History Main / ChemicalMessiah

* ''Film/{{Serenity}}'': The Alliance wants its populations to be docile and peaceful, so it develops the drug Pax (G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate) and [[spoiler:tests it on the planet Miranda, [[GoneHorriblyRight causing most of the population to lie down and die]] and [[GoneHorriblyWrong the rest to turn into the Reavers]]]].

* In ''Literature/StormFront'', the drug Third-Eye has a vaguely NewAge-style following. [[spoiler:It also does seem to give muggles some degree of magical power.]]

!!Examples

* ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' has Neuropozyne; any augmentation that will be moved by the mind requires a neuroprosthetic junction, essentially a chip in the brain that acts as the interface between body and machine (cybernetic arms, legs, eyes, etc). However, this process causes what is described in-game as "nerve scars"; these scars eventually interfere with the integrity of the chip and it causes the body to reject the augmentation. The only way to prevent that is to take weekly doses of Neuropozyne, a drug that's available as a prescription only and whose distribution is heavily monitored which has led to it selling for exorbitant prices on the secondhand market. [[spoiler:Thanks to genetic experiments performed on him when he was an infant, Adam doesn't need Neuropozyne.]]

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* In ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'', the drug Prozium makes people emotionless. The government touts it as the solution for man's tendency to war and strife. Self-administering the drug or dosing is required on a strict schedule. Civilians are trained from a young age to police their peers for signs of emotions, and to report any outbursts of emotion to the authorities. Prozium itself isn't addictive, though going off of it can be difficult as it results in a flood of emotions that are hard to control or hide.

* Creator/OctaviaButler's short story "The Morning and the Evening and the Night" takes place in a setting where a miracle drug had been invented and gone into wide distribution, curing cancer among other things. Unfortunately, the children of people treated by this drug had an upsetting condition that eventually caused them to "drift", lose awareness of the outside world, and start violently attacking their own bodies. Years after the fact, a special diet exists that prolongs the mentally functioning life of people with this condition somewhat, but there's a major stigma against them and people who have it tend to feel doomed.

* In ''Literature/UnderTheDome'', a character known as the "Chef" cooks meth for the BigBad. He regularly [[GettingHighOnTheirOwnSupply uses his own product]] and spends the majority of his time in a meth-induced hyper-religious haze, wherein he believes he's doing God's work.
* In ''Literature/StormFront'', the drug Third-Eye has a vaguely NewAge-style following. [[spoiler:It also does seem to give muggles some degree of magical power.]]

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E21Symbiosis Symbiosis]]" features a medicine supplied to the Ornaran race by the Brekkinas which supposedly cures the former of some sort of illness... except that the medicine is really a drug, curing them of nothing more than severe withdrawal symptoms. Yes, it did cure the Ornarans at one point, but now the people of the planet have become drug addicts.
* ''Series/WildPalms'': The drug Mimezine, used to make holographic images appear more real, has religious overtones, considering that the Scientology-like cult Synthiotics/The New Realism controls the pharmaceutical labs where it's manufactured as well as the media outlets which benefit from its use by consumers. Senator Kreutzer, the BigBad, certainly believes that opening the doors of perception using Mimezine is one of the first steps to enlightenment in the New Realist/Synthiotics paradigm.

* ''VideoGame/FarCry'':
** Yogi and Reggie in ''VideoGame/FarCry4'' are supposed mystics in the country of Kyrat whose religious practices largely consist of getting high on their numerous drugs which they test out on themselves and on [[PlayerCharacter Ajay Ghale]]. Then again, considering their drugs are what enable Ajay to first start experiencing visions of Shangri-La, they may have a point.

* In ''VideoGame/AstralChain'', the Hermits of Zone 09 rely on a FantasticDrug called Blue Evolve, said to prevent [[TheCorruption redshift]]. It also allows them to see and fight chimeras, monstrous entities from the [[EldritchLocation Astral Plane]] that are InvisibleToNormals. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, the drug has some nasty side effects, like turning the user into a chimera themselves and ''merging the real world and the Astral Plane together''.]]

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