List of fictional medicines and drugs
The use of fictional medicine and drugs has history in both fiction (usually fantasy or science fiction) and the real world. In fiction, drugs and medicine have served as analogues to real-world drugs, giving color and depth to the fictional world. They are often included by authors to create or to reduce the utopian/ideal nature of their fictional world[1] and to introduce harsh realism and dystopia.[2][3] In the real world, fictional drugs have been used in scientific studies as markers to determine unreliability for survey participants who are asked to provide their history of drug usage.[4][5]
The following list of fictional medicines and drugs is limited to drugs appearing in works of fiction. Some of the listed items may be used as both medicine and recreation or in other capacities, but fictional works are often vague on such distinctions. Grouping is made according to primary usage within the fictional work.
Fictional medicines
| Name | Source | Uses and effects |
|---|---|---|
| Adara's Rose | Malloreon series | Created by Garion during the Belgariad through sorcery, named for his cousin, and originally thought to simply smell nice, it is revealed to also be a near-miraculous medicine and is used to cure Emperor Zakath who was dying of a powerful Nyissan poison. |
| Adravil | Resident Evil series | An ibuprofen-based pain reliever made by the Umbrella Corporation. May be similar to the real-world Advil. |
| Alprazaline | Law & Order, Firefly | In Law & Order, Alprazaline is a depressant used as a medication in assisted suicide. Presumably inspired by the real-world medicine alprazolam. In Firefly it is a painkiller which acts as a vasoconstrictor when combined with the drug Dilaftin. |
| ALZ-112, ALZ-113 | Rise of the Planet of the Apes | ALZ-112 is presented as a prototype treatment for Alzheimer's disease. While trial on an unauthorized human produces the desired results, the condition aggressively returns. As a result, ALZ-113 is developed as a more potent form of ALZ-112, but with unexpected side effects: it becomes a lethal virus in humans, but it increases non-human primates' intelligence to human levels. Both strains of ALZ have the ability to pass to offspring through DNA. The irises of non-human primates infected with either strain are a strong green. |
| Ambrosia | Deus Ex | Ambrosia is a temporary "cure" for the Gray Death: a fatal, artificially induced autoimmune disease. Both the cure and disease are man-made, created using nanotechnology. |
| Ancient Potion | Monster Hunter series | A medication that instantly causes the user's health and stamina to both increase to maximum capacity. |
| Axelavier | Virtue's Last Reward | Axelavier is an anti-viral medicine made from immunoglobulins, that is the only known cure for the fictional Radical-6 disease. It is injected directly into the infected patients' veins, normally via "injection gun". |
| Anabiotics | S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat | The use of anabiotics puts users into an artificial coma, allowing them to survive an emission. When the emission has passed, the user emerges from the coma unharmed. However, if the users take anabiotics while under attack by enemies, they will be killed while comatose. |
| Anti-Ague | Warhammer 40,000 | Never described in detail, but administered daily to Guardsmen. "Ague" is an archaic name for malaria,[6] It is possible that "Anti-Ague" is a synonym for the antimalarial drug Chloroquine. |
| Antibiotic Gel (AKA Heal Jelly) | Trauma Center | Green gel used for healing small cuts. Raises vitals when used on patient. Temporarily stops blood loss from larger lacerations. |
| Antidote | Various RPG games | A general-purpose counteragent for slow-acting toxins of any sort, from spider venom to military-grade chemical weapons. |
| Athelas / Kingsfoil / Asëa Aranion | J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings | This plant is especially effective at slowing the effects of attacks from Mordorian weapons. Treatment must still be sought as soon as possible. An infusion of the leaves has a soothing, pleasing scent, and it promotes rapid healing of injuries even from ordinary causes. |
| Athsat | The Belgariad | Athsat is a deadly poison that only works if the user gets excited. It comes from Nyissa. |
| Aqua Cure | Resident Evil series | Umbrella's crowning public achievement, Aqua Cure is an ointment used on open wounds that made the company famous worldwide. It is considered to be Umbrella's primary public product and is effective. Most likely the recurring item First Aid Spray that appears throughout the series. |
| Aquasol | Xenogears | Curative drug, also available in stronger formulations called Aquasol S, Aquasol DX, and Alphasol. |
| Azoth | Alchemy | Azoth is a term used for the "universal medicine", a panacea sought by alchemists. It is said that it could cure all diseases. |
| Bacta | Star Wars | A liquid which mimics the body's fluids and helps in regeneration. It is used to help with cuts and burns as well as severe cellular damage, such as frostbite. The subject is suspended in a full-immersion tank for treatment of large-scale injuries, or given a patch or lotion for minor injuries. |
| Batika Indica | Professor Shonku | A pill made from the sap of the banyan tree, to ward off need of food and water for 24 hours. |
| Bio-mimetic gel | Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | A volatile substance with medical applications. It is also highly sought after for use in illegal activities, such as genetic experimentation and biological weapons development. As such, its use is strictly regulated by the United Federation of Planets, and sale of the substance is prohibited. |
| Bittamucin | Battlestar Galactica (2004) | A vaccine used to fight the disease known as Mellorak; a virus that first attacks the kidneys and later other organs in the body. |
| Blaccine | Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Shake Like Me" | After Master Shake was bitten by a radioactive black man and became black, Frylock created an antidote that turned him back to normal, and slipped it into his orange soda when he wasn't looking. |
| Biofoam | Halo | Human frontline type of medical supply, used for quick sealing of medium-to-severe wounds before proper treatment can be administered. The supposed explanation of the regenerating healthbar in Halo 2 is that Master Chief's MJOLNIR Mark VI can produce it to mitigate the wearer's injuries. |
| Byphodine | Firefly | A drug which can induce a state of reduced metabolic function. Unexamined, a person under the effects of byphodine is easily mistaken for a cadaver. Mentioned in episodes Ariel and The Message. |
| Cancer dust | Transcendence (video game) | A combination pharmaceutical and nanotechnology-based cancer cure. |
| Carabonal | Da Vinci's Inquest | A fictional drug featured in the two-episode story arc that concludes Season 1. |
| Catana | Haven: Call of the King | Antidote to a virus introduced into Haven's race. Must be found and ingested at frequent intervals to prevent succumbing to the virus. Both the virus and antidote are really tools of coercion meant to keep Haven's race enslaved. |
| Celestial Wine | Exalted | Normally reserved for only the highest god. One glass of celestial wine will cure any and all poisons and diseases and can heal minor wounds instantly. Drinking three glasses in one day will heal all wounds, even if the subject is on the brink of death, and the subject will be immune to all poisons and diseases weaker than the Great Contagion for a year and a day. |
| Chamalla extract | Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series) | The extract of Chamalla is used as alternative medicine for a range of treatments, including those for cancer. (Comparable in this instance to laetrile in real life.) A side effect of using Chamalla appears to be that the user suffers from hallucinations or prescient visions. |
| Charlanta | The Soup | Medicine to get rid of the bad taste of the recent adaptation of Æon Flux starring Charlize Theron. Joel McHale said that he had a bad case of Æon Re-Flux. |
| Chiquitolina, pastillas de | El Chapulín Colorado | Pills to reduce height, to invade spaces or surprise bad guys. |
| Cloveritol | Scrubs | A drug whose use Dr. Kelso encourages instead of standard macrolides in My Moment of Un-Truth. Dr. Cox points out that the company behind the drug has bribed Kelso into using it at Sacred Heart without research by sending him on free golf trips. Cloveritol's slogan is "when life's not fair at all, use Cloveritol". |
| Comanapracil | 30 Rock | "May cause drowsiness, sexual nightmares, and sleep crime" . |
| Coma White | Marilyn Manson's Mechanical Animals album | "an anesthesia that comes in 325-mg doses" |
| Contrari (draepotine HCl) | C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America | A blue, six-sided pill that exists in the alternate timeline where the Confederacy won the Civil War. It is a behavior modifier used on African slaves to suppress their ideas of running away, for 24 hours. Side effects may include vomiting, shortness of breath, nausea, blurred vision, liver and kidney problems, constipation, and anal bleeding. Known to cause heart attacks in old male slaves. Not meant for slaves who are pregnant or nursing. "Ask your veterinarian about Contrari, today". |
| Cordrazine | Every Star Trek series, and an episode of its studio neighbor, Mission: Impossible | Powerful stimulant used to revive patients in an emergency, such as cardiac arrest. 25 mL is usually a lethal dose to humanoids; it can also cause hallucinations and madness. |
| Cortexiphan | Fringe | |
| Counteragent | The Invisible Man | An unnamed blue-colored liquid solution created by scientist Arnaud deFohn to temporarily inhibit the effects of the "Quicksilver Madness" caused by a gland's natural secretion of Quicksilver into the brain. Usually keeps the host sane for about 6 days. When Fawkes went into a higher level of the Madness called "Stage 5", specialized counteragent was required to revert him back to normal, as the regular counteragent solution was not effective to do so. |
| Cryostim | StarCraft | A medication for Hibernation Sickness. |
| Damascus Rose (Amnesia potion) | Amnesia: The Dark Descent | A potion drunk by Daniel at the beginning of Amnesia: The Dark Descent that is known to cause Amnesia. |
| Daylight | Resident Evil Outbreak | A serum designed to eliminate the T-Virus and (presumably) its variants from living organisms. The compound is composed of a sample of the T-Virus, V-Poison (a venom from infected wasps), and P-Base (see below), a compound whose full properties are not documented. It is not known if Daylight is effective against the Progenitor virus, the G-Virus, the T/G Virus or Las Plagas. |
| DC2 | Planet Terror (2007 film) | A biological weapon that causes most people exposed to it to become hideously deformed zombie-like cannibals. Once exposed to DC2, the only treatment is by constant inhalation of controlled doses. The victim will rapidly succumb to its effects if they ever stop breathing DC2. |
| Dehalcynate | The Island (2005), | A concentrated solution which is fatal if not diluted. The name of the drug is not spoken in the film, but the labels on the bottles are seen in a few frames. |
| Dittany | Harry Potter (series) | A clear liquid that will cause rapid and immediate healing on contact with the wound. One instance of usage was in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows where it was used to heal a serious wound in Ron Weasley's shoulder. |
| Dioxnyl | Monk | Powerful, highly experimental drug. Known to remove all OCD symptoms. Probably a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. In the series, the eponymous character's therapist prescribes Dioxnyl. Unfortunately, Mr. Monk's detecting capabilities are depleted, so the SSRI is never used again. In the novels, it is used on board airplanes because Monk is deathly afraid of airplanes. |
| Doloxan | Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series) | Antitumoral drug. Its side effects include: hair loss, nausea, and muscle degeneration. (Possibly the Colonial name for the real-world drug doxorubicin). It is mentioned in the episodes "Act of Contrition" and "Crossroads, Part II". |
| Digitalin | Alien Nation | Highly addictive drug that was once used to control the Newcomers while they were still slaves toiling for their masters in outer space.
Not to be confused with the actual cardiovascular drug digitalis. |
| Dragon Sand | The Eyes of the Dragon (Stephen King) | Dragon Sand comes from Grenh, a desert beyond the land of Garlan. Grenh is a toxic wasteland - the entire desert is covered in Dragon Sand. Just one breath of the fumes from the sand is fatal. The victim does not perish instantly, but instead feels fine for two or three days afterward. Eventually their lungs grow red hot, their skin gives off smoke, and their body shrivels: the victim is burned from the inside out. There is no cure, making Dragon Sand a highly effective poison. It can only be stored in enchanted containers, as it would burn through anything else. |
| Dreamy Sleepy Nighty Snoozy Snooze | Father Ted | A alcoholic chocolate sleeping aid. It's banned in most European countries, which apparently means it's good. |
| Dried Frog Pills | Discworld | A hallucinogen, used by the Bursar of Unseen University. The pills are carefully designed to make him hallucinate that he is sane. The main side effect is that he also hallucinates an ability to fly. Fortunately, the Bursar is a wizard, and the only action necessary to deal with this belief is to keep him from going higher than the walls. The pills are apparently not addictive, or else (the concerned are assured) the Bursar wouldn't keep taking them. |
| Dylar | White Noise | An experimental treatment for the fear of death. A side effect of Dylar consumption is a tendency to conflate words with the real-world entities they refer to. |
| Dypraxa | The Constant Gardener | Dypraxa is a drug created by the fictional company KDH Pharmaceuticals. It is being tested on poor Kenyans by another fictional company, ThreeBees, in exchange for free medical treatment. It is intended to treat tuberculosis, or TB, and was created in anticipation of a future TB epidemic. |
| Elixir of life | The Makropulos Affair | Potion discovered by a physician of Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor. It can lengthen human life for centuries. |
| Elixir of Long Life | Alchemy, Chinese alchemy | A mythical liquid which could bring immortality to the drinker. It was sought by alchemists, and was the main objective of Chinese alchemy. It is said to be produced with Philosopher's stone. |
| Elyon's Water | The Circle Series (Ted Dekker) | Water blessed by Elyon (God). Refreshes and restores to full health anyone who touches it. Keeps away the scabbing disease of those who do not use it. |
| Ephemerol[7][8] | Scanners 1981 movie directed by David Cronenberg | Originally intended to quell morning sickness in pregnant women, it instead created the telepaths of the film's title. Was also used on the telepaths themselves to damp their psychic abilities, and to prevent them from being overwhelmed by mental noise. |
| Estus | Dark Souls series | A bright yellow substance of unknown origin that restores a fluctuating amount of health. Filled into an Estus flask at bonfires. |
| Ether | Final Fantasy series | A potion that restores a small amount of MP. Made from a mixture of unpurified ether and caramel. Upgraded versions are known as Dry Ether and Turbo Ether. |
| Expectane | Junior (1994) direct by Ivan Reitman | Suppresses immune rejection of embryonic cells, enabling a male pregnancy. |
| E-Z Doze It Sleeping Pills | Looney Tunes | Just 2 pills can put a cartoon character into a sleep so deep they will be unresponsive to most stimuli. These pills are most likely Clonazepam. |
| Fast-penta | Vorkosigan Saga | Nearly foolproof truth drug. Likely named after the real-world drug Sodium thiopental. |
| Felicium | Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Symbiosis" | A narcotic powder used to treat an Ornaran plague. The Brekkians who produce it have been selling it to the Ornarans for centuries — the Ornarans believe the plague is still endemic on their planet and interpret the withdrawal symptoms they experience as the onset of the disease. |
| Flora-Flor | Jeff Foxworthy | A joke based on medicines that have side effects worse than what they treat. Cures "itchy, watery eyes", but side effects include "Nausea, vomiting, water weight-gain, lower back pain, receding hairline, eczema, seborrhea-psoriasis, itching, chafing, bloating, liver spots, blood clots, ringworm, excessive body odor, uneven tire wear, pyorrhea, gonorrhea, diarrhea, halitosis, scoliosis, loss of bladder control, hammertoe, the shanks, low sperm count, warped floors, cluttered drawers, hunchback, heart attack, low resale value on your home, feline leukemia, athlete's foot, head lice, clubfoot, M.S., M.D., V.D., fleas, anxiety, sleeplessness, drowsiness, poor gas mileage, tooth decay, split ends, parvo, warts, unibrow, lazy eye, fruit flies, chest pains, clogged drains, hemorrhoids, dry heaving, sexual dysfunction." |
| Flintstones Chewable Morphine | The Simpsons | A fictitious morphine brand requested by Bart Simpson while stricken with influenza in the episode "Marge in Chains", as a parody of other Flintstones branded products. |
| Flu Buddy | The Stand - telemovie adaptation | A drug designed to treat the flu. An ad for it can be seen early in the film; later on, two of the main characters can be seen sitting on a Flu Buddy bench in a town totally wiped out by Captain Trips, a government-designed superflu with a virtually 100% mortality rate. |
| Focusyn | The Simpsons episode "Brother's Little Helper" | A parody of Ritalin. Focalin, the trade name for a new reiteration of Ritalin, which is the purified stereoisomer of the active ingredient methylphenidate called dexmethylphenidate, was only approved in November 2001, two years after the episode. |
| Formula 977 | Harvey (film) | A serum to be given to Elwood P. Dowd by Dr. Sanderson at a mental hospital in order to "shock" him back to reality, and rid Dowd of "seeing the rabbit" (pooka). |
| Fukitol | Robin Williams: Live on Broadway | A fictional antidepressant drug. The motto is "When life sucks, Fukitol". (Play on words) |
| Gambutrol | The Exorcism of Emily Rose | A fictional anti-epileptic drug prescribed to Emily Rose by her doctor which supposedly "locks" her demonic possessions into her mind, leading her priest (Father Moore) to stop the medication, which in turn leads to his eventual incarceration under the charge of negligent homicide. This is most likely a spin-off of the real anticonvulsant/anti-epileptic medication, Gabitril |
| Gels | Tales series | The standard healing item in the Tales universe. They come in 6 different varieties: apple, lemon, orange, pineapple, melange, and miracle; each gel has its own recovery properties. In Tales of Phantasia, they were called "gummys". |
