Recreational drugs in the Trekverse

[F. King Daniel]

We know alcohol is still a thing. People still get drunk in the 23rd and 24th centuries and it's seen as no big deal. But what about recreational drugs? Did Kirk and Bones get stoned at Starfleet Academy? Did early-twenties Beverly and Troi go on nights out with friends and get completely fucked up on strange alien pills someone brought? Has Jean-Luc Picard ever been high?

Certainly Tasha's infamous speech in TNG: "Symbiosis" suggests recreational drugs no longer exist, but Paul Stamets was high as a kite on sporestuff in Discovery and nobody was really bothered. DSC: "Will You Take My Hand" had Tilly get high with an Orion on Kronos and it was played for laughs.

These very different takes may reflect changing attitudes in TV over the decades, but what does it say about the characters in the Star Trek universe?

(EDIT: I asked a similar question two years ago, but thought DSC's contribution to Trek makes it worth revisiting)

 

[DeepSpaceYorks]

This is also one of my perennial preoccupations with the Trek universe but it seems that it is very difficult to discuss in a forum environment. There simply must be recreational and addictive drugs in the Trek universe but the evidence is scanty and often contradictory. Should Tilly's drug use be treated as comedy or should it be taken more seriously? Has medicine developed non addictive forms of recreational drugs? Too many questions not enough answers.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

Should Tilly's drug use be treated as comedy or should it be taken more seriously? Has medicine developed non addictive forms of recreational drugs?

I think a 'single instance' scenario can be played for humour, I think the real issue is the addiction and related repetition rather than the drug-taking itself.

For example, classically cigar or pipe-smoking was considered 'more healthy' than cigarette-smoking not because they are safer (if anything they're the opposite!) but because smokers are likely to have only one pipe/cigar over a period where they might have had 5, 10 or even 20 cigarettes which combined are worse for you.

Non-addictive drugs are also a possibility, particularly if you take the 'profit motive' out of the equation.

 

[Tenacity]

We know alcohol is still a thing. People still get drunk in the 23rd and 24th centuries and it's seen as no big deal.

I think that if a character on the show were getting drunk on a regular basis, it would definitely be a big deal.

Troi getting drunk in FC (I thought) came off as her being inexperienced with alcohol. The whole thing with synahol is that it doesn't get you drunk-intoxicated.

Picard getting drunk in Family was played as a unusual event.

 

[sbk1234]

Harlan Ellison, in his original screenplay for City on the Edge of Forever included crewmembers buying illicit drugs on the Enterprise, so at least by that writer, it was accepted that they were used. However, Roddenberry had other ideas.

The only "drug" frequently seen used on Star Trek has been the holodeck.

 

[Paul Weaver]

The only "drug" frequently seen used on Star Trek has been the holodeck.

Caffeine - Tea (Early Grey, Hot), Coffee (Raktajino)
Alcohol (especially if it's green)

 

[Tenacity]

Harlan Ellison, in his original screenplay for City on the Edge of Forever included crewmembers buying illicit drugs on the Enterprise, so at least by that writer, it was accepted that they were used.

If they were "accepted" then why were the drugs illicit?

 

[lawman]

The whole thing with synahol is that it doesn't get you drunk-intoxicated.

It's not that synthehol doesn't have intoxicating effects — it's that they can be "easily dismissed" (per Data in TNG "Relics"). It's also non-addictive. It's reasonable to assume that future pharmaceutical technology has achieved similar breakthroughs with other recreational substances.

 

[The Wormhole]

Harlan Ellison, in his original screenplay for City on the Edge of Forever included crewmembers buying illicit drugs on the Enterprise, so at least by that writer, it was accepted that they were used. However, Roddenberry had other ideas.

The only "drug" frequently seen used on Star Trek has been the holodeck.

I never really got why the TOS writing staff objected to their being a drug dealer aboard the Enterprise. Given how many evil or corrupt Captains and Admirals there are in Starfleet who have done many things including murdering their crew or whatever or arming primitives with advanced weapons, why can't there be a Lieutenant who is also a drug dealer?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The whole thing with synahol is that it doesn't get you drunk-intoxicated.

Then what's the point?

If they were "accepted" then why were the drugs illicit?

Maybe it's still forbidden to use drugs while on duty. Which would be understandable.

Or perhaps it's a drug that actually is addictive and dangerous.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Maybe it was the idea of a lowly lieutenant being evil rather than the whole badmiral, boss, "power corrupts" thing...

Perhaps they figured that medical conditions like drug addiction, which required outside substances whose effects couldn't be mitigated effectively, would cease to be a problem due to the availability of medical treatments for it, as opposed to character flaws and Human nature, the lust for control/money/sex.

 

[GNDN18]

I never really got why the TOS writing staff objected to their being a drug dealer aboard the Enterpris

Doc Smith's Lensman series is premised, at least in part, on an intergalactic empire advancing on the backs of junkies, so "Just Say No" in space opera goes a ways back. The Lensmen in that series acted more like Joe Friday working the Narco Squad than anything else.

The very first episode of TOS has Vina comparing the Talosians' power of illusion to a narcotic. "Mudd's Women" is about a human trafficker that deals drugs on the side. "This SIde of Paradise" substituted spores for substances and ends with this rousing speech:

KIRK: No, no, Bones. This time we walked out on our own. Maybe we weren't meant for paradise. Maybe we were meant to fight our way through. Struggle, claw our way up, scratch for every inch of the way. Maybe we can't stroll to the music of the lute. We must march to the sound of drums.

Even with COTEOF, Ellison's dealer ends up being condemned to incineration in a supernova, timelooped for eternity. Crime is a bad weed that bears bitter fruit; CRIME DOES NOT PAY is not exactly the sort of copy you'd expect to see on "Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out" recruiting poster.

My point is that if you are looking for anything in TOS to support recreational drug use, you've come to the wrong (head) shop.

 

[The Wormhole]

I'll be honest, I never actually looked at it in the sense of do the crew use drugs but rather, Starfleet has douchebags, so why not drug dealers. But yeah, I guess basic supply and demand would dictate a lack of drug dealers among a bunch of non-users.

Sometimes, I really don't think before I post.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Perhaps they figured that medical conditions like drug addiction, which required outside substances whose effects couldn't be mitigated effectively, would cease to be a problem due to the availability of medical treatments for it, as opposed to character flaws and Human nature, the lust for control/money/sex.

I tend to think that life in the 23rd/24th centuries is fulfilling enough that people in general would not take drugs to escape from it.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

No, they just replace alcohol with "hol"odecks.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Holodecks, yeah, that's a good point. That'd be more addictive than any drug.

 

[The Wormhole]

And holoaddiction is certainly a thing. Barclay, for example.

 

[GNDN18]

And holoaddiction is certainly a thing. Barclay, for example.

True, but “Hollow Pursuits” is another cautionary tale about happiness found in a pill/illusion/game. Anything except a bottle, really.

The irony is that this entire franchise—escapist fare at its finest—is so moralistic about escapism.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The many armed singer lady used a drug and offered it to Riker, Ferengi use beetle snuff.

Drugs still to seem be around, just people make more rational decisions about trading health and self control to feel good.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Give me half an excuse...

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