claim to know anything about Colombia or the international coke trade or the 70s or anything, but the things I **do** know about are fairly accurately portrayed here. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/26 "2004-12-23T02:25:25Z")
> [@vinryk](#): > > I call bull-oney too. > People don’t go tripping from a marijuana brownie. You either haven’t ever eaten any pot brownies, or you didn’t make them correctly. Movies that remind me of actual people doing the actual drugs involved: **Boogie Nights** , in particular Julianne Moore and Heather Graham snorting lines and telling each other how much they love each other…at mach 12. **Hurly Burly** , for the incredibly convoluted and pointless conversations that inevitably take place. **Half Baked** , for the exaggerated-for-comedic-effect kernels of truth. **The Big Chill** has some reasonable reactions to toking up. (They smoked, right? Or am misremembering that?) One annoying characteristic of marijuana use in popular media is that nobody ever clears the chamber after taking a bong hit. That’s a party foul. ---
**Author:** ![sleeepy2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@sleeepy2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeepy2)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/27 "2004-12-23T02:52:23Z")
**Dazed And Confused**. A great movie, set, I think in '76, showing a bunch of high school kids on the last day of school. Funny situations, poignant moments, and casual drug use throughout, with no “After-School Special” recriminations for the offending users. Aside from the more comedic moments, a very accurate representation of my high school years. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/28 "2004-12-23T03:05:22Z")
Travolta’s high in _Pulp Fiction_ is very realistic. And no matter how long I’m clean, the needle sequence just before that still makes my head spin, in a very good way. Val Kilmer’s performance in \*Wonderland \* is a really great example of an addict. _Trainspotting_ was great film. **McGregor** and **Miller** were very believable addicts. And I was remarking to my wife the other day how all of us had a Begbie in our lives…a guy who was our “friend”, but who we really hated and were afraid of. ---
**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/29 "2004-12-23T04:11:33Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > **Boogie Nights** , in particular Julianne Moore and Heather Graham snorting lines and telling each other how much they love each other…at mach 12. Back when I was a Naughty Girl, that was how I spent every single Friday night. Watching that scene just creeped me right out, for that reason. ---
**Author:** ![kka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/54ee81/32.png) [@kka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kka)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/30 "2004-12-24T05:21:26Z")
> [@kung fu lola](#): > > Back when I was a Naughty Girl, that was how I spent every single Friday night. Watching that scene just creeped me right out, for that reason. It does the same for me. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/31 "2004-12-25T09:26:58Z")
New potsmokers get all giggly and laughy and wide-eyed “DUDE! I’m totally STONED!” thing goin’ on. Seasoned stoners just get really quiet, still, and will occasionally mutter, “I’m pretty stoned,” while playing _San Andreas_ for six hours straight. ---
**Author:** ![TastesLikeBurning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@TastesLikeBurning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TastesLikeBurning)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/32 "2004-12-25T15:47:18Z")
> [@Jervoise](#): > > The British film of the late 90s, _Human Traffic_, portrays the clubbing and partying scene quite accurately. The characters use drugs about as heavily as normal young people on the scene and they react in the expected fashion. The main characters’ lives don’t end in ruin, which is both unusual for a film and realistic. I was going to post exactly the same thing. Great movie. ---
**Author:** ![iggy\_popov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@iggy\_popov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iggy_popov)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/33 "2004-12-25T18:22:04Z")
> [@SPOOFE](#): > > Seasoned stoners just get really quiet, still, and will occasionally mutter, “I’m pretty stoned,” while playing _San Andreas_ for six hours straight. You just described 2003 for me, except San Andreas was Vice City and there was a lot of playing ping-pong outside. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2004, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/34 "2004-12-25T18:51:34Z")
Ditto on **That '70s Show** , two scenes in particular. Donna didn’t start being part of the Circle until the second (third?) season. Hyde couldn’t be there, and I guess it’s like bridge: you need a fourth. So Donna took over his spot, and kept crowing, “I’ve got the biggest hands in the world!” Many episodes later, Donna, Laurie and Jackie were all smoking, without the guys. Donna says something. Laurie says something. Donna says something. Laurie says something. Cut to Jackie: view of just the top of her head as she’s doubled over, laughing hysterically. Then at the end of the episode, she chirps, “Let’s do that thing where we all sit in a circle!” No one’s mentioned **Goodfellas**. The climactic sequence—the day Henry gets busted for good—is dead on. Everything from Henry’s red-eyed and sweaty appearance, to his micromanaging the dinner, molding meat cakes while checking for the