| Get-off-your-ass-idone | "Christopher Titus Neverlution" | 'For people suffering from laziness, fear, feeling like a loser, or living with your parents when you're 32 years old. Side effects of get-off-your-ass-idone include joy, happiness, sense of accomplishment, and being attractive to the opposite sex'. The panacea for failure. |
| Havidol | Medicine to treat "Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder". | |
| Heal(ing) potion | Various RPG games | A red liquid of generally unspecified makeup; it acts as a general restorative and heals damage inflicted upon an adventurer. It usually has no effect on poisons. |
| Hibernol | Saturday Night Live | A cold and flu medicine that lets one sleep through the entire flu season. While you are asleep, many colds come and go, and your body lives off of stored body fat. A spoof of NyQuil. As opposed to NyQuil which contains a mild sedative, Hibernol has a powerful narcotic and lots of it. |
| Hourai Elixir | Touhou Project | An elixir that grants immortality to the one drinking it. It was drunk by Kaguya Houraisan and Fujiwara no Mokou. Therefore, they do not age, and they are always revived if they are killed. The elixir is rare and hard to make, since one required ingredient is a flower that blooms once in a thousand years. Therefore, the elixir can only be made with Kaguya's power to manipulate eternity and temporality. |
| Hydra | Fallout: New Vegas | A combination of cave fungus and anti-venom, making a curative agent which both anesthetizes and restores crippled limbs over time, while reducing pain. But as a downside, it has a high addiction rate. Developed by members of Caesar's Legion, who are discouraged from using "modern" medical technology like Stimpaks. |
| Hydromel | Doctor Who | A green serum used to control the Vanir and keep them alive in the story Terminus. |
| Hydronium Bromide | After.Life | A drug injected regularly to allegedly "relax the muscles and keep rigor mortis from setting in". |
| Hydroxl | It (novel) | A medicine given to treat the character Eddie Kaspbrak's asthma. It is later revealed that it was simply a placebo and Eddie only thought he had asthma because his extremely overbearing mother, Sonya, made him believe so. |
| Hypnocil | A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Freddy vs. Jason | An experimental drug (not approved by the FDA) that suppresses dreams. Hypnocil overdoses can put patients into irreversible comas. |
| Hyronalin | Star Trek franchise | A common medication used to treat radiation poisoning. |
| Imobatine | Freddy vs. Jason | Used by Freddy on Jason to make him sleep and drag him into the dream world. Freddy tries to kill him in a place where he can't be defeated. Possibly a mixture of anticholinergic tropane alkaloids. |
| Inaprovaline | Star Trek: The Next Generation | Stimulant administered by Starfleet medical personnel as a resuscitative medication; it appears to act similarly to the real life drug Mephentermine. |
| Interfectum | Max Payne games | This is the brand name of the painkillers that take the place of first-aid kits in the Max Payne games, according to commercials shown in the second game. Advertised as "a serious painkiller for serious pain", and apparently capable of keeping a man alive and able to function even after numerous gunshot wounds. |
| Iocane powder | The Princess Bride | An extremely deadly poison which is odorless and tasteless, and dissolves instantly in liquid. It is said to originate in Australia. Though it is one of the deadliest poisons in the world, it is evidently possible to become immune to it by consuming small amounts over time. |
| Isoprovalyn | Firefly | A common immune booster mentioned in episode Ariel. There are also references to other medicines in this episode: propoxin, hydrozapam, alprazaline - a painkiller - and dilaftin. |
| Jamitol | Saturday Night Live | A mixture of iron and high-potency vitamins in the form of tablets or solution. |
| Jammitin | The Simpsons | An erectile-dysfunction medication. (Play on words) |
| Jet Antidote | Fallout 2 | A cure for addiction to Jet (see below). |
| JJ-180 | Now Wait for Last Year | A drug which causes the user to travel in time and/or between universes. |
| Kallocain | Kallocain | A drug that forces people to reveal their innermost thoughts, invented by protagonist Leo Kall. |
| Kalocin | The Andromeda Strain | A universal wonder drug stumbled upon by Jensen Pharmaceuticals, but to whose research and development Dr. Jeremy Stone was the first to object. Kalocin is effective against every known virus, bacterium, fungus, and parasite, and even cancer. Research on Kalocin was halted and knowledge of it was covered up after it was discovered that anyone who stopped taking the drug quickly died from bizarre and massive infections "no one had ever seen before". This was because the clearing away of normal microbes left tissues vulnerable to attack from other, rare ones that ordinarily could not become established. This, as Stone had been the first to perceive, was a case of superinfection, a possible side effect of many antibiotics and/or antivirals. |
| Kolto | Star Wars expanded universe | Mined from the Hrakert Rift at the bottom of the great ocean that covers the planet Manaan, it was known for its strong healing properties and was Manaan's major export. Kolto was eventually superseded by bacta. |
| Krayoxx | The Litigators | A cholesterol-reducing drug produced by Varrick Labs, a giant pharmaceutical company. |
| Lethe | various stories in Robert Heinlein's future history | Powerful drug used to blank (or possibly just interfere with) memory so that rejuvenation patients do not remember feeling pain or other problems associated with the treatments. Named for the mythical river that caused forgetfulness. |
| Lithium dibromide | The Simpsons episode "Midnight Rx" | Treatment for bipolar disorder. Lithium is genuinely used as a treatment for bipolar disorder, although usually in the form of a carbonate or citrate salt. Bromides have also been used as psychoactive sedative and anticonvulsant drugs, but never in the form of the lithium salt (which would actually be LiBr, lithium (mono) bromide). |
| Lot 6 | Firestarter | A dangerous experimental drug given in the form of an injection to unsuspecting participants in a paid clinical medical trial to determine if the drug could enhance any latent mental capabilities in a random sample of humans. Lot 6 gave two of the main characters, Andy McGhee and Vicky Tomlinson, enhanced mental abilities, but it drove other participants to self-mutilation or agonizing deaths. The drug was apparently mutagenic as well: the daughter born to McGhee and Tomlinson developed pyrokinetic abilities. |
| Masiform D | Star Trek episode "The Apple" | A drug that is useful as an antidote for saplin-like poisons, but when thus used on Vulcanoids, it can induce the side effect of an upset stomach. In the episode, Dr. McCoy said it would "make the crew turn handsprings", indicating that it was a stimulant. |
| Med-X | Fallout series | A powerful morphine-based painkiller. It boosts the player's resistance to damage, though it carries a risk of addiction. |
| Medicinal Compound | "Lily the Pink" by The Scaffold | Most efficacious in almost every case. Invented by Lily the Pink. Shown to cure protruding ears, excessive boniness, delusions, speech impediments, shortening of legs, and excess of freckles. Not suitable for treatment of paraffin poisoning. |
| Medi-Gel | Mass Effect | A "genetically modified bioplasm" which combines coagulants, anesthetics, and antibiotics, and might even act as a spacesuit puncture sealer. Common fare among military and civilians alike. Technically, it contravenes Citadel laws regarding genetic engineering, but it's considered too useful to ban. |
| Mem | Pagan Kennedy's Confessions of a Memory Eater | A drug that works like Proust's madeleine, allowing the user to relive the best moments of his life and savor long ago joys. |
| Mephisto | R.M. McNutt's Sysco book series | A supposed permanent cure for cancer manufactured by the corrupt BioVectra Chemical Corporation. It does work, but being exposed to it has side-effects that lead to certain death. The drug comes in red, see-through, diamond-shaped pills designed by the C.E.O. of BioVectra, Adam Silver. |
| Metazine | Babylon 5 | A powerful pain-killing narcotic that can be abused. Most notably in the B5 universe, while Stephen Franklin was on his own version of rehab ("Walkabout") for his addiction to the drug called stims, he fell in love with a woman who appeared to be recreationally addicted to Metazine,[9] although she turned out to have a painful, fatal disease and used it to treat the pain.[9] Metazine also was once used on Sinclair to keep him unconscious.[9] |
| Miracurall | Professor Shonku | A miraculous drug that is used in the literature of Prof. Shonku (created by Satyajit Ray), a scientist from Giridi. It has the miraculous capacity to heal any form of alien/unknown ailments with a single or moderate dose. |
| Miseth | The Malloreon | A powerful painkiller and aphrodisiac. It originates in Nyissa, where many different poisons and medicines are found. Miseth is described as a purple liquid. |
| Moly | The Odyssey | A white flower that makes the consumer immune to magic. Used by Odysseus to escape Circe's spells. It was possibly based on the real flower snowdrop. |
| Monomate, Dimate, and Trimate | Phantasy Star series | A health-restorative item of varying strengths, from Monomate (least effect) to Trimate (greatest effect). |
| Morpha | Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series) | Opioid analgesic that is administered via intravenous injection. Mentioned in the episode Scattered. |
| Morphling | The "Hunger Games" trilogy | A powerful and addictive painkiller similar to diacetylmorphine. It is usually injected but can be made into pills. People addicted to it are called "morphlings." |
| Nappien | The Simpsons | A Z-drug similar to Ambien. |
| Necrotech Serum | Urban Dead | A serum, normally injected, that "Revives" a zombie or "zed" |
| Nectar | Haze | A combat-enhancing and hallucinogenic drug. |
| Neodextraline solution | Star Trek | A treatment for dehydration. |
| Nepenthe | Ancient Greek literature and Greek mythology | A drug that induces forgetfulness.
Possibly based on opium but all the described effects and the claimed origin do not match. |
| Neuropozyne | Deus Ex: Human Revolution | An anti-rejection drug used by humans who have undergone mechanical augmentation. It is used to stop the buildup of glial tissue around the augmentations, thus preventing the body from rejecting them. Though not difficult to manufacture, its distribution is strictly monitored and it can reach extortionate levels of pricing in the resale market. |
| Nexus | Nexus | A drug that allows multiple users to link their minds and share thoughts and memories, and control others, assuming the link is strong enough. |
| Nine Flower Jade Dew Pill
(九花玉露丸) |
The Legend of the Condor Heroes, The Return of the Condor Heroes | Peach Blossom Island's secret recipe. Provides numerous health benefits. |
| Nomolestol | The Venture Bros. | An intravenous mood stabilizer which is highly effective in curing pedophilia. In certain rare circumstances, Nomolestol can cause severe gynecomastia when used in a patient who has been administered super soldier serum. |
| Novril | Stephen King's Misery | A powerful, highly addictive analgesic (Codeine) administered to the novelist Paul Sheldon by his nurse and "number one fan", Annie Wilkes. In the book, Novril is administered in pill form and is extremely bitter to taste. When the medication was withdrawn, Sheldon's pain returned, along with physical dependence and hallucinations. In the film, Novril is in capsule form, tasteless and non-addictive. |
| Oret | The Malloreon | An analgesic; although it is a good medicine, it tends to incapacitate the user. |
| Panacea | Traveller science-fiction role-playing game | A place-holder medicine for characters who become ill. "Medical drug (often called panacea) is a general term describing the set of drugs used by medical personnel in the treatment of illness or injury." In Latin, Panacea means "all-healing", and is a name for the non-existent drug that would cure all diseases. |
| Panexa | MERD Pharmaceuticals parody website | "Ask your doctor for a reason to take it." A parody of commercial pharmaceuticals, Panexa is notable for its unusual list of side effects.[10] |
| Paracetamoxyfrusebendroneomycin | Fitness to Practice album | Produced from the cerebellar cortex of a bison, it can be used to treat "anything from leprosy to SARS", and thus enables medical students to avoid the study of pharmacology. Despite being a universal medicine, it does have some serious potential side effects including "heart attacks, becoming gay, and growing extra breasts", but was designed for the NHS and is extremely cost-effective despite these risks. |
| Pasceline D | Firefly | A drug used to treat Bowden's malady, a fictional degenerative disease affecting bones and muscles. Mentioned in episode The Train Job. |
| Phalanx | World War Z | A vaccine which is effective against rabies but useless against the zombification virus, Solanum, which it was fraudulently marketed to protect against. |
| Phalanxifor | The Fault in Our Stars | An antibody designed to attach itself to cancer cells and slow their growth. While it cannot cure the disease, it shrinks tumors and prolongs the life of the patient. It does not work in 70 percent of cancer sufferers. |
| Phoenix Down | Final Fantasy series | A powerful medicine made from phoenix feathers, capable of reviving a dead (or seriously injured) person. In Final Fantasy Tactics, they are made from the feathers of Chocobos. Also quite effective as a cure for undeath, or defeating the undead. |
| Phoenix Tears | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | Tears of the Phoenix are capable of healing anything, including all effects of poisoning by Basilisk venom, the deadliest poison in the Harry Potter universe. |
| Placiden | Days of Our Lives soap opera | An anxiolytic, strong hypnotic and amnesic used to induce sleep. It was used by the villainous daughter of Stefano DiMera, Kristen Blake, to consistently drug Laura Horton. Possibly a riff on Placidyl, a sedative drug commonly used in the US until the discontinuation of its manufacture in 1999. |
| Plasmids | BioShock & BioShock 2 | Substances that change the user's DNA, giving him/her unnatural abilities such as making objects levitate or casting fire. Technically, plasmids are actual biological DNA molecules that can be used to infect an organism and manipulate its genetic code; see plasmids. |
| Plomox | Scrubs | In My First Step, Plomox is the best anti-arrhythmic on the market, according to the show's pharmaceutical representative Julie Keaton (played by Heather Locklear), as its only side effects are "nausea, impotence, and anal leakage". Plomox branded items appear regularly throughout the series. Dr. Cox criticizes Julie's company for putting a massive mark-up on the drug. |
| Pressure Pill | Futurama | A suppository developed by Professor Farnsworth, it allows the user to survive the intense pressure of deep ocean water. |
| Prexilin | She Hate Me | A HIV vaccine that reportedly cures 100% of users. However, it is revealed that tests results have been tampered with to get FDA approval. Actually the vaccine is effective only in 75% of the cases. |
| Procrastin-X (phenalazidine slackahide) | Piled Higher and Deeper | Treats the symptoms of post-bachelor's disorder - depression, lack of motivation to do anything except check email, frequent anxiety attacks over the meaning of one's life, frequent headaches experienced when trying to count the number of years one has been in graduate school - by suppressing the brain's guilt centres, which are active during non-academic activities.[11][12][13] |
| Progenitorivox | The Drugs I Need (Animated Short Film) | This paisley pill made by SquabbMerlCo is a life-enhancing miracle. Also beats diet and exercise. May not be reproduced without the express written consent of Major League Baseball. |
| Provasic (RDU-90) | The Fugitive | A "miracle drug" developed by Devlin-MacGregor Pharmaceuticals. Provasic produces drug-induced hepatitis, but Dr. Charles Nichols alters the test results to get FDA approval. This side effect and the cover-up are discovered by doctor Richard Kimble. |
| Provolanaproxalidamine C | Tom Goes to the Mayor | Originally designed by several Dutch scientists as a dangerous fox repellent, Provo C is used to treat the disorder CNE, or Chronic Nocturnal Emissions, by eliminating all traces of sexual desire. Because of its extremely high cost, Tom Peters becomes the poster boy of the drug as his only means of obtaining it. |
| Prozium[8] | Equilibrium | A powerful emotional suppressant, distributed in the city of Librium. The liquid is injected into the jugular by an auto-injector. It was designed after World War III to render humanity docile and non-hostile to prevent the possibility of a World War IV. Likely a reference to the anxiolytic Prozac. |
| PX-41 Antidote | Despicable Me 2 | A yellow chemical invented by Dr. Nefario to counteract the effects of the mutagenic chemical PX-41. |
| Pylene-50 | Blake's 7 | Used homeopathically, this drug is simply an adrenaline inhibitor. However, a hundred-times-normal dosage totally subverts the will into complete obedience. It can be administered via food, water, or medical laser. Its effects are irreversible unless an antidote is given and taken indefinitely. Its use to control entire planets was greatly expanded after the Terran Federation's conventional military forces were substantially reduced in fending off the invasion of aliens from Andromeda.[14] |
| Qualex | Mad TV | "It's tranquilicious!" Similarly to Valium or Quaalude, it is marketed to housewives. |
| Quietus[8] | Children of Men | A suicide drug that appeared to be offered by the government. |
| Quinium | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 6 episode "Goliath". | A fictional form of the real-life anti-malarial drug Mefloquine. Most serious side effects include hallucinations and homicidal thoughts. All soldiers were given these pills once a week to help prevent malaria while in Afghanistan, but were not warned of the drug's risks. |
| RadAway | Fallout series | An intravenous medicine that quickly removes large amounts of radiation damage from the body. Possible side effects include headaches and nausea. |
| Rad-X | Fallout series | Pills to be taken before exposure to radiation. Rad-X boosts the user's radiation resistance for a time. Interestingly, it seems to have a real-life parallel in a new drug under development, CBLB502.[15] |
| Recolada virus | Xenocide | Used to cure and replace the Descolada virus which would randomly break and reprogram DNA sometimes making someone grow an extra arm or have their heart rot out. |
