Has trek ever dealt with the issue of illegal narcotics?

I Am Spartacus · Post by **I Am Spartacus** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 1:57 am

This is something I've just been wondering about, as it's an issue I'd like to see Trek tackle at some point. They could have easily done it in Voyager. Janeway and crew stumble across a ship that needs repairs, and it turns out to be a gunship tasked with enforcing a ban on a certain drug, but the drugrunners are sometimes armed and put up a fight. Harry ends up trying some of the stuff that he obtained in an effort to get laid for once, and they try to ask the aliens for some kind of rehab treatment for him, only to find that the only thing being tried in the alien homeworld is "just say no" or something of the sort. Hilarity ensues as Harry goes into withdrawal.

I don't know, something like that.

Has Trek ever explicitly tackled this issue?

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 2:21 am

I suppose Ketracel white delt with this issue. The Jem'hadar needed the drug so bad they would do what ever they were told for it. But they would really die with out it so its not really the same thing.

Bryan Moore · Post by **Bryan Moore** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 2:37 am

"Symbiosis" dealt with it in the 1st season of TNG. Directly the product of Reagan era "Say NO to Drugs" campaign. Well done though.

Graham's review of it is pretty thorough.

I Am Spartacus · Post by **I Am Spartacus** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 2:58 am

Bryan Moore wrote:"Symbiosis" dealt with it in the 1st season of TNG. Directly the product of Reagan era "Say NO to Drugs" campaign. Well done though.

Graham's review of it is pretty thorough.

Ah, I see. It's still a situation I'd like to see Trek deal with in the future, given that it's far worse in the real world than it was twenty years ago.

Oh well, /thread I guess.

Bryan Moore · Post by **Bryan Moore** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 3:36 am

How do you suggest they deal with it? The unfortunate fact is, when it's a subject like that, there's only so much you can do about it, before it gets contrived (and not in the charming Trek way). I agree it's a valuable issue, and some of the books have dealt with it and have dealt with interesting things such as anti-intoxicant addictions (In a nutshell: we inject this "anti-heroin" in you to counteract the heroin and neutralize it. Oops now you're abusing the anti-heroin.)

In my opinion, to do it on a TV platform, it might be better to do a long-term message, rather than a single episode. An addiction throughout the series (see House M.D.) or perhaps something that isn't the focal point of the episode, but is a sub-plot that a character continually deals with. It would fit in with the Trek universe without being too cheezeball, yet still delivering a good message.

Similarly, if I remember correctly, there was to be an eposide of TNG in either Season 1 or 2 dealing with homosexuality and a virus that was obviously meant to be future-AIDS, but it was scrapped a very very short time before it was to be put into production. Graham or someone may be able to expand upon this.

I Am Spartacus · Post by **I Am Spartacus** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 3:41 am

Well, although I was half-joking, I did suggest how Voyager could have dealt with it during one episode.

And perhaps it doesn't have to encompass the whole show; perhaps have one character succumb to the addiction to an illegal drug, and show the effect that has on another. In TNG they could have done it with Worf and Alexander, with Worf lamenting how his son has become yet more human and less Klingon and has succumbed to an addiction as a result.

They could make that character's involvement a recurring background story over the course of a single season.

Monroe · Post by **Monroe** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 7:05 am

Enterprise dealt with AIDS / Homosexuality / Drugs in a long plotline.

T'Pol was 'raped' by a mind melder (social undesirable similiar to homosexuality) and contracted a neuro disease (AIDS). She also picked up the habbit of injecting minerals into her blood stream that in high amounts could be lethal and did do some pernament damage (drugs).

edit: In the end it turned out that mind melders (homosexuals) are actually okay in Vulcan (American) society and by raising public awareness of the illness (AIDS) it was defeated.

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 12:38 pm

It's interesting, because the Federation is usually presented as some sort of liberal paradise... and in a culture like that, you might expect that there would be an "anything goes" attitude to recreational drugs, and they would all be legal.

But somehow I can't see Paramount selling that message anytime soon!

The ep "The Neutral Zone" had 21st century Humans being defrosted on the E-D. One of them asked Crusher for a little pick-me-up, and she flat refused him on the grounds that he didn't have a medical need. And in the aforementioned "Symbiosis", Wesley genuinely can't understand why somebody would become a drug addict. Both imply that recreational drug use is pretty much gone in Trek times.

Apart, of course, from alcohol... or synthehol anyway.

Hmmmmmm. Do you suppose there is syntheroin and synthabis? Maybe there are no drug addicts because you have these synthetic substitutes that give you all the high but never harm your body or become chemically addictive?

Post by **Teaos** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 12:42 pm

One can only hope. None Hang over beer.

But I do believe in Nemises they say Romulan ale is illegal. If this is because of what it is or because it romulan we will never know.

celeritas · Post by **celeritas** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:43 am

i always like to think that voyager's "threshold" was an anti-drug episode. it was the only way i could make sense of that episode.

if you take speed, you'll turn into a newt. and then, the morning after, you find out you mated with the captain. kids, stay off amphetamines.

Bryan Moore · Post by **Bryan Moore** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:50 am

GrahamKennedy wrote: Hmmmmmm. Do you suppose there is syntheroin and synthabis? Maybe there are no drug addicts because you have these synthetic substitutes that give you all the high but never harm your body or become chemically addictive?

Ill have to get the article from "The Starfleet Survival Guide" book about the abuse of these substances. I wish it cited sources, as I don't remember this in any episode.

The Wormhole · Post by **The Wormhole** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:58 am

I think the Starfleet Survival Guide made up a lot of the stuff for the purposes of the book.

Bryan Moore · Post by **Bryan Moore** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:00 am

The Wormhole wrote:I think the Starfleet Survival Guide made up a lot of the stuff for the purposes of the book.

I was thinking that. There was enough from the book that dealt with various plot points from episodes, that I wasn't sure if I missed something. I never got to watch every episode Voyager after season 5, and figured anti-intoxicants could have come from that.

The Wormhole · Post by **The Wormhole** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:25 am

Admittedly, I've never read the book, but it wouldn't surprise me if they did make stuff up. I was looking through the Ships of the Line book, which is a collection of images taken from the calendars but with a brief description to explain what's going on. They took some creative liscence there. Example, there's an image of the Columbia NX-02 crashed on a planet with 24th century shuttles landed by it. The book says the planet was in the Gamma Quadrant and that NX-02 was shot down by the Dominion.

FASATrek · Post by **FASATrek** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 12:52 am

Other than the ones mentioned above the only other I can think of is the Venus Drug that Harry Mudd used in Mudds Women. Although it wasnt a narcotic it was addicitve.