Recreational drugs in Trek

[F. King Daniel]

Which characters in the Trek universe would you imagine have experimented with recreational drugs? Who, and which ones? And do you think they - or their future equivalents - are more or less available as they are now?

This thread brought to you by American Dad!, whose Director Bullock leaves me the mental image of Picard snorting coke off his ready room desk.

 

[Tosk]

Neelix got high regularly. Fact.

 

[e3jeremey]

I imagine that Quark dabbled in Beatle Snuff quite a bit in his younger years. We know the Grand Negus Zek certainly did.

 

[Gary 11's]

Probably some antics in the mirror universe

 

[retroenzo]

Someone in another thread jokingly mentioned Worf using cocaine in the first couple of seasons of TNG.

I do wonder if some substances currently illegal would be made legal by Trek's time (marijuana for instance), and anything that is currently legal being made illegal (caffeine?)

 

[Gary 11's]

I assumed Chacotay

 

[Gary 11's]

Oops sorry for the last post.

I assumed Chakotay's vision quest gadget is a drug substitute.

 

[exocomp]

I don't think happy people need any kind of drug. Drugs are meant as an evasion from reality. You can see that no one is smoking for example, though alcohol is still in use, and that's a bit puzzling.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I don't think happy people need any kind of drug. Drugs are meant as an evasion from reality. You can see that no one is smoking for example, though alcohol is still in use, and that's a bit puzzling.

not if you take into account that Trek is a mirror of our society.
Alcohol consumption is more socially acceptable than being vegan.
Go figure.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Someone in another thread jokingly mentioned Worf using cocaine in the first couple of seasons of TNG.

That was me, when I first started thinking about this.

I do wonder if some substances currently illegal would be made legal by Trek's time (marijuana for instance), and anything that is currently legal being made illegal (caffeine?)

Trek is bound by today's TV/film standards. And of course today, although rarely depicted on television, loads of people use recreational drugs. Hence my wondering if the same is true "behind the curtain" of the Trek universe.

I'd like to think people in the 23rd and 24th centuries are better educated and better informed than they are today, and that mental health is to a much higher standard. Thus fewer people would turn to drugs to get through the day, to to speak. But surely curiosity is still a thing in the future, and thus some would still experiment.

The only in-universe acknowledgement of recreational drug use I can think of is this infamous "just say no" exchange between Tasha and Wesley from "Symbiosis":

WESLEY: Data, I can understand how this could happen to the Ornarans. What I can't understand is why anyone would voluntarily become dependent on a chemical.

DATA: Voluntary addiction to drugs is a recurrent theme in many cultures.

TASHA: Wesley, no one wants to become dependent. That happens later.

WESLEY: But it does happen. So why do people start?

TASHA: On my home planet, there was so much poverty and violence, that for some the only escape was through drugs.

WESLEY: How can a chemical substance can provide an escape.

TASHA: It doesn't, but it makes you think it does. You have to understand, drugs can make you feel good. They make you feel on top of the world. You're happy, sure of yourself, in control.

WESLEY: But it's artificial.

TASHA: It doesn't feel artificial until the drug wears off. Then you pay the price. Before you know it, you're taking the drug not to feel good, but to keep from feeling bad.

WESLEY: And that's the trap?

TASHA: All you care about is getting your next dosage. Nothing else matters.

WESLEY: I guess I just don't understand.

TASHA: Wesley, I hope you never do.

SOURCE

 

[F. King Daniel]

Another interesting point is, the first draft of "City on the Edge of Forever" (available HERE) featured a drug-dealing Starfleet officer on board the Enterprise, and some addicts among the crew. Roddenberry did not approve, and the part was switched for McCoy accidentally injecting himself with something.

 

[Tenacity]

Drugs are meant as an evasion from reality

In some cases yes, but there are illegal drugs that give you additional energy, give you strength, let you think more clearly, briefly boost your intelligence (so called "SAT drug"), allow you to stay awake for protracted periods of time.

All come with risks.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I don't think happy people need any kind of drug. Drugs are meant as an evasion from reality. You can see that no one is smoking for example, though alcohol is still in use, and that's a bit puzzling.

A quote from I think someone else on this board.

Don't drink to feel good. Drink to feel even better.

Most alcohol use not at Quark's is actually synthehol to the point that it's called out whenever it's real alcohol.

On 'evolved Earth' most recreational drugs are probably not used except by rebelling children. I imagine they still exist but are just less often used and more easily detoxed.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Definitely Janeway. She always slipped a little somethin' somethin' into her coffee when we weren't looking.

(Would actually explain a lot of things that went down in VOY...)

 

[1001001]

T'Pol got hooked on Trellium-D.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Spock had some previous experience with the "One" movement...take from that what you will.

 

[Kevman7987]

At least no one was hooked on monkey phonics.

 

[The Wormhole]

Ketracel White is described as a "narcotic" in Insurrection which always had me wondering what happens if a non-Jem'Hadar consumed it?

Harlan Ellison's original script for City on the Edge of Forever did include a drug dealer and a junkie serving on the Enterprise, though it was a fictional drug.

 

[exocomp]

In am not sure Harlan Ellison got into the spirit of the Star Trek universe. I am glad they didn't take his idea as such but adapted it to make it more startrekky.

 

[Scotchy]

Probably some antics in the mirror universe

I always thought those angry, violent mirror humans would benefit from smoking a little dope.

It seems like the notion of consuming an illicit drug is alive and well. The characters seem to relish Romulan Ale, McCoy even brags he has a dealer that smuggles some bottles across the Neutral Zone for him. The fact that it is illegal seems to heighten the enjoyment of it.
When Scotty goes to 10 forward in search of real liquor Data manages to produce the proverbial Green Drink (later revealed to be, as I recall, Aldebaran whiskey) from Guinan's own stash under the bar.
As far as an "escape from reality" it would seem to me that the holodeck is used that way by characters on the show. Riker and Geordi both "fell in love" on the holodeck while Barclay practically lived there. Geordi even uses the term holodiction.
People have been getting high for as long as they've existed. Some animals even consume things that induce an intoxicating effect, it is what it is. I think as long as the series depicts humans that suffer physical and psychological pain, different drugs will surface in Trek stories from time to time.