| Relaxabrex | Community (series) | In Season 5, Episode 1, Annie Edison has become a pharmaceutical sales representative. She defends the drug with the line "Relaxabrex doesn't make you give up on your dreams, it's just a side effect!" |
| Repressitol | "Bye Bye Nerdie" episode of The Simpsons | A drug used to keep repressed memories from surfacing. |
| Retinax 5 | Star Trek | Any one of at least five distinct chemical substances that can cure eye disorders; Retinax 5 is prescribed for presbyopia. Unfortunately for James T. Kirk, he is allergic to Retinax and must therefore use reading glasses--"a very rare thing in the 23rd Century". The effects of Retinax allergies are not specified. |
| Ritalout | "Timmy 2000" episode of South Park | Antidote for Ritalin. |
| Ryetalyn | Star Trek | Drug used to counteract Rigellian fever, as seen in the episode "Requiem for Methuselah". The name is pronounced rye-TAL-inn. However, it must be in pure form to be effective. The radioactive element irillium, if found to be contaminating it in concentrations as low as one part per thousand, renders it inert. |
| Ryll | Star Wars expanded universe | A type of spice originating on Ryloth that can be used for legitimate medicines or addictive recreational drugs. |
| Safsprin | Resident Evil series | An aspirin-based treatment for various common, daily illnesses. |
| St. Jonah's Morphine for Children | Futurama | Analgesic injected into Fry's arm by Dr. Zoidberg after Zoidberg cut it off in a fight to the death. |
| Semuta | Dune | Combination of narcotics and music designed to induce a hallucinogenic trance. Popular among the decadent courtesans of the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. |
| Senzu Bean | Dragon Ball saga | A kind of mystical bean that completely replenishes the consumer's health and energy. The Senzu beans' healing capabilities have been able to perform such feats as healing a hole in a character's chest and restoring fatally injured characters to perfect health on various occasions. In addition, they can keep someone nourished for ten days. The beans are extremely powerful; however, they are not capable of curing sicknesses or ailments. |
| Selenine | Clark Ashton Smith's The Plutonian Drug[16] | Derived from a fossilized lichen found on the Moon, selenine (in the form of a solution) is an "infallible serum", a universal cure for cancer and many other ailments. |
| Serisone | Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series) | Drug used to prevent fluid from building up in the lungs. It is applied via injector. Mentioned in the episode Scattered. |
| Serum 114 | A Clockwork Orange | A drug which causes severe nausea, pain, and discomfort. It is injected during the Ludovico treatment, which uses a series of violent images forced on the viewer to cure violent urges in criminals. (Stanley Kubrick often used the number 114 in his films; compare the CRM-114 decryption device in Dr. Strangelove). |
| Shinten (震点) | Bleach | A green liquid which can knock out anyone with weak spiritual power with one drop; used by members of the 4th (Medical) Division as an anesthetic. In particular, Hanatarō Yamada uses this on a stubborn Ichigo Kurosaki to incapacitate the latter long enough to perform needed medical care. |
| Skele-gro | Harry Potter | A potion devised to regrow bones lost through various mishaps, taking about twelve hours to restore all the bones in an adolescent's arm. It is apparently foul-tasting, and the regrowth process is not a comfortable one. |
| Soft Green Echo Eyedrop Antidote | Kingdom of Loathing | An all-in-one counteragent for any status ailment, except for Intrinsic effects and Goofball addiction. The name is derived from that of several restorative items from the Final Fantasy series ("Soft" counteracts petrifaction, for example). |
| Soma | Brave New World | In the book, Soma is a hallucinogen that takes users on enjoyable, hangover-free "holidays". Soma is a State-produced drug, that people use to self-medicate when they are feeling down, which thereby eliminates the need for religion or other personal allegiances outside or beyond the World State. |
| Sopor slime | Homestuck | A liquid of unknown provenance that trolls sleep in to quell their nightmares; the character Gamzee Makara regularly ingests it in pie form, causing downer-like effects. |
| Space Mead | Cthulhu Mythos | In Mythos books by August Derleth, a drug which places its users into a state of suspended animation. Used for interstellar flight on the backs of byakhee. |
| Spectrox | Doctor Who story "The Caves of Androzani" | Spectrox was a substance harvested on the planet Androzani Minor that, when refined, extended life. It was naturally found in the chrysalis of the queen bat, a species that lived in the many caves that riddled the dry desert planet. Unrefined spectrox was a powerful neurotoxin that caused spectrox toxaemia, capable of killing even a Time Lord. The only known cure was the milk from the queen bat. Refined spectrox, taken in regular doses, could prolong a human lifespan to about twice its ordinary length, greatly slowing the ageing process. Because it was so dangerous in its raw form, it was harvested by androids and brought to special refineries. After this, the spectrox was shipped to Androzani Major and then the rest of the galaxy. |
| Stabilliser | Trauma Center (series) | Stabilliser is a serum with incredible restorative properties, administered using a syringe. It raises the overall vital signs of a patient and can be used indefinitely, although if used repeatedly over a short period of time, the syringe breaks and cannot be used for a few seconds. |
| Starshade | The Underland Chronicles | A flower used as a cure for certain Underland plagues. It grows in a dangerous jungle filled with carnivorous plants, the most dangerous of which emits a euphoric gas to subdue its victims. |
| Stim pack | Aliens vs. Predator | A medical serum that heals the player's Marine back to full health. Only 3 may be carried at a time. It is the Marine equivalent of the Predators' Healing Shards. |
| Stim pack | Doom series | Small grey containers of unknown medical contents, which restore 10 points out of Doomguy's initial 100 health points. |
| Stim-pak | Fallout series | A package of healing chemicals administered via a distinctly shaped syringe. Stim-paks can be used either generally to restore overall health, or to target individual limbs to concentrate their healing effects on that appendage. Super Stim-paks also exist, providing much greater restoration at the cost of a later minor loss of health due to the powerful nature of the chemicals involved. Cunning people may use this side-effect for clandestine assassinations. |
| Stress Pill[17] | 2001: A Space Odyssey (film) | A calming drug that HAL 9000 invites Dave Bowman to take during the latter's attempt to take HAL offline. |
| Substance D[8][18] | A Scanner Darkly | A highly addictive psychoactive drug. |
| Sustengo | Little Fockers | An erectile-dysfunction drug (generic name pendenadil doltrate). |
| Sym-Bac | Resistance: Fall of Man | Bacterial vaccine used by the Chimera and Nathan Hale to restore health. |
| Teamocil | Arrested Development (TV series) | A psychiatric drug developed in the mid-1990s by The Natural Life Food Company, a division of Chem Grow and Allyn-Crane Acquisitions, and part of the Squimm Group. Side effects include decreased libido. It is advertised for a time by "Dr. Fünke's 100% Natural Good-Time Family Band Solution" until it is discontinued after studies prove the feeling of wellness it gives the user in relationships is simply a precursor to total shutdown of the pituitary gland. |
| Telol | Star Frontiers roleplaying game (TSR, 1982) | A drug used by Star Law enforcement officers as a truth serum, hence the name (pronounced "tell-all"). |
| Tiberium | Command & Conquer series | A dangerous, radioactive substance which is usually highly toxic to most carbon-based life-forms, but sometimes mutates life forms to make them more powerful. Most notably, it mutates trees and turns them into Blossom Trees that spread more Tiberium, and it changes human beings who have prolonged low-level exposure to it into powerful mutants. While it is deadly poison to humans, it conversely has healing properties for mutants who have been mutated by Tiberium. Its name comes from its origins in a meteorite found in the Tiber River in Italy. |
| Tretonin | Stargate SG-1 | A drug used by Jaffa to replace the immunity-boosting effects of Goa'uld symbionts. Allows Jaffa to survive without being host to a prim'ta Goa'uld. It can be used on humans to provide the same immunity-boosting effects, but at the cost of completely destroying the natural immune system, meaning that if the user ceases taking the drug, they will die. |
| Tribonin | Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law | A drug accidentally advertised for comedic effect in Season 3, Episode 8, implied to be an erectile-dysfunction treatment. The fine-print disclaimer for the drug, shown very briefly on-screen, is, "Erections lasting more than a week should be documented. Preferably by the world-record people. Or your wife. Do not horse ride while on Tribonin. Do not Tribonin horses. Tribonin and reading very small type may cause blindness. You're very fast with the pause button. Congratulations. Now back to the show."[19] The advertisement shows an older man and woman riding on horseback as the background image for the text. |
| Trichloromethylene | Revenge of the Nerds | A drug given to counteract all of the effects of alcohol used in a drinking contest. Possibly inspired by the real-life drug Ro15-4513 |
| Triopenin | Saturday Night Live | A compound of powerful anti-arthritic spansules and antihistamines, in childproof packaging. Pronounced "Try Opening". |
| Tri-Ox (AKA Tri-Ox Compound) | Star Trek franchise | A compound used to enrich the body in oxygen for use in an environment that is poor in oxygen, e.g. planet Vulcan in the classic episode "Amok Time". |
| Turbolax | Dumb and Dumber, Movie 43 | A powerful laxative. |
| Tunivor's Nectar | Eragon | A potent healing potion made from the "Fricai Andlat" mushroom, capable of reversing the effects of any toxin. |
| Unnamed potion of deathlike sleep | Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare | A vial of this unnamed potion is given to the heroine Juliet Capulet by the Franciscan monk Friar Laurence in Act IV, Scene 1, so that she may fake her own death. She takes it in Act IV, Scene 3, appearing to die, and it wears off in Act V, Scene 3, when she wakes up inside her tomb. The effects of this potion are that it causes a person to become unconscious, stop breathing, have no visible pulse, and look pale for exactly 42 hours, appearing to be dead to any observer. After the 42 hours are over, the person wakes up, completely unharmed, fully conscious, with breathing and heartbeat fully restored as if nothing had happened. |
| Uspirim | Resident Evil series | A second aspirin-based medication by the Umbrella Corporation. Unlike Safspirin (see above), this one may be prescription-required. |
| Valifin | Resident Evil: Zero Hour by S.D. Perry | A medication mentioned only in the novelization, Valifin is a pediatric heart medication that has a side effect of renal failure. |
| Varatril | Prison Break | A designer benzodiazepine taken by Mahone. |
| Vigors | BioShock Infinite | Similar to the Plasmids of BioShock, these are advertised in a manner similar to snake oil, but unlike snake oil, Vigors do provide actual superhuman abilities when drunk. |
| Viopril | House, M.D. | A "new" ACE inhibitor that, according to Dr. House, "all they've done is added antacid". |
| Xorax | CSI: Miami season 4 episode "Silencer" | An over-the-counter analgesic drug in development that, "will take care of everything from a toothache to a migraine". It does not gain approval in the episode. |
| Zeta-interferon | Shadowrun | An anti-viral developed as a cure for Virally-Induced Toxic Allergy Syndrome (VITAS), a plague that wiped out 25% of Earth's population in 2011. The drug works by stopping viral replication in infected individuals. |
| Zombrex | Dead Rising | A blue antiviral that is injected into one's veins, that stops the zombification process for 12 hours. Zombrex Extended Care ("ZCX") lasts for 24 hours; both types must be injected every 12 or 24 hours (respectively) or the patient will be zombified. Any dosage after the 24-hour deadline will have no effect on an infected individual and should not be attempted under risk of being infected. Produced by the Phenotrans, Zombrex only prolongs the life of the recipient; it does not cure the infection. |
| Zydrate | Repo! The Genetic Opera | An extremely powerful analgesic, Zydrate produces a euphoric sense of remove, perfect for those about to undergo surgery. GeneCo has a monopoly on sales of the highly addictive substance, but it is also readily available on the black market from grave-robbing drug dealers. Zydrate is extracted from corpses and glows blue. "Zydrate comes in a little glass vial; And the little glass vial goes into the gun like a battery; And the Zydrate gun goes somewhere against your anatomy; And when the gun goes off, it sparks, and you're ready for surgery". |
Performance and lifestyle enhancers
These drugs are for enhancing strength, intelligence, and other attributes. Steroids, birth control pills, and antidepressants fall into this category.
| Name | Source | Uses & effects |
|---|---|---|
| Ablixa (Alipazone)[20] | Side Effects | A fictional drug having sleepwalking as a side effect in the film Side Effects. To promote the film they created a realistic website for the drug, and you can even ask questions. It asks for your email address and writes back to you. The real giveaway is that Hoffman Benelux, the company that supposedly makes Ablixa, doesn't have a website, though there is a foreign company with that name that makes machinery for handling sheet metal! |
| Accela | Serial Experiments Lain | A "smart drug". Dissection of the capsule reveals the active ingredient to be a nanomachine which, upon ingestion, oscillates at a particular frequency which causes the secretion of a hormone (neurotransmitter?) which influences the user's sense of time, causes the user to feel as if his consciousness is accelerated, and also improves the brain's speed of calculation. The drug disappears from the body after one day. |
| Allswell | Neal Stephenson's novel Anathem | A chemical present in nearly all food consumed by the "Saeculars", Allswell produces the feeling in whoever consumes it regularly that all's well. Negative thoughts are easily dismissed when under its influence. |
| Alosun | Nedor Comics publications, Tom Strong series | Developed by Dr. Tom Strange, Alosun is a distillate of sun atoms. Ingesting Alosun gives the person superhuman strength, the ability to fly, and invulnerability. |
| Altruizin | Stanisław Lem's Altruizin | A drug which causes the user to feel emotions, pain sensations, etc. of other people in proximity. Invented to promote altruism. |
| Anti-Gerasone | Kurt Vonnegut's Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow | A liquid which halts the aging process. A more recent development, super-anti-gerasone, is purported to produce actual rejuvenation. |
| Aphrodisiac | Galactic Civilizations | A substance that increases sex drive, and therefore population growth. It is also used as a trade good. |
| Appolinar | Galerians | Stimulates blood circulation, and as a side effect increases drug absorption. It is dangerous when taken with other drugs as it quickly raises blood concentration and the rate of drug absorption. To be used with caution. |
| Ascomycin | Cities in Flight | The first of what would become a spectrum of drugs conferring effective biological immortality in James Blish's future history, making possible the functionally indefinite lifespans essential to the interstellar "Okie" nomadic-city culture. Discovered by the Pfizner pharmaceutical concern in the second decade of the 21st Century. Confers non-specific immunity to most known human maladies. One dose lasts about 70 years. Not to be confused with the actual drug ascomycin which is an immunosuppressant used to treat autoimmune diseases and to inhibit transplant rejection, and which has no anti-agathic properties. |
| Aslan (aka Mexican A) | The corrections | Mood enhancer |
| Azrael | Azrael by Wolfgang Hohlbein | A secret drug created by German scientists to enhance human skills. Extensive use of the drug causes addiction, hallucinations, and madness. It can also make a group of people's imagination become reality. |
| Berzerk | F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack novel All The Rage | Also known by other names, in modest quantities Berzerk amplifies aggressive tendencies to enhance performance. In larger quantities it results in uncontrollable rage. |
| Betathanatine | Altered Carbon | Betathanatine, also known as "The Reaper" or "Stiff", is a drug which reduces metabolic rate and also cause emotional detachment. Betathanatine is used in military situations to either (implied) make soldiers willingly follow distasteful orders, or to reduce metabolism, body temperature, and life signs to avoid sensors. |
| Blinkmoth Serum | Magic: The Gathering | Blinkmoth serum is created by killing and harvesting blinkmoths. It grants the user extreme intelligence, self-awareness, and understanding. It is extremely addictive, and long-term use leads to physiological changes. |
| Bliss | Nova by Samuel R. Delany | Gold powder found on rocks on some planets at the galactic rim. Effects appear to be heightened concentration and loss of critical judgment. |
| Bliss (2) | DC Comics | A sedative and euphoric drug delivered by the villain of the same name during the "Aftershock" story arc in the Batman comics. |
| Blue ("Blues")[21] | The Bourne Legacy | A fictional medication ("meds", "blues, greens") sent only via courier methods in emergencies, but replenished at least three times per year during follow-up exams involving a disparate number of field agents (thirteen in all). These 'meds', causing headaches and light sensitivity as side effects in the film, are initially the driving force behind the agents surviving and avoiding severe withdrawal. A major expansion off the previous Bourne plots was contrived specifically surrounding the need for these drugs to be designed, manufactured, and administered precisely, but as corporate policies fail and as the time grows short for Aaron Cross - one of the agents in the newer "Outcome" program, succeeding "Briarpatch" - he has broken from protocol mainly due, he learns, from having been 'viraled off' the greens, as they had been "phased out", leaving all physical enhancements "frozen" in place. His musing on being 'viraled off' the 'blues' (which enhance mental capacity, cognitive processes, and synapse re-growth) is his driving force to end his pain and all ties to agency government programs. The science of this fiction can be culled from "Genomics", mentioned prominently in the film.