helicopter, to Karen walking into the motel room and mumbling, “Yeah, I need a hit…No thanks. I’ve seen enough helicopters for today, thank you.” **Breakfast Club** is already my unfavorite movie, but one reason for that is the way the characters only seem to feel the effects of weed **while** they’re smoking. Actually, Hughes did film a lot more of that sequence, but for one reason or another, edited it out. **Ellis Dee** , yes, they did smoke up in **The Big Chill**. I particularly love JoBeth Williams talking while she holds in the smoke, and Meg Tilly going from contemplative to giggling hysterically, over a realistic span of time. As far as **Pulp Fiction** , someone pointed out to me how Thurman and Travolta’s dancing styles are highly appropriate to their condition. Also liked the sequence in **Half Baked** where they categorize the different types of smokers. (Except they left out one type: the person who’s wrapped so tight they need it to keep from snapping.) Crispin Glover as a speed freak in **River’s Edge** was scary. Although that probably wasn’t acting, nor even drug-enhanced; he’s just that way. ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/35 "2004-12-26T06:59:19Z")
I Thought the whole night-before bender in Paris sequence from _Killing Zoe_ was pretty realistic. That guy all zooted up and talking about viking movies always makes me laugh for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/36 "2004-12-26T07:17:37Z")
> [@Quasimodal](#): > > Traffic - A movie about drug trafficking portrays drug use fairly accurately In some other realm than this one, perhaps. I’ve never known someone to freebase coke and then “mellow out” like some of the characters in that film did. Coke users tend to be _very_ high strung and energetic in my experience. IMHO (and I did a Pit thread about the film that I’m unable to find at the moment), that film was nearly as great a waste of celluloid as Battlefield Earth. A film which did show drug experiences that are very realistic (though at times exagerrated) was _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_. I’ve wound up in similar situations as some of the scenes in that film (though _not_ in a good 10 years or so), and some of my friends have trouble watching that film because they find it _too_ realistic. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/37 "2004-12-26T12:54:56Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > In some other realm than this one, perhaps. I’ve never known someone to freebase coke and then “mellow out” like some of the characters in that film did. Coke users tend to be _very_ high strung and energetic in my experience. IMHO (and I did a Pit thread about the film that I’m unable to find at the moment), that film was nearly as great a waste of celluloid as Battlefield Earth. Nothing is as big a waste of celluloid as _Battlefield Earth_. Isn’t freebase a completely different effect when compared to doing lines? Seeing _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_ mentioned reminds me of the excellent peyote sequence in **Young Guns**. Never done it, or seen anybody do it, but it looked convincing enough to me. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/38 "2004-12-26T18:02:40Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > Nothing is as big a waste of celluloid as _Battlefield Earth_. > > Isn’t freebase a completely different effect when compared to doing lines? Only in the speed in which it effects the user. Remember, every drug has a specific mechanism by which it affects the brain. Changing the method of injestion doesn’t change the mechanism, it only changes the speed with which you’re affected by the drug. If you’re freebasing coke (which is really the same thing as smoking crack), you’re going to get hit with the effects sooner and more intensely than if you snorted it. You’re _not_ going to want to fall over and “space out” since that’s _not_ something coke does. Now, if you mixed it with something, like heroin, you might get that kind of effect. Which would mean that you were spending hundreds of dollars to make yourself straight. Remember the scene where the pretty white girl was being humped by the evil black drug dealer (and apparently, that was Traffic’s point: Drugs are bad because they make pretty white girls have sex with black men. So, don’t do drugs, m’kay?) and he shoots her up with what’s apparently heroin (funny how she went from coke to smack, coke users tend to not like doing smack, and vice versa), immediately her eyes roll back in her head and she flops down on the bed, drooling. Unless you’ve been shot up to near overdose levels, it’s not going to work like that at all. It’s a much slower effect, and you can generally see it spreading over the users body, over a period of a few minutes. ---
**Author:** ![poeticyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6bbea6/32.png) [@poeticyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/poeticyde)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/39 "2004-12-28T19:24:27Z")
I just wanted to add that Homer Simpson’s experience with insanity peppers was frighteningly like my own experiences with acid. How very strange. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2004, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869/40 "2004-12-28T19:43:10Z")
Bringing up _Pulp Fiction_ for the umpteenth time, the overdose scene is also very realistic. This is according to my fiancé who saw his mother OD that way a few times when he was a child. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/realistic-drug-use-in-movies/280869.md?page=3)