Drugs

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Drugs

Culture and Society > Recreation > Drugs

Image from Bernd Helfert

Although its popularity waxes and wanes from culture to culture and from era to era, the use of various pharmaceutical and other methods to alter perceptions and sensations remains a recurrent activity.

Articles

Actualys - Text by Anders Sandberg
The dissolution of reality caused by inability to distinguish virtual from real. Usually caused by heavy use of virches, augmented reality, drugs or nanoprojections.
Ad-Drugs - Text by Todd Drashner
Pharmaceutical advertising; a class of tailored drugs which are either supplied as part of a promotion for a particular product or stimulate a desire to purchase or obtain that product.
Biotics - Text by Anders Sandberg
Biotic drugs consist of genetically modified living plants or animals that are consumed to provide the effect of pharmaceuticals.
Hangover Helper - Text by John B
Originally marketed in the Interplanetary Age as "Doctor Hadrian's Handy Hangover Helper". Variants or copies of this invention remain popular with human nearbaselines or other bionts who might be inclined to excessive use of alcohol on occasion. The Hangover Helper is an inexpensive easily self-administered dose of specialized blood-borne bionano devices that scrub toxins from the system and make other necessary repairs and adjustments, greatly aiding the recovery from alcohol overdose side-effects. The original version was 'not recommended for the metabolically adjusted or endocrine tweaked', but clade-specific variants were quick to emerge, as were variants to counter the aftereffects of other recreational drugs.
Marijuana - Text by Kirran Lochhead Strang
A herbaceous plant from Old Earth in the genus Cannabis, known as a source of psychoactive chemicals. Although once widely considered a very harmful drug, and outlawed, marijuana was eventually made more legal than tobacco in many polities, though later such laws became either irrelevant or unenforceable due to the rise of DNI mediated drugware and easy 'natural' drug production at home.
Narco-Symbiont - Text by Mike Parisi
Also known as Naco-Sym or NarSym. Any small gengineered life form, which affixes itself to a subject's body, and supplies em with small, regular amounts of endorphins or some other pleasure-inducing substance.
Narcotic Programs (Narcograms) - Text by Ryan B
Psychoactive Neural Interfacing: software protocols designed to operate via a biont's DNI or a vec/virtual's processor to generate recreational psychoactive effects.
Nootropics - Text by Ryan B
Any chemical that can boost the biont brain performance or a cognition-enhancing drug that has no significant side effects. Also called smart drugs because of their ability to enhance brain's functions.
Obliviol - Text by Michael Walton
A drug that induces sensory deprivation.
Other Self - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Bionano wetware consisting of drugs and bionanites that causes temporary personality alteration.
Pourmurmide - Text by Anders Sandberg
A nanodevice-drug that rewires the brain of the recipient to experience every situation as meaningful and filled with spiritual power. Persons under the influence of pourmurmide will be quite incapable of acting on their own in society, since any course of action is seen as totally fulfilling, meaningful and destined.
Rat Barrel - Text by Peter Kisner; updated by Steve Bowers
Originally an Interplanetary Age genetics research station, known as the Barrel, located at the Earth/Moon L4 position. The most common species of Rat Provolve, Rattus sapiens, was produced here in 410 AT, as well as many other species. Now a centre of hedonic drug manufacture.
Safeshrooms - Text by Stephen Inniss
Genetically engineered mushrooms, intended to prevent alcohol abuse.
Smart Drug - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
[1] A nootropic, a drug that enhances the functioning of the terragen central nervous system.
[2] A programmable nano-drug, usually customisable, may enhance or alter consciousness or have other purposes.
Tho'rahl'shothan - Text by James Rogers
A landsponge native to the planet To'ul'h Prime, commonly used as a recreational drug.
Tobacco - Text by Anders Sandberg
The prepared leaves of the Old Earth tobacco plant Nicotiniana tabacam, used by Terragen mammals as a drug. The active substance is nicotine, a cholinergic agonist with mild mood and cognition enhancing effects and strong addiction potential. The drug is commonly smoked or chewed.
Virtual Drugs - Text by Todd Drashner with some additions by Steve Bowers
The simulation of the effects of drug use experienced via direct neural interface (or by virtual entities).
White Rabbit - Text by Peter Kisner
Pharm manufactured and exported to some degree by The Rat Barrel.