The "meds" referred to in this film could be considered as much a McGuffin as was what one never sees inside Q. Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" briefcase. |
| Bloodthistle | World of Warcraft | A drug that can only be used by Blood Elves that, while increasing connection to magic, causes addiction and lethal withdrawal. |
| Brilliance | Origin's Privateer | An illicit nootropic (cognitive enhancing) drug |
| Boosterspice | Larry Niven's Known Space stories | A drug used to extend the human lifespan while maintaining good health. It can be used indefinitely. |
| Bubbleshake | Doctor Who novel The Highest Science | An appetite suppressant, which resembles a soft drink. If taken without an accompanying pill it is highly addictive and can lead to memory loss. |
| Buffout | Fallout series | A green tablet that boosts the user's physical attributes for a while, at the risk of addiction. |
| Celestial Cocaine | Exalted | Cocaine extracted from the coca trees grown in Yu-Shan, the home of the gods, and made into a luminous white powder. In addition to providing a powerful high like its lesser cousin, it will strengthen the user's body and mind and allow him to see essence flows for its duration. This drug is not without its risks, however; over the course of its use the user is likely develop fatal trauma. One dose lasts five hours. |
| Chanv | Prince of Nothing | Chanv is an addictive narcotic, although many eschew it because of its uncertain origins. Chanv reputedly sharpens the intellect, extends one's lifespan, and drains the body of all its pigment. It is produced in the nation of Jekhia. |
| Chemical X | The Powerpuff Girls | A black liquid that grants various, apparently permanent, abilities via skin contact. Chemical X gave the Powerpuff Girls their superpowers and gave Mojo Jojo his enhanced intelligence. |
| Clithni | Clark Ashton Smith's The Plutonian Drug[16] | A clear, emerald liquid which is found in geysers located in dormant volcanoes on Ganymede. Clithni has rejuvenative and anagathic properties. |
| Cortexin | DC Comics | Drug used to increase the intelligence of animals to human level in the Kamandi, Hercules Unbound, and other series. |
| Cortexiphan | Fringe | Given to young children during trials in an attempt to stimulate suppressed mental abilities. The trials were ended and most of the children grew up and forgot about their powers. However, once reactivated as adults during a series of Pattern events, the powers became unstable and uncontrollable, resulting in the loss of sanity or even the death of many "Cortexiphan children" and others exposed to their powers. A handful were saved and put into medical comas by Massive Dynamic and Fringe Division until they could be awoken and taught to control their powers. |
| CPH4 | Lucy | An experimental drug capable of increasing mental capacity up to 100%. Negative and positive side effects include, but are not limited to: glowing, bright-blue pupils; pain suppression; polyglotism; knowledge of medical-level anatomy; hyperthymesia; telepathy; intuitive aptitude; genius-level intellect; technopathy; tricho-chromakinesis (changing hair color at will); physical disappearance; mind control; force-field generation; telekinesis; energy/matter manipulation; and space-time manipulation. |
| D-Felon | Galerians | An injectable, it enables users to form an anti-gravity field around an object. This produces an invisible wall that isolates and entraps the object. Depending on their ability, users may be able to move objects they have entrapped. |
| Delmetor | Galerians | Capsule developed to counteract the effects of short-circuiting. It temporarily blocks blood vessels from absorbing drugs and quickly breaks down or neutralizes any drugs remaining in the system. This drug must be taken quickly after a patient has shorted from overuse of ability-enhancement drugs. |
| Deludamol | Grand Theft Auto V | |
| Dimoxinil | The Simpsons | Hair regrowth drug. Requires daily application or regrown hair is lost. The name is an anagram of minoxidil, a compound which is actually used for treatment of male pattern baldness. |
| Dioxynil | Monk - episode Mr. Monk Takes His Medicine, and novels Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii and Mr. Monk Goes to Germany | A medicine prescribed to Adrian Monk for treatment of his obsessive compulsive disorder. It relieves him of his fears and phobias, but also limits his detective skills and changes his personality dramatically. |
| Dr. Porkenheimer's [Boner Juice] | Saturday Night Live episode "Ben Affleck; Nelly" | Erectile-dysfunction drug. |
| Distral | Swallow (film) | An anti-depressant drug which induces rapid dependency. Giving up the drug causes terrible side effects. |
| Drive | Xenogears | Drug used by some persons such as the Gebler forces; causes extreme aggression after ingestion. It could be that it also enhances their physical powers. The drug has terrible overdose effects. |
| Dylar | White Noise | Psychoactive drug supposed to remove the fear of death. |
| Ephemerol | Scanners | Tranquilizer, used as a morning-sickness remedy. A mutagen, it induces telekinetic and telepathic abilities. Ephemerol also suppresses those abilities in adults so affected. Loosely based on thalidomide, a morning-sickness remedy that was discovered to cause physical birth defects. |
| Equanox | Grand Theft Auto III | A Lifestyle drug used to treat numerous conditions such as depression, melancholy, sexual dysfunction, narcolepsy, and such. However, it also comes with a humorously lengthy side-effect list. |
| Eucharist | Empire | A highly addictive performance-enhancing drug, doled out sparingly by the Emperor Golgoth to ensure the loyalty of his Ministers. |
| Ethical Birth Control Pills | Kurt Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House | Drug which totally inhibits the ability to experience sexual pleasure. Originally devised as a means of suppressing the tendency for monkeys to masturbate in public view, it was used, in combination with assisted ("ethical") suicide, to control massive overpopulation. |
| Eye Candy | Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun | A stimulant that allows its users to stay awake and alert for days at a time without getting tired, but illegal because of severe side effects and addiction potential, and popularly used as a recreational drug. Trade in Eye Candy is dominated by the drug lord General Cesar Vega of the Brotherhood of Nod, who is also addicted to it. Its name "Eye Candy" is because the drug is sprayed directly into the eye, from which it rapidly spreads throughout the bloodstream. A large overdose leads to death within a few seconds, during which time there is an extremely large amount of saliva production and foaming at the mouth. |
| Flash | Andromeda | Highly addictive drug, causes improved reflexes, designed for better slipstream navigation. Administered by being dripped into the eyes, causing the iris to turn white. |
| Flaxamax X3 | Tom Goes to the Mayor | A non-approved body-mass-growth stimulant intended for race horses. In the form of a pink powder, the drug is snorted through a straw. Primary use gives the same apparent effects of cocaine. However, use over longer stints results a deepened voice and large amounts of body fat. Late-stage side effects include the drying out of the spinal column as well as the inability to communicate or use simple motor skills. |
| Focusyn | "Brother's Little Helper" episode of The Simpsons | A Ritalin-like drug. |
| The Formula | Heroes | Bestows superhuman abilities. |
| Fukitol | Robin Williams' stand-up comedy; Fukitol website | The commercial name for fukalthanol eutopiata, an all-in-one drug parody designed to maintain positive thoughts through many of life's obstacles and challenges. Are you living the lifestyle? From the official website "Fukitol".[22] |
| Gamma Glipheptin | Mobile Suit Gundam SEED | A liquid stimulant that, when drunk by the Biological CPU pilots of the Earth Alliance, enhances their stamina, reflexes, and reaction time, allowing them to fight on the same level as Coordinators. Gamma Glipheptin has severe withdrawal symptoms, and the fact that the Alliance is the only manufacturer of the drug ensures that its valuable pilots can never rebel against them. |
| GC-161 (Formula 1-6-1) |
The Secret World of Alex Mack | A weight-loss drink that the show's villain, Danielle Atron, tried to market off to consumers nationwide. The main ingredient in this "FDA Approved" substance is GC-161, an extremely dangerous mutagenic compound that can develop various superhuman abilities in those who use it to excess. |
| Gem injections | GURPS | Made of alchemically liquefied gem stones. Injection produces a speed-like high accompanied by the ability to use certain types of magic, depending on what gemstones are used. This drug is popping across several quantum-4 worlds. |
| Gravy | Eclipse Phase | A nano-drug for acclimating to high-gravity environments. It comes in a variety of flavors and is often added as a sauce to food. |
| Gingold extract[18] | DC Comics | Ralph Dibny isolated the extract from the fictional gingold fruit (a favorite of contortionists), and in doing so acquired stretching powers. He used the extract and its results to become the superhero called the Elongated Man. |
| Gleemonex[7][18] | Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy | Anti-depressant that effectively cures depression rather than alleviating the symptoms. It has a blue hue in its synthesized state, but it is distributed as an orange pill. An unfortunate side effect permanently locks users into his/her happiest memory, effectively making the user comatose. Rumor suggests that the drug may contain monkey semen. The proper or common name of Gleemonex is revealed to be Duoroflouriximinimum 602. |
| Happy Trick | Free Collars Kingdom | A silver-based performance-enhancing drug for cats. Extremely powerful, a small amount can enhance the strength of the subject considerably. It also seems to dull pain. Overdoses cause hallucinations, and frequent users often become addicted. |
| Hardovax | Philip K. Dick's Galactic Pot-Healer | A treatment for erectile dysfunction. |
| Homocil | Saturday Night Live | Provides relief for parental anxiety disorder resulting from having a gay child. |
| Hormone K | Ted Chiang's Understand | Experimental drug used to regenerate neurons after severe brain damage. Can exponentially increase intelligence with repeated treatments. |
| Hyper | Shadowrun (Shadowtech sourcebook) | Direct neural stimulator which acts on the nerves connected to the temporal and occipital lobes of the brain. Induces hyperaesthesia, a condition of excessive sensitivity to sensory stimuli. |
| Jet | Fallout series | A powerful cathinone stimulant. After ingestion it causes euphoria and a temporary increase energy and strength. Highly addictive. |
| Jumpstart | Transmetropolitan | An amphetamine-like stimulant, taken orally or smoked. Used to dilute space dust, it is known to cause constipation. |
| Kamikaze | Shadowrun (Shadowtech supplement) | A designer amphetamine, used to increase strength, quickness, and pain tolerance. Long-term use causes permanent damage. |
| Ketracel White | Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | A white liquid drug to which the Jem'Hadar super-soldiers are born addicted, the result of a genetically engineered trait, to keep them obedient. If they fail to receive a steady supply, they turn on each other and/or their superiors, then die. |
| Kerasine | Gunsmith Cats | A liquid drug that can also have effects if inhaled in aerosol form (either intentionally or through burning of the drug). Also referred to as "Powerball". In small doses it induces a trance in which the drugged person is highly susceptible to hypnotic suggestion or brainwashing. In larger doses it can act like PCP, inducing mania and feral strength. |
| Kick[7] | Marvel Comics | An addictive drug used by mutants to enhance their powers. Kuan-Yin Xorn (often referred to as Xorn I by comic fans) became addicted to it, masqueraded as Magneto and then went on a rampage through New York. Later determined to be an aerosol compound for distributing an ancient primordial organism known only as Sublime. |
| KR-3 | Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said | An experimental compound which disrupts the brain's ability to distinguish alternate realities. Even if they do not consume the drug, people involved in the drug user's life can be shifted into an alternate existence based on the drug user's mind. |
| Ladder | Jacob's Ladder | Aggression-enhancing drug created by the U.S. Army's Chemical Warfare division in Saigon during the Vietnam War and tested on American troops in the Mekong Delta, with horrific results. Based on the Army's purported experimentation with a hallucinogenic drug called BZ. |
| Lot Six | Firestarter | Mild hallucinogenic substance designed to induce extrasensory perception in patients. Administered by a government organization known as The Shop to 12 subjects in 1969. Scientifically known as di-lysergic triune acid, but nicknamed "booster acid" by the team developing it. A side effect includes chromosomal mutation. |
| Lady Luck | Red Dwarf | A distillated form of "luck virus" a common virus that causes small amounts of good luck in humans, the drug is a concentrated form that, when applied via injection, grants the recipient uncanny luck for a few minutes; for example, a user can guess a random code on a keyboard. It is also a counter agent to a similar virus that causes Sexual Magnetism. . |
| Magic Potion | Asterix | An elixir brewed by the druid Getafix, it gives the imbiber temporary super-strength and allows a Gaulish village to hold off the Roman Empire. It apparently has permanent effects if one is immersed in the liquid, especially during childhood. An overdose turns the user to stone. It contains fish and petroleum oil; however, beet juice works as well as crude oil and tastes better. |
| Maiden’s Heart | Unhallowed Metropolis | This dark red, heart-shaped root of a brilliant red flower, called Maiden’s Heart for its curious shape, possesses unique medicinal properties. If cooked properly and eaten, this root gives the user extraordinary stamina for a period of time, reducing fatigue and allowing pain to be largely ignored. |
| Mañanacillin | American Flagg! | Combination antibiotic and contraceptive, heavily classified studies show that long-term use leads to sterility. |
| Melange[8][18][23] | Dune series | A substance in the Dune universe only found on the planet Arrakis, where it is produced by the sandworms. It is an addictive geriatric drug that gives the user longer life, greater vitality, and heightened awareness, and can unlock prescience in some subjects (depending upon the dosage and the consumer's biological makeup). It is also used by the Spacing Guild's Navigators to see safe paths through space-time, hence making interstellar travel possible. Also known as the spice. Addictive: whites of the eyes turn blue as a side effect. |
| Melatropin | Galerians | An injectable, it interferes with objects in various ways. It has been proven to have various effects depending on how it is used, such as psychometry for reading minds, scanning for extracting information, and telekinesis for moving objects. |
| Mentamite Five and Mentamite Six | Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman | Created by LexCorp, Mentamite Five is an intelligence booster, but eventually burns out the user's brain. Mentamite Six originally burnt out the user's brain immediately, but Phillip, a Mentamite Five user, corrected the flaw in the formula. |
| Mentats | Fallout series | A pill designed to improve mental ability for a while, at the risk of addiction. It comes in at least three different flavours: berry, orange, and grape, which affect different faculties. A reference to Mentat in the Dune series. |
| Metaphorica | Mad TV | Erectile-dysfunction medicine whose effects are described in metaphors. |
| Miraclo | Hourman by DC Comics | Originally, an orally ingested (later developed for hypodermic spray) drug that gives the user super-strength, and possibly other powers, for the duration of exactly one hour. Used by Hourman. The original version of the drug was heavily addictive, enough so that it caused both the first and second Hourman to give up the costume while they fought their addictions. Eventually, Rick Tyler (the second Hourman) developed a non-addictive variant. |
| Miseth | The Malloreon | Miseth is used commonly as an aphrodisiac. The aphrodisiacal effects are actually side effects. In Sorceress of Darshiva, Sadi said that miseth could "arouse a stick". |
| Mnem | Tarot (series) by Piers Anthony | Mnem (Pronounced Neem) is an illegal memory enhancer, allowing the user precise and complete mental recall. It was often used by students in colleges cramming for exams and the like. Withdrawal and overdose leads to extensive permanent memory loss. Likely named for the mythical titaness Mnemosyne. |
| Mutant Growth Hormone[18] | Marvel Comics | Extracted from superpowered individuals in the Marvel Universe, MGH is usually presented in pill form. It grants temporary powers to whoever takes it. Supposedly, these powers are duplicates of those belonging to whomever the genetic material necessary to make the drug was extracted from, although this seems inconsistent. Usually, the effect is increased strength and aggression. This drug can be refined from superpowered non-mutants as well. Patriot, of the Young Avengers, abused the drug to earn his place on the team. |
| Nalcon | Galerians | An injectable, it enables users to focus their mental energy to produce a powerful shock wave. The shock wave's power depends on how the drug agrees with the user and their mental energy and brain waves. |
| Nardane | Murder, She Wrote: 'The Error of Her Ways' | A tranquilizer, comparable to Amobarbital, but having allergic side effects. |
| Nectar[7] | Haze | A nutritive supplement/steroid/hallucinogen that is used by the paramilitary/pharmaceutical corporation MANTEL Industries. MANTEL's private soldiers are fed Nectar through their advanced battle suits. The drug advances the strength, speed, and senses of the user and renders them incapable of seeing the corpses of living creatures. If a soldier takes too much Nectar at one time, he loses control and attacks anything that moves. If he goes without Nectar for a long time after the first injection, or if the main feed line of his battle suit is severed, he'll go into a near-catatonic depression. |
| No-No Powder | Glitch (video game) | When sniffed, No-No Powder grants the user 6 real-time minutes of unlimited energy and mood, followed by a crash which saps the user's energy and sends them to Hell. Actions made during the No-No rush grant no XP to the user. No-No's effects diminish with each subsequent use. Can be made by players and traded at auction. Signs warning against No-No use can be found in the subway. |
| NZT-48 | Limitless | A nootropic that comes as a small clear pill which vastly increases a user's intelligence. If already smart, the gain is exponential. However, the enhancement is only temporary, requiring long-term commitment, and the user is at risk of death if he/she goes off it for too long. Psychologically addictive, withdrawal causes headaches and nausea. Side effects include blackouts and reduced auditory and visual focus. The later version of NZT at the end of the movie permanently enhances a user's intelligence without the harmful side-effects. |
| Omegendorph | Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy | A highly addictive synthetic opioid peptide |
| Pax | Serenity | Fully known as G-23 paxilon hydrochlorate, it was created by the Alliance and administered to the settlers of the planet Miranda with the intent of making the populace less aggressive. It seemed to work, but rather too well: the populace became totally apathetic, no longer working, eating, or caring about anything, and simply gave up on life, just lying down and letting themselves die. Worse still, roughly a tenth of a percent (0.1%) of the planet's population — about 30,000 individuals — had a drastically inverse response. They became extremely aggressive and borderline feral, mutilating their own bodies, and killing the researchers who had come to investigate. They eventually left the planet and became the much-feared Reavers. |
| Pentazemin | Metal Gear Solid Series | An oral benzodiazepine muscle relaxant; its main use in the games is to steady the hands when firing a sniper rifle. |
| Phazon | Metroid Prime series | Not a drug in the strictest sense, Phazon is a highly radioactive material originating from the planet Phaaze. Although Phazon has extreme bio-mutagenic properties, it can be harnessed and used in small doses to greatly enhance stamina, endurance, and strength. However, given its unpredictable nature, Phazon's effects are nigh impossible to control, making it foolish to think of it as nothing more than a performance enhancer. Its intended mutagenic effects are strong, capable of radically changing, for example, a simple Metroid (which resembles a small, floating jellyfish-like creature) into an enormous, black-carapaced, crab-like beast with glowing red eyes and apparent sentience. Phazon normally takes the form of a glowing, blue liquid or gel, although a stronger, orange-red version has been known. It also exists in a solid state in the form of black Phazon crystals.
It is normally stored in a "Phazon Enhancement Device (PED)", and is used widely by the Space Pirates for performance enhancement, as well as genetic experimentation. By the third Metroid Prime title, the Galactic Federation has begun incorporating PED's into their infantry ranks. Long-term Phazon exposure via PED can cause a condition known as "Phazon Fever" which involves rapid neural degeneration, delirium, and eventually complete insanity. As of the end of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Phazon is assumed to have become non-existent with the destruction of Phaaze, although this remains unconfirmed. |
| Plasmids (Adam & Eve) | BioShock series | An injectable substance that grants various superhuman abilities. Plasmids are refined from a substance called "Adam", which itself is extracted from a previously undiscovered species of slug that resides on the ocean floor. Plasmids work by altering a human's genetic makeup, and can engineered to grant almost any ability. Adam's counterpart, "Eve", also injected and refined from Adam, is used as the fuel source to perform such abilities. |
| Plutonium, aka the Plutonian drug | Clark Ashton Smith's The Plutonian Drug[16] | A fine, white powder derived from fossilized plant material located beneath the frozen gasses that form Pluto's surface, Plutonium sends the user's mind into a strange fugue, wherein he experiences all the moments of the future and the past as a series of bas-relief images stretching off to the right and left. The sensation lasts for up to half an hour, during which time the user can retrace his past experiences or even trace his path into the future. Due to the subjective time it takes to navigate this experience, it seems likely that the user can perceive at most a day or so in either direction. |
| Polydichloric euthimal (PDE) | Outland | An amphetamine-type drug that in the short term makes human beings capable of doing fourteen hours' work in six hours, but in the long term induces psychosis and subsequent death. The name of the drug is the same as that of the explosive used in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and of a molecule simulated in The Relic. |
| Promicin[18] | 4400 | Promicin enables people to use parts of the cerebellum no human has previously used. Promicin's behavior and effect are unpredictable, potentially giving any ability. An injection of promicin has a 50/50 chance of either killing the person taking the injection (due to an aneurysm) or giving them a 4400 ability. |
| Project 5 formulas | The Lawnmower Man (film only) | A collection of drugs designed to increase neurochemical activity and enhance intelligence. Developed and tested on animals, their use on humans is strongly contraindicated. |
| Prozium[8] | Equilibrium | An injected emotion suppressor used to maintain social control in Equilibrium's post-WW3 dystopian society. (The name of this fictional drug was originally "Librium", but that turned out to be the registered trade name of the real anti-anxiety drug chlordiazepoxide. The fictional drug was quickly renamed Prozium). |
| Psycho | Fallout series | A military drug designed to increase the combat effectiveness of soldiers, at the cost of a degree of intelligence. It also carries a risk of addiction. |
| Qirri | The Aspect-Emperor | Qirri is a Nonman drug resembling black powder. It grants increased energy and quicker thought at the price of addiction. Qirri is created from the ashes of a Nonman funeral pyre; however, only the greatest Nonmen, such as Cû’jara-Cinmoi, are burned. |
| Quicken | Culture series | Speeds up the user's neural processes so that time seems to slow down, allowing them to think and have mental conversation (for example with artificial intelligences) in far less time than it appears to take to the outside observer. Secreted from drug glands in genetically engineered beings. |
| Quicksilver | The Invisible Man TV series | Secreted by an artificially implanted gland; when it reaches high levels in the bloodstream it causes psychosis and fierce aggressiveness. This can only be prevented by administering "counteragent" intravenously. |
| Ramjet Proton Energy Pill[24] | Roger Ramjet TV series | Invented by Roger Ramjet, when taken as directed by a physician gives the strength of twenty atom bombs for twenty seconds. |
| Regenerate | Resident Evil: Apocalypse | Regenerate is a skin-care product that uses the T-virus to reanimate dead skin cells, making the user appear younger. Overuse causes zombification. |
| Recovery Capsule | Galerians | Blocks the transmission of pain, causes the rapid synthesis of structural proteins by a cellular division inducer, and promotes healing. It is only to be used in emergencies. Its effectiveness on serious wounds is limited. |
| Red | Galerians | An injectable, it enables a user to excite an object's molecules, causing it to heat up. If this is continued long enough, the object will burst into flame. |
| Ritalout | "Timmy 2000" episode of South Park | Reverses the effects of Ritalin. More specifically, it is taken to remove the obsession for Phil Collins that was induced by taking Ritalin. |
| Ridderall | It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Television series. S05E13 | A fictional amphetamine. Most likely based on a contraction of the real-world prescription drugs methylphenidate and dextroamphetamine, known under the respective trade names Ritalin and Adderall. |
| Royal Jelly Balm | Grim Dawn | An antidote concocted from the secretion of the game's fictional giant wasps by the nomadic people known as the Rovers. |
| Rumble Ball | One Piece | A drug created by Tony Tony Chopper that gives people who eat a Zoan Devil Fruit four new transformations and makes the basic three a lot stronger. It is effective for three minutes, after which it must not be taken again for six hours to prevent dangerous side effects. |
| Sapho | Dune series | Plant root extract used by Mentats to amplify their mental powers; apparently addictive, and stains the lips red. |
| Short | Galerians | Impedes the functions of other drugs. When users of other drugs exceed a certain level of activity they will start to sweat, feel feverish, and have their blood pressure rise. All abilities become uncontrollable and dangerous. Consciousness fades and balance is lost, ultimately leading to death. |
| Silver Serpent Venom | Ultima | A mildly toxic but addictive substance that temporarily increases the user's physical strength. Plays a minor role in the plot of the game Ultima VII. |
| Skip | Galerians | Tablet for stabilizing and increasing mental energy. It lightens the tremendous mental load required to employ an ability and enables a temporary increase in the mental limiter level. Reportedly, this capsule dramatically increases abilities. |
| Slappers | Batman Beyond Babylon 5 episode "TKO" |
In Batman Beyond, a steroid, absorbed through the skin. Based on Venom (see below). In Babylon 5, slang for the acronym SLAP: Synthetic L-dermotropine Analgesic Preparation, a controlled transdermal pain reliever commonly stolen from medical facilities and traded on the black market. |
| Sleep-EX | Rat Race | Fights insomnia; in large doses it can cause unconsciousness in fully awake people. |
| 'Slaught | Warhammer 40,000 | 'Slaught causes bloodlust in users, administered as a combat stim. Addicts eventually require a constant stream of 'Slaught and an antidote. Causes temporary swelling of the blood vessels. Used in penal legions and Chaos cultists. |
| Somnacin | Inception | Intravenous drug that allows the user to share a dream state with other users, all of whom are connected to the same device, known as PASIV. One of the users is the dreamer; the rest of the users' consciousnesses are subjects within the dream. It speeds up brain function, so that time passes at a rate anywhere between 12 and 20 times real time. The drug can be used within the dream state to go into a deeper dream state, in which case the speed of brain function compounds with each dream-within-a-dream. Using the drug multiple times (in the case of the film, four) allows the user to reach 'limbo', a level of subconsciousness not dreamed by any of the users. Continued use prevents the user from being able to experience dreams without it, requiring continued use. |
| Snap | Iain M Banks' Culture Series | Performance enhancer used to increase clarity and perception; produced in genetically engineered drug glands. |
| Snibbo | The World of Beachcomber | Wonder potion or pills capable of tackling various conditions in different programmes. |
| Soma | Vedas, Ayurveda | According to Hindu mythology, this is the elixir of immortality. |
| Soma (2)[18] | Aldous Huxley's Brave New World | An antidepressant which is hallucinogenic if taken in sufficient quantities; developed under governmental subsidies and engineered to have almost no side effects. Large doses cause death by depressing the medulla oblongata's respiration centers. This has no relation to Soma, the brand name of the medicine carisoprodol, a real-world muscle relaxant. In the novel, the hallucinatory effects of the drug are referred to as a "vacation". Typically issued to citizens in tablet form, but can also be prepared as a liquid (for religious services) or vapor (for quieting a mass disturbance). |
| Spaceoline | Isaac Asimov's I'm in Marsport Without Hilda | Medication given to prevent space sickness during interplanetary travel. Users babble, speaking in free association; the ability to react to stimuli (including sexual arousal) is reduced. The legal version is in common use, but slight chemical alterations can transform it into a hazardous, addictive narcotic. |
| Spectrox | Doctor Who episode "The Caves of Androzani" | Prolongs human life to up to twice the normal span. In raw form has a lethal toxic effect. |
| Spice | Dune series | See Melange, above. |
| Spice | Star Wars | Mined medicinal substance used to make various recreational drugs, including glitterstim and ryll. |
| Sproingo | Saturday Night Live episode "Paul Rudd; Beyoncé" | Erectile-dysfunction medication that creates silly noises at erection start and finish. |
| Stim or Stims | various | A common name for performance-enhancing or rapid-healing stimulant drugs in science fiction and video games. |
| Stimutacs | Sealab 2021 | Highly addictive drug including the positive and negative effects of many drugs. Said to be "mostly Kelp" it was later found to contain the poison of the Fugu fish. |
| Stimpacks | StarCraft | Stimpacks are capsules of synthesised adrenaline, aggression hormones, and strong painkillers. They are used by Marines, Marauders, and Firebats to temporarily increase their speed and rate of fire. If a limb is severed, their powered armour injects a dose into the area. Side effects include tissue hemorrhage, manifested as a -10 hitpoint penalty. A unit taking a stimpack groans "Oh yeah!" or "That's the stuff!" Resocialized addicts often use them to calm down, completely opposite the intended purpose. |
| Stroon (Santaclara) | The Instrumentality of Mankind stories | Immortality serum refined from a secretion made by the diseased sheep of Norstrilia. Because it cannot be synthesized or produced elsewhere, the sale of stroon (also called 'Santaclara drug'), eventually makes Norstrilia the wealthiest planet in human-occupied space. |
| Substance D[8][18] | Philip K. Dick novel A Scanner Darkly | A lethally addictive street drug which eventually splits the user's brain into two distinct, combative entities. The 'D' stands for Death. |
| Subtleflower | Two Kinds | An aphrodisiac that can be burned in censers like incense. It's never smoked by any one person; it's like beer at parties in that everyone gets some. Also has a sort of magic about the seeds that causes "soul binding" in marriages. |
| Super Energy Pill | Underdog | A pill that transforms Shoeshine Boy into Underdog, and maintains him at his full powers. In Underdog's own words, "Without my super energy pill I grow weaker, and weaker, and weaker still". |
| Superhuman Drug | Bleach | A fictional drug made by Mayuri Kurotsuchi that enhances the five senses to "superhuman levels". An undiluted dose of the drug causes the senses to speed up trillions of times while the relatively "slow" body fails to keep up, resulting in paralysis; on the other hand, it is implied that a diluted dose of the drug can greatly enhance the user's reaction speed. It is said that it can make one to whom it is administered perceive a single second to last 100 years. |
| Superviagra | Nip/Tuck episode "Conor McNamara, 2026" | A treatment for erectile dysfunction that is similar to Viagra. |
| Timoxeline barbebutenol | Johnny English Reborn | A drug that allows people to be controlled for a brief time before they die of heart failure. Has the same chemical structure as Pentobarbital. |
| Velocity-9 and Velocity-10 | The Flash comics | Addictive drug that gives the user super-speed, created by the supervillain Vandal Savage. |
| T'langen | Breakdown video game | Drug that produces various effects in humans depending on dosage and concentration. Less than 10 percent of those injected survive, with most dying from causes such as respiratory failure and seizures. For those who don't die, the drug creates a yellow, glowing bioluminescence effect around the hands and forearms, increased strength, speed, endurance, and constitution. Also, there is the ability to generate an invisible shield when hit by projectiles or explosives if facing in the direction of the oncoming force, making the user invulnerable to such things. Also, humans can gain the ability to defeat the T'lan, humanoid creatures invulnerable to harm from any direction, by hitting the T'Lan shield with their own shield. At higher doses (those who survive low doses are more likely to survive higher doses), the user can experience even greater strength, speed, endurance, and constitution, along with sometimes also the ability to throw balls of energy, create shockwaves to kill or throw enemies to the ground, high jump, and move extremely quickly for short periods of time. |
| Tain | Adam Lisagor, Sandwich Video | Induces the growth of a lustrous beard, which is not a plaything. |
| Total Health Boost Caplets | The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius | A red-green gel capsule created by the titular character during the episode "The Mighty Wheezers". Temporarily cures the user of all health problems (such as astigmatism and food allergies), and provides the user with superhuman strength, flexibility, endurance, and agility. The only known users are Carl Wheezer, Ebenezer Wheezer, and Martha Wheezer, for whom the drug was invented by the protagonist to make his weekend stay at their home more bearable. |
| Venom[7] | Batman | An experimental and highly addictive super-steroid, used primarily by the villain Bane. It increases physical performance and stamina, but must be taken constantly to avoid severe withdrawal symptoms. |
| Venus Drug | Star Trek episode "Mudd's Women" | Drug that radically enhances the user's physical attractiveness - apparently by placebo effect. |
| Viagrogaine | The Simpsons | A topical rub for bald and impotent men, or as its spokesman Homer Simpson says, "It gives you hair up there and what you need down there". May cause loss of scalp and/or penis. The name is a combination of both the erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra and the hair-growth treatment Rogaine. |
| Vitameatavegamin | "Lucy Does a TV Commercial", I Love Lucy | An elixir containing vitamins, meat, vegetables, minerals, and 23% alcohol. To help people who are "tired, run-down, and listless". |
| Water of power | One Piece | The Water of power or "the water that eats lives" is a drug from Alabasta. When used, it focuses all the consumer's remaining life into strength. When drunk it wears out the body completely, leaving the user only a few minutes to live. |
| Wraith Enzyme | Stargate Atlantis | A red liquid naturally produced and injected by the Wraiths into the victims of their vampiric feedings. It produces effects similar to epinephrine, only longer-lasting. In doses larger than are naturally distributed by the Wraith, users gain exceptional speed, strength, vitality, and reflexes. Side effects include paranoid delusions, anxiety, and lack of rational thought, although it does not affect lucidity. Withdrawal causes extreme pain, nausea, anxiety, and a weakened immune system. Overdose can lead to a stroke or cardiac arrest. The potency of the drug is directly related to the dosage, so those who take higher doses experience bolstered effects. |
| Yinyang Weed | It Opens the Sky | Alien weed whose "flowers were an almost perfect representation of the yin and yang symbol in red and blue, [...] most vicious, addictive drug ever known, because not only was it potent and virtually incurable, it increased the addict's intelligence fivefold and his physical strength two to three times, and he became an inhuman behemoth with the sole desire to destroy anything and everything between himself and his source of supply, able to outlast, outthink, outfight, and outrun anyone of his species". (Theodore Sturgeon's "It Opens the Sky", collected in A Touch of Strange (1958)) |
| Zombie Powder | Zombiepowder. | This powder, made from the remains of corpses and the undead, can be used to make its user immortal. However, since only certain corpses/zombies contain the necessary factor for the drug, it is extremely rare and one of the most prized items in the world. |
| Zupra | Playing for Keeps | A mutagenic teratogen that causes infants to develop super powers in the womb. When taken in a concentrated form, Zupra-EX, it can enhance those powers or cause grown people without powers to develop them. Can cause miscarriages. Unstable. |
Recreational
Drugs used for narcotic, hallucinogenic, or other recreational usage. These drugs tend to be illegal and addictive, sometimes dangerously so.
| Name | Source | Uses & effects |
|---|---|---|
| Aklo | Alan Moore's The Courtyard | Not an actual drug, it is a pre-human language which, if heard after a hit of DMT-7, will cause the user to have severe hallucinations, and subsequently have a new vocabulary and an ability to see the world for what it truly is. |
| Albertine | Rick Moody's, The Albertine Notes | Hallucinogen used in post-apocalyptic New York City to re-live the past. |
| Amasec | Warhammer 40,000 | A mild, liqueur-like beverage, used like wine. Similar to brandy in composition. |
| Ash | Blade: The Series | The actual ash of slain vampires which temporarily grants humans some of a vampire's strength and abilities. Side effects include a thirst for blood which often results in the user eating his own fingers. |
| Bananadine[18] | Berkeley Barb | A joke or hoax psychoactive drug extracted from banana peels. First published in the Berkley Barb, and popularized by The Anarchist Cookbook. |
| Bentlam | E. E. Smith's Gray Lensman | Roughly similar in appearance and intake to fine-cut chewing tobacco. Inexpensive, common, effective, and usually without long-term effects. Produces a "head buzzing" sensation as the juice is swallowed, followed (particularly in large doses) by a lengthy unconsciousness (about one hour per 'unit' of drug). |
| Betaphenethylamine | William Gibson's Neuromancer | Stimulant and hallucinogen, usually administered in the form of dermal patches that can bypass livers and pancreases surgically altered to reject narcotics. Unrelated to the actual neurotransmitter β-Phenylethylamine. |
| Black Lotus | Conan the Barbarian | A drug with euphoric and disorienting properties. The good stuff comes from Stygia and should be chewed slowly. |
| Black Triangles | Suburbia | A narcotic sedative that Keef sells to punk rockers at shows; the tablets resemble small black triangles. A tablet laced in a drink is enough to make a man pass out and vomit, and a character later commits suicide by overdosing on them. |
| Bliss | Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Grant Naylor | A brown powder; makes the user believe (s)he is an omnipotent deity for up to 15 minutes — while at the same time rendering them incapable of as so much as tying their shoes. The after-effect includes severe depression that can last up to 25 years. Addiction can set in simply by looking at it, "which made it very hard for the police to perform drug busts". |
| Bliss | The Wizard of Sunset Strip by Simon Hawke | Thaumaturgically brewed drug. Not physiologically addicting, but the state of peace and serenity it induces is strongly habit-forming, and larger and larger doses of the drug are required to cop the same buzz. Used by at least one necromancer to keep his victims in thrall. |
| Bliss Pellets | Aeon Flux | A pill-like organ rendered from a water creature; its effect is amnesia. |
| Bloodhype | Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth | Also known by such street names as "jaster" and "silly salt". Instantly addictive drug derived from the Hyperion tree only known to grow on a single planet. It affects the entire nervous system, causing intense pleasure. Withdrawal is excruciatingly painful and usually fatal — treatment requires total life support. It is said that an addict will gladly sell everything he or she owns, along with all body parts beyond the minimum needed to inject the drug, for his or her next dose. There is no known way to synthesize it, and the tree from which it is derived was thought to have been deliberately driven to extinction, but drug has reappeared. A large dose was used to defeat the malevolent entity known as the Vom. |
| Blue | The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling | A popular party drug in Newbridge. More dangerous than cocaine, though not as dangerous as Emerald Nightmare. |
| Blue Glass | The Onion | A crystalline euphoric substance that is smoked. Effects include feelings of extreme happiness and optimism, greatly enhanced reflexes, and sexual pleasure, immediately followed by a semi-permanent suicidal catatonia. The duration of effect is five minutes. Featured in a humorous article entitled "CIA Unveils New Ghetto Drugs for '98" (July 9, 1997). |
| Booster | Transcendence (video game) | An addictive narcotic. |
| Bug Powder[18] | Naked Lunch (film) | Yellow powder initially used by exterminators to kill bugs. When injected into the bloodstream it can cause what Joan Lee describes as "a literary high" and may or may not be a hallucinogen. It is also quite habit-forming. |
| Buz | Cerebus the Aardvark | A small cake made of "grain, protein, three vitamins, starches, sugars, an opium derivative, and artificial coloring". One cake of buz per day provides an adult person with balanced nutrition and keeps him or her in a tractable state. It is 100% addictive. |
| Cactus Juice | Avatar: The Last Airbender | The juice of a certain type of cactus in the Si Wong Desert, which apparently causes strange behavior and hallucinations. Likely inspired by the fact that several real cactus species contain the hallucinogenic chemical mescaline. |
| Cake | Brass Eye | A bright-yellow, cake-sized pill from eastern Europe (described chemically as "dimesmeric andersonphosphate",[25][26] which is a "bisturbile cranabolic amphetamoid") which many featured celebrities held as they talked; purportedly affected an area of the brain called "Shatner's Bassoon". Despite pointed, repeated statements that the drug was fictional, David Amess, a British Member of Parliament, was fooled into filming an elaborate video warning against the dangers of Cake, and went as far as to ask about it in Parliament.[27] |
| Can-D | Philip K. Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch | A plant product imported from Ganymede to Mars that allows colonists to escape into a group hallucination based on their Perky Pat layouts, which are fictional analogues of Barbie. |
| Cardamine | Freelancer | A natural product of the ecosystem on the planet Malta, it is found in trace amounts in nearly everything on the planet, including the atmosphere and water. An addictive, mutagenic narcotic, cardamine causes genetic alteration in those who take it, and its withdrawal symptoms are extremely violent and invariably fatal. Any addicts travelling outside Malta's biosphere must therefore take it constantly, apparently via a nasal inhaler. Exposure over generations (refined or not) is known to cause unnatural longevity (natural lifespans more than 110 years) as well as greatly decreased fertility. The drug is trafficked by the criminal faction known as the Outcasts (formed by the original settlers of Malta), and outlawed by all four major Houses. The best available selling price is on the planet Manhattan, although this run is risky for players as Manhattan is located in the centre of House space and there is a significant risk of being discovered on the route. |
| Cerebomb | The Space Bar | A psychedelic compound created by a mixture of local entheogenic flora and fauna (specifically the bleat-bleat eel, flutterweed, Slathercat saliva, and several psychedelic insects) on the Planet of the Auditions. Highly addictive to all life forms, the substance is illegal throughout the universe. |
| Chew-Z | Philip K. Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch | A substance, probably brought back by Palmer Eldritch from the Prox system, that is marketed as a more realistic alternative to Can-D but transports the user to a world controlled by Eldritch. |
| Chronax | Donald Fagen's Morph the Cat | Powerful hallucinogen. Ten milligrams is a fatal dose. |
| Clarity (neuroin) | Minority Report | A highly popular, highly addictive recreational drug with effects similar to heroin. The transparent, gaseous drug is administered using plastic inhalers. |
| Condamine | SF of Cordwainer Smith | Powerful narcotic; it also exists in an enhanced form, super-condamine, lethal except to those infected by the dromozoa of the punishment world Shayol. |
| Crash | EVE Online | One of a category of narcotics known as 'boosters', Crash is a highly addictive substance known to cause heart attacks and seizures. Boosters are available in two forms: a 'standard' form, which causes the expected narcotic effects, and a 'synth' form, which is non-addictive and has no dangerous side-effects. |
| Crystal Twist | (Cyber) C.O.P.S. | A euphoria-inducing drug that takes the form of a green crystal that can be absorbed through the skin (usually via the forehead). So addictive that it is solely responsible for a dramatic increase in crime. When Berserko accidentally overdoses on it, Big Boss teams up with Bulletproof's C.O.P.S. to take it and the dealer Addictem off the street. |
| Cyclomite | Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day | A combination of cyclopropane and dynamite with hallucinatory properties, described as "a reality-modifying explosive". |
| Dancer | William Gibson's Bridge trilogy | An amphetamine-like stimulant, usually snorted or rubbed into the gums. Also referred to as 4-Thiobuscaline. |
| Death's Head Mushroom | Shrooms | A black-tipped mushroom. Ingesting it induces paranoia, hallucinations, identity dissociation, and murderous tendencies. Only grows in Ireland at certain times of the year. |
| Death Sticks | Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones | A powerful narcotic made from the refined extract of Balo mushroom spores. Available as either a smokeable solid or as a liquid for adding to drinks. Induces temporary euphoria and twisted hallucinations. Each successive dose reduces the user's lifespan by increasingly large amounts. Their appearance is similar to cigarettes. |
| Deepweed | Shadowrun | A narcotic made from the dried-out leaves of a deep-water seaweed. Typically rolled into a cigarette and ingested by smoking. Induces forced astral perception on magically active characters, then causes effects similar to Dumpshock when the "high" wears off. Non-Awakened characters do not astrally perceive, but still experience a euphoric sensation upon smoking the drug. |
| Denner Resin | The Name of the Wind | A hard, candy-like substance made from the resin of the denner tree. When it is ingested, the user experiences an initial feeling of euphoria followed by deliriousness, disorientation, and loss of feeling. Extremely addictive, causing users (known as sweet eaters) to be willing to do anything to obtain the resin. Sweet eaters are recognizable by their extremely white teeth, another side effect of the resin. |
| Dilaftin | Millennium, | In one episode of Millennium, Dilaftin is a precursor to MDMA that leads the detectives to discover the identity of a killer. In one episode of Firefly, Dilaftin is a drug that the characters steal to sell for cash. |
| DMT-7 | Alan Moore's The Courtyard | A weak hallucinogen, which in its natural form is produced in the human brain. Trip lasts about 10–15 minutes. Usually taken before a hit of Aklo. |
| DMZ | David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest | Powerful hallucinogen derived from a species of mold. |
| Drencrom | A Clockwork Orange | Ingredient in milk-plus, sold in the Korova Milkbar. Likely a reference to adrenochrome. |
| Dreamgum | Philip José Farmer's Riverworld saga | A hallucinogenic drug provided, alongside alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana, to the human beings living on the River by the mysterious "Ethicals". Delivery method is in the form of a stick of gum, which is chewed. Effects vary widely, including euphoria, sexual arousal and compulsion, and vivid hallucinations, often associated with unpleasant memories. Can be habit-forming. |
| "Dropper" | Looper | A designer drug appearing as a yellowish liquid that is delivered via an eyedropper. Causes opiate-like euphoria and withdrawal. Most (if not all) loopers seem to be addicted to the drug. The name or nature of the drug is not revealed, and could be a real-life drug altered to be delivered to the eyes. |
| Dust | Babylon 5 | A highly illegal drug that induces telepathy. Users commit "telepathic rape", also illegal, by forcibly (and painfully) scanning the minds of other people. Can induce telepathy even in species who have no live telepaths but who had them in their ancestors, such as Narns. Psi Corps developed and produces dust for sale through the black market in hopes of developing telepathic abilities in the non-telepathic ("mundane") population. |
| Dyne | City of Heroes | An addictive narcotic that is peddled by more than one street gang. A stronger version, Superadyne, will provide pain immunity and induce violent tendencies in the user. Overuse of Superadyne will degenerate a user into a Troll, which makes them brainless but gives them superhuman powers. |
| Edge | Class of 1999 | A highly addictive narcotic, sold in vials and abused by a large portion of the student population at Kennedy High School. |
| Electricity | Futurama | While electricity is real, it is often abused by robots in the year 3000, and its effects seem to be psychedelic, with withdrawal symptoms of paranoia. |
| Emerald Nightmare | The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling | A party drug considered one of the more dangerous in Newbridge, as people who use it tend to explode. |
| Energon | Transformers Universe | The Cybertronian fuel of choice - however, consumption of too much in one go can induce a state similar to drunkenness in Transformers, leading to loss of physical co-ordination and giddy euphoria. Must normally be processed in order to be used safely. Raw energon, as seen in Beast Wars, exists in crystalline form, is unstable, and emits radiation dangerous to Transformers of that era, causing electrical surges and worse with prolonged exposure. This is the primary reason for the use of beast forms: to provide shielding from raw energon radiation. |
| Euphoria | Interstate 60 | A highly addictive, government-controlled drug that comes in tubes that resemble glow sticks. The government has taken advantage of how dependent the users become on Euphoria by creating a class of permanent indentured servants who are paid with doses. By regulating Euphoria, the town was able to completely eliminate crime. |
| Excelsior | City of Heroes | A powerful narcotic that raises the normal physical attributes of a human, including an incredibly high pain tolerance. The street gang known as the Freakshow take advantage of the pain tolerance to replace their limbs with cybernetic implants. |
| The Fear | Red Star, Winter Orbit by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson | Causes fear, paranoia, and hallucinations, administered via either pills or injection. Possibly used by espionage and intelligence agencies. |
| Fenrisian Ale | Warhammer 40,000 | Contains a special root extract that suppresses the toxin-filtering abilities of the Promenor, allowing a Space Marine to get drunk. |
| Fisstech | The Witcher | An addictive narcotic similar in appearance and effects to cocaine. Making it involves the use of complex alchemical equipment. |
| Flandrijn | Richard K. Morgan's "The Steel Remains" trilogy | A euphoric narcotic, smoked in a manner similar to opium. |
| Flects | Warhammer 40,000 novel series Ravenor by Dan Abnett. | Shards of glass smuggled from the ruined cities of a world conquered by Chaos which cause delirium when a user looks at them. |
| Flower of Life | Robotech | A plant found on the Invid homeworld, the natural source of protoculture. When the leaves and petals are dried, they become powerful narcotics that affect protoculture-enhanced life-forms. Side effects include brain damage. |
| Forgotten hand | Eclipse Phase | Forgotten hand is a type of "narrative hallucinogen" nano-drug known as a petal. The effects of Forgotten hand comes in three stages. In the first stage, the person believes that one of his hands "detaches and makes a run for it"; they perceive the rest of the world normally, however. In the second stage a new hand that is obviously not human will appear on the person's wrist. Some time after this, about one or two hours, the drug reaches the final stage where to get their hand back they must answer a cryptic question posed by a gnome-like being. |
| Gel | Vice: Project Doom | Originally intended as food for an alien species living on Earth, it is then sold to humans as an addictive recreational drug with terrible side effects. |
| Geoffrey | Get Him to the Greek | A joint "laced with heroin, LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, and [possibly] PCP". When Aaron Green smokes one in Get Him to the Greek, he becomes attracted to "furry walls" and has a heart attack. |
| Gerin Oil | Gerin oil | A highly addictive drug which can cause delusions, disconnection from reality, hallucination, homicidal tendencies, and suicidal behavior. Despite these properties, it is legal, and many prominent politicians are vocal advocates of its use. Scientific name "geriniol" (an anagram of "religion"). |
| Glint[18][23] | Strangers With Candy | Also known as Glow, Glimmer, and Satan's Hairlip. A highly potent and dangerous green goop that requires being smeared on the lips. Made using various household chemicals. Jerry Blank explains, "It's gonna numb it wherever you apply it, which can be a Godsend. I used to apply it liberally back in this donkey show down in Tijuana." When character Poppy tries it, she becomes nearly catatonic, yet is able to climb a rope in gym in under 3 seconds with superhuman strength. She dies shortly after. |
| Glitterstim | Star Wars | A hallucinogenic drug made from spice that may cause temporary psychic abilities. |
| Goofballs | Kingdom of Loathing | An item in the game; it comes in a little amber pill bottle presumably full of said goofballs. If used it produces a 20% increase in strength and moxie. Goofball Withdrawal causes 50% penalty to all stats, and can be cured by sweating out the symptoms for a long time; or instantly by taking more goofballs. Acquired from a suspicious NPC who provides the first bottle to the player for free but charges outrageous prices (starting at 1,000 M and increasing with each subsequent purchase) for later doses. |
| G'Quan Eth seeds | Babylon 5 | The G'Quan Eth plant is a Narn religious plant ritually burned as incense, and its seeds are a narcotic for Centauri when dropped in alcohol. The G'Quan Eth plant is "difficult to grow, expensive to transport, very expensive to own".[28] Whether it affects other species in this way when in alcohol is not clear, but we know that Narn don't seem to use it as a recreational drug (Londo chides G'Kar for Narns: "It's a shame you Narns waste them, burning them as incense"[28]) and that it is illegal to possess on B5 except in religious contexts. The plant is presumably named after Narn spiritual leader G'Quan. |
| Happiness | Farnham's Freehold | A methyl meprobamate-based powder added to beverages, chewing gum, etc. that give the user a calm feeling of happiness. Given to everyone at parties, rationed to servants daily to control them. No apparent side effects. |
| Hazia | The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin | A plant whose root is used as an addictive drug to give visions. It blackens the mouth and causes nervous disorders and eventually death. |
| Honk, Double Honk | Discworld | 'Recreational' (for trolls). |
| Jabroka | Alien Nation | A drug used by the Tenctonese elite to enslave the lower classes of the population. It is described as a powerful narcotic, and even a small amount can induce intense euphoria. However, it is highly addictive, and an overdose for a Tenctonese causes them to mutate and grow to monstrous proportions. To humans, "it tastes like detergent" and has no beneficial effect. |
| Jet | Fallout series | Jet is a powerful, highly addictive meta-amphetamine (invented by Fallout 2 character Myron) which stimulates the central nervous system, combining traits of both hallucinogens and amphetamines. Jet is manufactured from the fumes of fungally infected Brahmin (mutated livestock) feces, and is packaged in the form of an inhaler. In Fallout 2 it boosts the player's stats by 2 action points: 1 strength and 1 perception, and addiction can only be cured with Jet antidote (see above). In Fallout 3 it gives 30 action points. Fallout 2 and 3 both feature side-quests involving Jet. |
| Konlabos / Konlobo | The Rundown | A hallucinogenic fruit that causes temporary paralysis and a slight swelling in the tongue, resulting in slurred speech. Similar in resemblance to a cherimoya. |
| Krinzanz | Richard K. Morgan's "The Steel Remains" trilogy | A stimulant, perhaps similar to amphetamine, either smoked in a rolled-up 'twig' like a cigarillo, or consumed orally as a golden-hued, sticky substance. One quarter-ounce consumed at once keeps the protagonist, Ringil Eskiath, fully alert and fighting through an entire battle without any fatigue. |
| Krrf | Thieves' World | The recreational drug of choice in Sanctuary; the best kind is known as Carronne black. |
| Leeches | Above the Influence | In a nationwide PSA campaign in the United States by the Office of National Drug Control Policy in the early 2000s, an activity called "SLOMming" (standing for "Sticking Leeches On Myself") was depicted as being popular with high-school students looking to get high. Teens were depicted as partaking in this activity due to peer pressure, while the activity itself was depicted as rather distasteful. This sort-of backfired, as some young viewers thought this was a real means of getting high and sought to try it. |
| Lemon Sap | Boneshaker | A drug made by distilling a toxic gas called "Blight" that bubbled out of the earth when Seattle was destroyed. Prolonged use turns the addict into a mindless, zombie-like creature called a 'rotter'. |
| Levitol | Mallworld | A controlled but largely legal recreational drug which enables the consumer to fly. |
| Lho sticks | Warhammer 40,000 | A mildly narcotic, plant-derived substance similar in packaging and use to tobacco cigarettes. |
| Loa Dust | Saints Row 2 | A powerful, addictive hallucinogen made from a combination of potent marijuana and synthetic chemicals, typically smoked. It was created by the Sons of Samedi, who had the market cornered before they were wiped out by the resurgent 3rd Street Saints. |
| Lotus tree | Homer's Odyssey | A plant, possibly native to Libya, with opium-like sedative and narcotic properties. It is believed that the plant may be related to the jujube plant or the date palm. The plant was the sole food of the Lotophagi. |
| m2 | Nine Kinds of Naked | An extremely potent psychedelic which is encountered only in dreams and serves to initiate the user into a secret society based on synchronicity. |
| Martian nori | Transcendence (video game) | A form of seaweed with hallucinogenic effects. |
| Mechanics | Transmetropolitan | Recreational drug taken with the aid of an AI. Both the AI and the human user enjoy hallucinations; the drug causes portions of the human body to develop into cybernetic implants. |
| Merge | Rudy Rucker's Wetware | Recreational drug which temporarily dissolves the user into a liquid. Allows sexual partners to experience each other closely - in a shared puddle. |
| Mindprobes | The Last Book in the Universe | Mindprobes are the preferred method of entertainment after "The Big Shake", preferred to books and television. The Mindprobe allows the user to become a character in a story. Side effects include addiction, memory loss, and secretion of a thick, clear fluid at the injection site (the top of the head). They are shut down at the end of the book. They come in a variety of genres, such as adventure and sexbos (porn). |
| Mimezine[18] | Wild Palms miniseries | A drug giving the illusion of physical reality to holograms. |
| Mist | Prayer of the Rollerboys | A highly addictive, green-glowing liquid that was abused in the movie and supplied by the Roller Boys. It has a special ingredient which sterilizes its users. |
| Mnophka | Clark Ashton Smith's The Plutonian Drug[16] | A narcotic derived on Venus, it has a devastating effect on the human physiology. It causes the user to experience extreme "time-compression" - although he cannot move faster than normal, it seems to him that he senses time flowing at a much higher rate, causing him to suffer sensory overload. Physical tissue trauma is consistent with the amount of subjective time the user has experienced. |
| Molecular Reward | Half Past Human - T. J. Bass | Hallucinogen. Overdose causes users to believe they are a bird, flower, or mushroom. |
| Mood Patches | Doctor Who | In the episode "Gridlock", street traders sell mood patches that induce certain emotions or states, such as Bliss, Anger, Sleep, or Forget. These are designed to help citizens deal with the endlessness of "The Motorway". However, the Bliss patch is discovered to have been extremely addictive, and had mutated into an airborne virus, leading to the city's surface population being wiped out. |
| Moon Rocks | The Simpsons | Rocks from the moon, ground up and freebased by Krusty the Clown. All they do is get him to normal. In reality, "moon rocks" refers to the practice of smoking heroin together with cocaine. |
| Moon Sugar | The Elder Scrolls | Illegal and addictive narcotic found in sugar cane grown in the Tenmar Forest. Causes euphoria and abandon. Refined into Skooma. |
| Morphax-55 | Terminal World | Treatment and prophylactic for "zone sickness" caused by transition between regions with differing physical constants. |
| Nuke[7][8][18] | RoboCop 2 | A powerful, addictive, synthetic, injected narcotic, with effects that resemble those of cocaine. The red color variety in the film is called "Red Ramrod". A blue variety called "Blue Velvet" was under development and unsuccessfully tested by Nuke-cult leader Cain, but the lab was destroyed during a police raid before it could be completed. Several other types mentioned but never seen are White Noise and Black Thunder. |
| Obscura | Warhammer 40,000 | An addictive, psychoactive drug which is typically smoked. |
| Ohxolosvennoy (ohx') | Warhammer 40,000
"Rebel Winter" by Steve Parker |
A thick, salty beverage similar to coffee, made from the powdered bones of Grox (an aggressive and vicious reptilian animal, kept as livestock), various stimulants, and preservatives. |
| Panda B | Climate Survey | A fictional drug used to test the validity of climate and bullying surveys in various public schools. The drug is nonexistent, so if a student claims to have taken the drug their answers are disregarded. |
| Phenyldihydrochloride benzelex | Withnail And I | A presumably rare designer drug in the form of a capsule, offered to Withnail by his dealer, Danny. It is implied that the drug - known on the street as 'the Embalmer' - is extremely potent and dangerous, although its effects are not specified. |
| Pigment | Orpheus: Shades of Gray | AKA black heroin or black H. The drug lowers inhibitions, causes mild euphoria, causes the ability to see ghosts, and in some doses can cause spontaneous astral projection or death. Invented by a Dr. Squib, it is made from condensed sap of the Kakos stromithicarum plant, which is grown while infused with incorporeal "ichor." |
| Plutonian Nyborg | Heavy Metal | An inhaled white powder whose appearance resembles cocaine, and whose effects resemble those of marijuana; used by two alien starship pilots. |
| POS 51 | Formula 51 aka The 51st State | Claimed to be a powerful narcotic, stimulant and hallucinogen. While various tests confirm the claim, in reality the ingredients cancel each other out, making it "the most expensive candy in history", which is why POS stands for "Power Of Suggestion". |
| Prisoner's Honey | Fallen London | Physically transports the ingester into a dream. Multiple people may experience the same dream, which are usually (though not always) quite pleasant. Overuse may lead to "honey-mazing", where the user's body returns from the dream before his or her mind does. Becomes ordinary honey if removed from underground. While Prisoner's Honey is not a controlled substance, a related drug called Gaoler's Honey is one of the few things that are forbidden to buy or sell in the game's setting. |
| Psylenol | Planetfall | A drug stolen from a secret military program and reconditioned to be an over-the-counter psychedelic. |
| PTV | Silent Hill | A drug made from the White Claudia plant, indigenous to the town of Silent Hill, and then sold to tourists. |
| Rapture | Marvel 2099 | A highly addictive recreational drug of which Alchemax is the only legal distributor. |
| Red Death | Bringing Out the Dead (novel and film) | Heroin that is laced with an unknown amino acid. Users overdose more easily, and reversal needs much more naloxone than normal heroin does. |
| Red Eye | Cowboy Bebop | A designer amphetamine, highly illegal and extremely valuable. Delivered in the form of an eye-spray, which cause the user's eyes to go red; hence the name. Users perceive a slowed rate of time, and seem to have incredibly quick reflexes as well as other heightened physical capabilities. In the original Japanese broadcast of the series, Red Eye is referred to as Bloody Eye. This created some confusion when the English dub renamed them Red Eye, though in at least one case, the drug is also referred to as Bloody Eye as well. |
| Red Sand | Mass Effect | A narcotic that uses Element Zero as its base, it is highly illegal. It is connected in some way to biotics, capable of temporarily enhancing the abilities of a biotic and even allowing a non-biotic to briefly acquire powers, but its full effects and use are not clearly presented. Dealing in it is highly frowned upon and it is implied that even many criminal gangs and smugglers will avoid having anything to do with it. Overdose is quite possible, as when a drug dealer was killed by pushing his face into a shipment, causing all four of his eyes to come into contact with his product. |
| Refrain | Code Geass | A highly addictive and illegal deliriant that afflicts abusers with hallucinatory flashbacks to pleasant past experiences. Temporary behavioral abnormality is exhibited while under the influence. Under Britannian law, penalization for possession is comparable to that associated with ordinary narcotics. |
| Rhasvod | Warhammer 40,000
Rebel Winter by Steve Parker |
A vodka-like beverage, popular among Vostroyan Imperial Guard regiments. Note that развод (razvod) means "dilutant" in Russian, and vodka is pure ethanol diluted in water. |
| Romulan Ale | Star Trek | A highly intoxicating alcoholic beverage of Romulan origin with a characteristic blue color. It is illegal in the United Federation of Planets, but most Starfleet officers have sampled it at some point. Dr. McCoy uses it for "medicinal purposes". |
| Pylene 50 | Blake's 7 | A highly addictive drug whose inevitable result is death. Its source is Alpha 7/5, or the Moon Disc, an ovoid, translucent plant which has partial telepathy and can move on its own. This plant grows only on the planet Zondar. |
| Saint | Dante's Cove | An entheogenic drug in the form of a mossy substance that can be eaten or smoked. In non-practitioners it produces a euphoric high, the feeling that one can accomplish anything and is untouchable. For Tresum witches, Saint is a sacrament called "star flower". When burned, it induces visions of the past and future and advances a Tresum practitioner's ability. |
| Scat | The Faculty | Illicit homemade drug sold to other students by Zeke, apparently a stimulant with psychoactive properties. It is shown as a white powder clandestinely hidden in the empty shafts of ballpoint pens. The user inhales the drug directly from the shaft of the pen. Zeke states the drug is "mostly caffeine and other household shit", and therefore it has major diuretic properties. |
| Septus | Transition (novel) | This drug is only manufactured by The Concern on the alternate Earth, Calbefraques. It amplifies the ability of a select few with the natural talent for "flitting" or transitioning to parallel worlds, allowing them to cross over. The user then temporarily inhabits and controls the body of someone in that world, but retains that body's residual idiosyncrasies (such as personality disorders and sexual preferences). |
| Shadow | Blakes 7 (TV series) | This highly addictive and deadly drug was sold by the Terra Nostra |
| Skooma | The Elder Scrolls | An illegal and extremely addictive drug, referenced to real-world opium. The in-game book Confessions of a Dunmer Skooma-Eater is a reference to the real-world novel Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. |
| Slab | Discworld | A recreational drug for trolls. It is technically not a fictional drug, so much as one that has no intoxicating effect on humans. Discworld trolls are silicon-based life-forms; Slab is described as being a mixture of ammonium chloride and radium. Other troll drugs, mostly variants of Slab with worse effects, include Scrape, Slice, Slide, Slunky, Slurp, and Sliver - they all start with "S" so that they're easier to remember. |
| Slo-Mo | Dredd 3D | An addictive drug in Mega-City One that accelerates the brain and senses by about 100 times, making perception of reality decelerate by an equal amount, hence the name. |
| Smile Dip | Gravity Falls episode "The Inconveniencing" | A hallucinogenic candy. It was banned, but Mabel found it in a store that was abandoned before the ban. Under the influence of Smile Dip, Mabel sees things like an aqua-colored dolphin with muscles, horn honks, and four arms that constantly hurl out endless rainbow trails.[29] |
| Snow Crash[18] | Snow Crash | A hallucinogenic drug typically dispensed as a powder to be ingested or snorted. It has a related computer virus that can be transmitted through use of the drug. |
| Somnambutol | American Flagg! | A hallucinogenic barbiturate, used for recreational use in small doses, and in riot control, where it is commonly used in Snowball 99 capsule bullets. |
| Space | Transmetropolitan | A hallucinogen, often taken in the smokeable form space dust. |
| Space Coke | Cheech and Chong's Next Movie | An insanely powerful stimulant of extraterrestrial origin. Its unusual effects on Cheech compose the movie's finale. |
| Space (Bee) Honey | Futurama | Space honey is honey produced by giant space bees with a narcotic (and possibly hallucinogenic) effect, with different effects based on dosage. "One spoonful to calm you down. Two spoonfuls to help you sleep. But three spoonfuls and you'll go into a sleep so deep, you'll never wake up". |
| Spank[18][23] | Grand Theft Auto III | An illegal, addictive narcotic that is referenced early in the game. Its effects are not described, but one mission has the player trapped in a parking lot with "Spanked" suicide bombers who speak maniacally, as if unaware or uncaring of the fact they're about to blow themselves up. An in-game radio station features a call from a person seemingly on the drug, experiencing an excited delirium and paranoia. The name is possibly a play on methamphetamine, nicknamed crank—and heroin, nicknamed smack, suggesting that Spank may be a mixture of the two drugs. |
| Spark | G.I. Joe | Spark causes erratic behavior and is lethal in excessive doses. |
| Spike | The Onion | A stimulant causing a rush of physical strength, inability to feel pain, and sociopathic impulses. Originally developed by the Pentagon as a combat drug. Featured in a humorous article entitled "CIA Unveils New Ghetto Drugs for '98" (July 9, 1997). |
| Spin | Bravestarr
Episode: The Price |
A drug which is absorbed through direct skin contact, and apparently has stimulant and hallucinogenic qualities; high doses and extended use can cause violence and aggression. Withdrawal is apparently equal to that of cocaine. Long-term use and overdose are apparently lethal. |
| Stimutacs | Sealab 2021 | An "herbal dietary supplement", produced from all-natural ingredients (99% kelp, 1% |
| Stonepick | David Ohle's Motorman | A substance that produces a mildly dissociative effect likened to "feeling through cotton" when chewed. |
| Substance D[8][18] | A Scanner Darkly | This drug damps the links between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, causing vivid hallucinations. Also called "Slow Death", it is lethally addictive; long-term use can lead to two separate, mutually unaware personalities. |
| Superadine | City of Heroes | Known as "Supes" on the streets, this is a powerful, man-made narcotic based on various super-soldier formulas. Its effects include increased strength and endurance, as well as heightened confidence. However, it can cause physical mutation and mental degradation in users. A small minority of users demonstrated the ability to actually see and sometimes travel into alternate dimensions, but were driven mad in the process. This phenomenon formed the basis of developing a technological means to duplicate the dimensional effect and allow safe travel. |
| Supercool | Upright Citizens Brigade | A totally legal recreational drug, it was the running gag in Season 2, culminating in the season finale which was a supposed exposé on the drug. Supercool is revealed to be nothing but the popular candy Pixy Stix.[30] |
| Swampweed | Gothic | Hallucinogenic, euphoria-inducing drug, similar to cannabis. In the first game, it was used by the Swamp Camp during meditation to increase their susceptibility to "visions" from The Sleeper. In Gothic 2, it distorted vision and appeared to slow time when used. It comes in different forms of varying potency: Green Novice, Northern Dark, Dreamcall, and Black Rhobar (where it is mixed with tobacco). |
| Swank | The Simpsons | Drug developed by a villain in a movie viewed by Bart and Homer; it is ten times more addictive than marijuana. |
| Synthemesc | A Clockwork Orange | A hallucinogen, its name derived from "synthetic mescaline", in the milk-plus sold in the Korova Milkbar. |
| Tek | Tekwar | An illegal, addictive, mind-altering digital drug in the form of a microchip. The drug has the effect of simulated reality, and taps into "the matrix" hyperspace. |
| Tempus | Transcendence (video game) | An amphetamine that "slows down the user's subjective time". |
| Theobromos | Kage Baker's "The Company" series | A mood-elevating substance when ingested in large quantities. While it refers to theobromine, its effects on immortals are unique: overindulgence causes disorientation, loss of balance, emotional effusiveness, and hangovers. |
| Thionite | E. E. Smith's Lensman series | A highly addictive euphoriant that is involved in the most dangerous illegal drug trafficking in the Lensman universe — possession and processing of it is considered a capital offense. Produced from plants based on the planet Trenco (reputed as the second-most-dangerous planet in the Milky Way, next to Arisia), the final product is a purple powder that is inhaled through the nose in minuscule amounts (no more than a few grains). The user then experiences the simultaneous, complete satisfaction of every desire in his/her mind (noble and base alike) while the user's muscles flex involuntarily in a "muscle-lock". The entire experience (provided it is non-fatal) lasts just minutes. Overdose is fatal and frequent, aided by the drug's nature. |
| Tomacco | The Simpsons, "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)". | A tobacco/tomato hybrid resulting from both plants being exposed to plutonium. It is powerfully addictive and makes users aggressive. |
| Totally Awesome Sweet Alabama Liquid Snake[7] | Metalocalypse | An incredibly potent drug that causes you to "get so high your brains will blow chunks into the Milky Way". It causes you to go insane and leaves your mind a blank slate. It was used by members of the hair metal band Snakes n' Barrels during their reunion concert and caused all but their lead singer, Pickles, to go insane. |
| Trellium-D | Star Trek: Enterprise | In Vulcan physiology Trellium-D causes severe psychotic effects when exposed in large quantities, and addiction in smaller controlled quantities. In either case the compound deteriorates the part of the Vulcan brain that is used to control and suppress emotions. |
| Trinity | The Crow: City of Angels | A potent aphrodisiac, euphoriant, and stimulant. It lasts longer than crack, is more calming than heroin, zips a user up higher than speed, and gives a bigger polychrome blast than primo acid. Addiction come fast, hard, and certain. Trinity comes in the form of a black powder, sold by Judah Earl in glassine envelopes stamped with the symbol of a grinning imp. It is cheap, and easy to make from battery acid, paint thinner, and Epsom salts; the formulation was the product of a genius who was murdered by the gang member Spider Monkey under Judah's orders. |
| Tripwire | Transmetropolitan | A hallucinogen simulator, used and abused by sentient AIs. |
| Triptocaine[7] | Heavy Rain | A narcotic drug that is blue in color and is inhaled through the nose. An 'Essential Painkiller'; 'trip' is the root word from many needed amino acids such as tryptophan, and 'caine' is from the names of many local anesthetics such as Procaine and Lidocaine. Norman Jayden, one of the characters in the video game, has a serious addiction to the drug and suffers from withdrawal attacks. Symptoms of withdrawal include epistaxis, involuntary twitching in the limbs, impairment of hand–eye coordination, weakening of vision, hallucinations associated with use of ARI, and weakening of muscle functions. The only known methods of stopping the attacks are exposure to cold water, wait out and endure the pain, or to take the drug. Norman is fearful of taking Triptocaine to stop his withdrawal attacks because he knows that frequent use or overdosing on the drug is fatal. |
| UltraJet | Fallout series | A super-potent version of Jet especially formulated for ghouls, who are barely affected by ordinary Jet. Humans who take it run the risk of permanent addiction. |
| Ultrazone | Red Dwarf | A mechanoid narcotic, which causes circuit board degradation. |
| U4 | SiN | This is a dangerously addictive narcotic developed by biochemist Elexis Sinclaire. A deliberate effect of the drug is genetic alteration, causing horrible mutations in the user. The drug was developed and distributed for building a bio-engineered army for world conquest. |
| V[7] | True Blood | The blood of vampires. In humans, causes intense euphoria and hallucinations, and psychically connects two or more people if they use it together. Also enhances the senses and strength. It is known to have intense withdrawal effects. Several characters have used it as an aphrodisiac. |
| Valkyr | Max Payne | Highly addictive narcotic in the form of a green, neon liquid that spread rapidly through New York City. Junkies are prone to babbling and unpredictable violence; it produces a complete dissociation from reality and nightmarish hallucinations which can actually be experienced in the video game. Valkyr was developed for American soldiers to fight in war, but was cancelled due to failed results. However, Nicole Horne did not want to discontinue the project and took high risks to get the project going, even killing Max's wife for nearly leaking information. In the film, the drug is a blue liquid and also differs by causing hallucinations that lead to suicide. |
| Vellocet | A Clockwork Orange | Ingredient in milk-plus, sold in the Korova Milkbar. Produces alertness and ultra-violent tendencies; presumably an amphetamine of some sort, given the name. |
| Vertigo | Arrow | A drug created by DC Comics super villain Count Vertigo. It is an extremely strong leisure drug that the Count forcibly tested on dozens of people before completion. Oliver Queen's sister Thea Queen crashes her car while under the influence of Vertigo's drug. |
| Vraxoin | Doctor Who episode "Nightmare of Eden" | Addictive and deadly narcotic drug, also known as "vrax", created from mandrells (alien monsters from the planet Eden). When electrocuted (or perhaps destroyed by high temperature), mandrells are reduced to a fine, grey powder: vraxoin. The drug causes lassitude, happiness, and general well-being, while withdrawals are characterized by paranoid mania. The mandrells of Eden are a "new" source of vraxoin, implying that there was once another source. The fact that planetary customs officers still scan for vraxoin - apparently some decades after the last source was destroyed - implies that either additional sources are known, or that there are considerable stockpiles. Refer to the essay Doctor Who's Drug War: An Investigation into the themes of "Nightmare of Eden" from Earthbound Timelords. |
| White Claudia | Silent Hill series | A highly addictive, hallucinogenic drug cultivated from a plant of the same name (reference to Aglaophotis Plant) which is indigenous to Silent Hill. The cult in Silent Hill ritualistically uses the drug in their religious ceremonies. Additionally, Dr. Michael Kaufmann uses the drug to keep members of the Alchamilla Hospital staff addicted and thus completely loyal to him. |
| Whiz | Mona Lisa Overdrive | A stimulant that is sold in solid pellets, it must be ground up and delivered to the mucous membranes at the back of the throat via an inhaler. Attempting to snort the powder can cause serious damage to the nasal passages. |
| Zyme | Deus Ex | Hallucinogenic, euphoria-inducing drug, also magnifies vision when used. Overdoses can be fatal (only to NPCs, as the player is able to ingest large quantities in a short time with no after-effects aside from the "drunken effect"). Recreational drug of choice in the world of Deus Ex. Many mods have this drug give bullet time and enhanced abilities. |
Other or unspecified
Snake oils can be found here. Also for compounds whose properties are not known.
| Name | Source | Uses and effects |
|---|---|---|
| Aglaophotis | Silent Hill | A red, blood-like liquid used in exorcism, taken from the plant of the same name (see Aglaophotis). It is the base for making White Claudia. It has the ability to dispel demonic forces and grant protection against such forces to those who use the item. Plays a significant role in Silent Hill and the third game, for the game's endings are both determined by whether or not the player uses it. |
| Alkadexabenzathera- podazalamide |
How to Murder Your Wife | Also known in the movie as "goof balls" which, when taken in combination with alcohol, produce an effect of "Ziiiiiip, Flop". "Goof balls" is also a street name for the non-fictional pentobarbital. |
| Blue Nine | Neuromancer | An outlawed psychoactive agent that had been shown to produce acute paranoia and homicidal psychosis in 85% of experimental subjects. |
| Chemical X | The Powerpuff Girls | Originally the substance that resulted in the heroines having super powers, it is a recurring plot element of the show. A catch-all mutagen it can theoretically do anything. |
| Chuinjuatin | Consider Her Ways | Used by a tribe of Venezuelan Indians; apparently enables the user's mind to travel through time and space. |
| Conversion Gel | Portal 2 | The last of the experimental gels, made using pulverized moon rocks. Cave Johnson ingested a quantity of it and eventually died from its toxic effects. When spread in large quantities on a surface, it allows the surface to carry portals if it couldn't previously. |
| Dragon's Breath | Wet | A new and dangerous designer drug being distributed around the world. Specific properties are unknown, although one character describes it as "brutal shit". |
| Experimental Heart Drug | Eagle Eye | No name given other than "experimental heart drug", the purpose of which is to lower heart rate thereby reducing the need for oxygen. |
| Fast-penta | Vorkosigan Saga | A truth serum. Causes the recipient to answer any questions asked without resistance. No side effects. Espionage agencies can induce an artificial allergy in their agents to cause them to go into anaphylactic shock if given this drug, to protect their secrets. |
| Flashback | Hyperion | Addictive; causes user to experience flashbacks to previous life experiences. Needs a brain implant to use. |
| Gladstones | Warhammer 40,000 | Rocks that are slightly psychically reactive. They are held in the user's palm of either hand, or held under the tongue. They provide a sense of well-being (described as a warm, blissful sensation) and sublimeness for days, possibly weeks, on a single use. They are usually a pale stone (commonly yellowish in color), of small form, smooth-sided, rounded and warm to the touch. |
| Green powder | The Silver Chair | When burned, it creates a pleasant drowsy feeling in people who inhale the smoke, and dulls their thinking. Used by the Lady of the Green Kirtle in an attempt to brainwash Eustace Scrubb, Jill Pole, Puddleglum, and Prince Rilian into thinking that Narnia, the Sun, and Aslan are just fantasies. |
| Habafropzipulops | Church of the SubGenius books, pamphlets, and videos | Also known as "Frop" for short. A drug smoked by Church figurehead J. R. "Bob" Dobbs in his pipe, also smoked by other members of the Church of the SubGenius. Its users get high, but without feeling low afterwards, because the high is permanent and the effects never wear off. Frop is quite rare, as it can only grow in Yeti droppings or at the graves of Tibetan holy men. It is superficially similar to marijuana, except the leaves are blue instead of green, and the high it gives is much more enjoyable. It is also an entheogen like peyote, used in SubGenius rituals to give those who smoke it a sense of "Slack" (similar to enlightenment in Buddhism), and is said to have mystical, hallucinogenic, and divine powers. It can also give the feeling that, possibly, all is an illusion. The main side effect is that the drug never wears off, so anyone who smokes it can never go back to normal again. Frop is also an effective brain coolant. |
| Hezekiah's Compound Elixir and Glandular Restorative | The Cabinet of Curiosities | A tonic sold by Hezekiah Pendergast in the 1800s. The tonic was eventually exposed as a lethal blend of cocaine, acetanilid, and alkaloid botanicals. It was the cause of uncounted addictions and deaths, including that of Hezekiah's wife. |
| Infestation Antidote | StarCraft: Brood War | A drug that kills the Zerg Hyperevolutionary virus and reverses its effects. |
| Krippen Virus | I Am Legend | A genetically engineered virus developed by Dr. Alice Krippen as a cure for cancer, the Krippen Virus is a complete success in eliminating the disease of cancer. However, the virus mutates, and the mutated form kills 90% of humanity. The surviving 588 million are almost all people who have been infected by it, and they become "Darkseekers". Similar to vampires or zombies, these are former humans who have lost their mental capacities and are now bloodthirsty cannibalistic monsters, especially wanting to eat the flesh of people who have not been infected by the virus. The Darkseekers also have no melanin in their skin, so they cannot go out in sunlight during the day or go near ultraviolet lights, or else they suffer extreme sunburn and die. Anyone who is bitten by a Darkseeker gets the Krippen Virus into their bloodstream and turns into a Darkseeker themselves. Led by Dr. Robert Neville, a small minority of humanity not exposed to the Krippen Virus, who have somehow managed to survive the attacks of the Darkseekers, seek to develop a vaccine to the Krippen Virus that would turn the Darkseekers back into humans again and restore the human race. |
| LCL | Neon Genesis Evangelion | An oxygenated fluid, breathable by humans, which allows a pilot's nervous system to synchronize with that of an Evangelion mecha. Often erroneously thought to stand for 'Link Connect Liquid', though Gainax states that this is wrong. |
| Metroid Vaccine | Metroid Fusion | A neon-green, faintly luminescent substance containing Metroid cells, the only cure for X-Parasite infestation. Induces Metroid characteristics in those injected with it, including extreme vulnerability to cold and the ability to absorb X parasites for energy in their raw form. It does not, however, visibly alter the injectee's physical appearance. |
| Midnicampum holicithias (AKA Night Howler Serum) | Zootopia | A blue liquid drug produced from the fictional Night Howler Crocus that causes aggressive, psychotic behavior in mammals |
| Monocane | The Invisible Man | Made from an Indian flower, the drug is injected to render the recipient invisible, but unfortunately it has the side effect of inducing insanity. |
| Mutagenic Serum | Fallout 2 | An attempt to reverse the effects of the Forced Evolutionary Virus and restore Super Mutants to their human forms. It fails miserably, instead reducing the mutant to a grisly puddle. |
| Neurostim | StarCraft: Brood War | A drug administered to the Overmind to put it into stasis. |
| Nigel West Dickens's Elixer | Red Dead Redemption | A snake oil sold by con man Nigel West Dickens. According to Dickens, it cures rheumatism, lumbago, acute, chronic, sciatic, neurologic and inflammatory pain, headaches, neuralgia, earache, toothaches, backaches, swellings, sprains, sore chest, throat swelling, contracted cords, contracted muscles, anxiety, ravaged nerves, stiff joints, wrenches, dislocations, cuts, and bruises, as well as providing vigor, vitality, superhuman strength, sight, and accuracy, as well as the ability to chew through steel. But all it does is cause a bad case of diarrhea. |
| Nitrobarb | Family D'Alembert series | Truth serum. Once injected, the subject falls unconscious for 20–30 minutes, then reawakens in a state in which he/she will be compelled to answer any questions asked fully and truthfully. 50% of subjects die after use; possession and use of nitrobarb without Imperial permission is a capital offense. |
| NZT-48 | Limitless movie | A clear pill that, once taken, makes the user smarter and able to focus on certain things better. Can be harmful if addiction occurs; the user must gradually stop taking the pill. |
| P-Base | Resident Evil Outbreak | An unknown compound necessary to create the anti-T-virus serum called Daylight (see above). |
| Potassium metathorinate | "A Bowl of Biskies Makes a Growing Boy" (short story)[31] | A mild euphoriant added to processed foods by corporations in an attempt to strengthen their sales. |
| Propulsion Gel | Portal 2 | Originally developed as a dietetic pudding substitute, propulsion gel is "a sweeter, slightly less non-toxic form of fiberglass insulation". The original intent of the gel was to cause subsequently ingested food to speed through the eater's body before any calories could be absorbed by the digestive system. When spread in large quantities on a surface, it vastly reduces the surface's friction and increases the speed of any objects moving across it. |
| Protoblood | Lexx | A fluid secreted by the Gigashadow. Exposure to protoblood animates the dead. |
| PurBlood | Mount Dragon | A blood substitute developed by the biotechnology company GeneDyne. It consists of human hemoglobin manufactured by altered E. coli, purified using GeneDyne's proprietary GEF purification and artificially encapsulated. Due to flaws in the GEF process, it also causes hemoglobin poisoning and insanity within months. |
| Re-Agent (presumably Reanimation Agent) | Re-Animator | Unnamed, unspecified, glowing-green chemical substance which can resurrect the dead, right down to the molecular level. In a deleted scene in the film, Herbert West is shown using it as a stimulant, and he is apparently quite addicted to it. In the original novella it must be tailored to the individual, whose corpse must be fresh so that brain degeneration does not drive them violently and cannibalistically insane. |
| Repulsion Gel | Portal 2 | Originally developed as a dietetic pudding substitute, repulsion gel is "a sweeter, slightly less non-toxic form of fiberglass insulation". The original intent of the gel was to cause subsequently ingested food to bounce off the stomach walls and out of the eater. When spread in large quantities on a surface, it causes objects to bounce off it.
It is apparently inadvisable to become covered in the gel because, while the exact element composing it is unknown, it is "a lively one, and it does NOT like the human skeleton". |
| Soy sauce | John Dies at the End | A supernatural drug which grants the user, among other things, superhuman cognitive ability, the ability to see beings invisible to normal humans, and the ability to see into the future and past. It is lethal to many, resulting in effects ranging from instantaneous explosion to possession by evil beings. Being a manifestation of a demonic force, it has sentience and seemingly chooses who will and will not take it, and what effects they will experience. |
| Spook | Warhammer 40,000 | Spook is an addictive and highly illegal drug that gives the user temporary psychic powers. Made from ancient human protein. Comes in lurid green powder and a liquid form. |
| Tono-Bungay | Tono-Bungay by H. G. Wells | A tonic marketed as a "cure-all" but with no beneficial effects whatsoever. Based on Coca-Cola. |
| The Cure | X-Men: The Last Stand | A drug that reverses the evolutionary process and deactivates a mutant's superpower(s). |
| ThreeEye | Storm Front, a novel in The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. | Sold as a hallucinogenic street drug, ThreeEye temporarily grants a user The Sight, a wizard's ability to see into the NeverNever (the magical world) and see beings from the NeverNever as they actually are. Users who are not aware of the NeverNever believe that what they see are hallucinations. ThreeEye was also mentioned on The Dresden Files TV series. |
| Unknown invisibility serum | Hollow Man series | An unidentified drug that grants the user invisibility, but because it allows light to pass directly through the subject, the radiation damages the cells and causes physical and mental degradation, slowly killing the person. Implied in Hollow Man 2 that a compound, the Buffer, was developed to counter that particular radiation. It is also implied that the Buffer is partially based on rat poison. |
| White Chrism | Silent Hill | An opaque white liquid, used by the cult of Silent Hill in several of their ceremonies, including the Ritual of the Holy Assumption, and the Crimson Ceremony (Resurrection Spell). |
| Yakov's Elixir | The Inspector General | A snake oil found within the film. |
Nonexistent drugs whose names are used to test accuracy of questionnaires
Some names of fictitious drugs are used in questionnaires by some academic surveys to test the reliability of answers received from students. These drugs include:
- derbisol (slang names "DB", "derbs", "dirt", "wagon wheels", "drum sticks", and "hope". )
- But this drug information web site (in Korean) seems to use "Derbisol" as a trade name for Clobetasol.
- Distinguish from Debrisol, a real enzyme wound-cleaning spray for dogs, horses, pigs, and sheep.
- shimeron
- metabene
- nazuphan (slang names "narz", "fan", and "zee") .
See also
- Fictional elements, isotopes and atomic particles
- List of comic book drugs
- List of fictional toxins
- List of discredited substances
- List of fictional diseases
- Potions in Harry Potter
References
- ↑ Banco, Lindsey Michael. Psychedelic Trips: Travel and Drugs in Contemporary Literature. Queen's University Department of English. April 2008.
- ↑ Hickman, John. "When Science Fiction Writers Used Fictional Drugs: Rise and Fall of the Twentieth-Century Drug Dystopia". Utopian Studies Vol. 20, No. 1. Pp. 141-170. 2009.
- ↑ Osmundsen, Marthe. "The Loss of the Real: Hyper-reality in A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick and Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk". University of Agder Faculty of Humanities and Education - Department of Foreign Languages and Translation. Pg.23. 2012.
- ↑ Dekker, M. The International Journal of the Addictions, Volume 8, Issues 1-3. P.76. 1973.
- ↑ Hagger-Johnson, Gareth. "Alcohol Use in Youth". SQB Topic Overview 3. University of Leeds. January 2011.
- ↑ "Malaria in Britain: Past, present, and future". The National Academy of Sciences. 2003-08-19. doi:10.1073/pnas.1233687100. Retrieved 2010-05-29.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Jensen, K. Thor. 11 Awesomest Fictional Drugs Archived 2012-10-23 at the Wayback Machine.. UGO.com. 22 November 2010.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Madison, David. The Most Memorable Fictional Drugs in Movies and Television. Unreality Magazine. 14 January 2010.
- 1 2 3 "Synopsis: "Walkabout"". Midwinter.com. 1997-11-09. Retrieved 2010-05-29.
- ↑ de beste bron van informatie over panexa
- ↑ "Post-Bachelors Disorder". PHD Comics. 2002-09-30. Retrieved 2010-05-29.
- ↑ "Post-Bachelors Disorder". PHD Comics. Oct 2, 2002. Retrieved 2010-05-29.
- ↑ "Post-Bachelors Disorder". PHD Comics. October 4, 2002. Retrieved 2010-05-29.
- ↑ Blake's 7 - Sevencyclopaedia
- ↑ "Drug to protect against radiation". BBC News. 2008-04-10. Retrieved 2010-05-29.
- 1 2 3 4 "The Plutonian Drug by Clark Ashton Smith". Eldritchdark.com. 2006-10-27. Retrieved 2010-05-29.
- ↑ http://www.sciflicks.com/2001/quotes.html
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Bowman, Donna et al. "Don't bogart that jenkem!: 18 fictional drugs ". The A.V. Club - Inventory. 30 March 2008.
- ↑ http://www.tv.com/shows/harvey-birdman-attorney-at-law/free-magilla-480924/
- ↑ Ablixa (Alipazone), Take Back Tomorrow
- ↑ The Bourne Legacy
- ↑
- 1 2 3 Modell, Josh, Nathan Rabin, and Kyle Ryan. "Fictional Drugs". The A.V. Club - Inventory. 12 May 2011.
- ↑ Roger Ramjet - Episode 1, description of pill starts at 1m 9s.
- ↑ Brass Eye - Cake
- ↑ Memorable quotes for "Brass Eye" Drugs (1997)
- ↑ http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm/cmhansrd/vo/text/60723w10.htm#60723w10.html_wqn10. Retrieved August 29, 2007. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - 1 2 "Synopsis: "By Any Means Necessary"". Midwinter.com. 1995-10-11. Retrieved 2010-05-29.
- ↑ Gravity Falls YouTube clip depicting effects of Smile Dip
- ↑ SUPERCOOL UCB "Agent Mission Feed"
- ↑ Jones, Raymond F. (1973). "A Bowl of Biskies Makes a Growing Boy". In Roger Elwood. The Other Side of Tomorrow. Jove. ISBN 0515039373.
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