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7->''"Now, as I was saying, uh, drugs are bad. You shouldn't do drugs. If you do them, you're bad, because drugs are bad, m'kay. It's a bad thing to do drugs, so don't be bad, by doing drugs, m'kay, that'd be bad. Drugs are bad, m'kay."''
8-->-- '''Mr. Mackey''', ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', "[[Recap/SouthParkS2E4IkesWeeWee Ike's Wee Wee]]"
9
10"Don't do drugs" is a {{stock aesop|s}} that has been [[EnforcedTrope sledgehammered into children's television shows at the request of the United States government]]. It usually results in {{anvilicious}} moralizing and {{very special episode}}s; though it ''can'' also be done ''well,'' with perspective and sincerity, particularly by artists who have firsthand experience with the downside of the drug scene.
11
12Although drugs, both legal and illegal, can have devastating effects on the lives of their users (and have resulted in the untimely deaths of countless people), Drugs Are Bad shows and commercials often [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin exaggerate how bad they actually are]], very commonly becoming a CluelessAesop with all the {{Narm}} associated with it. Often, even the villains of shows, when presented with an opportunity to sell drugs for profit, will decline on the grounds that EvenEvilHasStandards.
13
14Alternatively, drugs make people feel wonderful the first time they take them, but every subsequent time the same drug (or a harder one) makes them feel worse than Hell. But it's too late because they're already "hooked" after the first time, and according to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_drug_theory gateway drug theory]], if you give a teen a marijuana cigarette, he'll inevitably wind up doing something harder. The theory has [[LiesDamnedLiesAndStatistics no proper scientific basis]] whatsoever (some people do, some people don't, and there's been tests done on animals, but it'd be pretty unethical to hand out pot to kids and see how many move on to crack), but science would just get in the way of some [[ScareEmStraight scare tactics]].
15
16On the other hand, many anti-drug advocates would argue that compared to all the rest of the ugly, violent history of the [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnDrugs War on Drugs]], simply advising kids to steer clear of them should be the most obvious, straightforward, and least controversial course of action possible. Although hyperbole can easily sabotage the intended message.
17
18A common way to express this trope is via the character arc DescentIntoAddiction, which depicts a character's gradual slide into addictive behavior.
19
20Note that the full name of the trope should be "''Recreational'' Drugs Are Bad", which is not to say that prescription drugs can't be dangerous when abused (see ''Literature/ValleyOfTheDolls''). [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant If you or the characters take the title at face value]], you've got a case of MistakenForJunkie.
21
22It's hard to disagree that there was a considerable element of hypocrisy in Hollywood producing so many works with this message, considering how widespread drug use has always been in the entertainment industry. While the recent pendulum swing in [[DrugsAreGood the opposite direction]] may mean the industry is now admitting its own issues more honestly, that still may not constitute being ''objective'' about the matter (however one wishes to define objectivity).
23
24Any story about Prohibition Era gangsters is likely to walk an odd tightrope, since Prohibition was rescinded and society no longer condemns alcohol the way it does other drugs, but gangsters murdering people to make a buck off the stuff are still likely to be portrayed very negatively (though, like [[{{Pirate}} pirates,]] they're also likely to be [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster highly romanticized]]).
25
26See also TheAggressiveDrugDealer, that monster from the [[TheEighties '80s]] and [[TheNineties '90s]] who finds middle-class suburbanite kids wherever they are and ''forces'' them to take his drugs. Contrast FunctionalAddict, where the negative effects of drugs are not portrayed as intensely. See also AddledAddict and DrunkDriver. See also RecoveredAddict, who often delivers this Aesop, SmokingIsNotCool, where the moral is specifically about the downsides of tobacco, and the AntiAlcoholAesop, which is about the dangers of drinking alcohol specifically. A song with this message is an OdeToSobriety. For the opposite of this trope, when drugs and drug use are portrayed positively, see DrugsAreGood or HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs. Compare and contrast to {{Anvilicious}}.
27
28''[[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease Please don't use real-life examples.]] This page is not about whether drugs are actually bad; it is about how said badness is depicted in the media.''
29
30----
31!!Example subpages:
32
33[[index]]
34* DrugsAreBad/LiveActionTV
35** ''DrugsAreBad/OneThousandWaysToDie''
36* DrugsAreBad/VideoGames
37* DrugsAreBad/WesternAnimation
38[[/index]]
39
40!!Other examples
41[[foldercontrol]]
42
43[[folder:Advertising]]
44* The famous [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl5gBJGnaXs "This Is Your Brain On Drugs"]] TV PublicServiceAnnouncement.
45** Parodied in a Bizarro comic which has four images: Your Brain=An egg, Your Brain on drugs= A fried egg, Your Brain with Bacon= A fried egg with Bacon, Your brain's mother= A hen.
46** Also parodied by the ''Freak Brothers''; "This is your brain" (an egg), "This is drugs" (a frying pan), "This is your brain on drugs, any questions?" (an actual brain dangled by the spinal cord).
47** ''Music/{{Gorillaz}}'' uses a 15-second version snippet of the PSA at the beginning of the music video [[https://youtu.be/GzJGWAfmBco Sleeping Powder]]. This makes sense, since 2D took pills, became addicted to painkillers, and was given sleeping powder by a random woman to ease his stage anxeity and depression, which caused him to fumble in and out of consciousness and not in the right state of his own mind in general.
48** Parodied when MTV showed ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': "This is your brain. This is your brain on [=SpongeBob=]!"
49** Parodied in ''Series/TheGoldbergs'' episode "Muscles Mirsky".
50* The aforementioned PSA was later remade in TheNineties as the unforgettable [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyXFN4ocN_o "This Is Your Brain On Heroin"]], which starred Creator/RachaelLeighCook trashing a kitchen with a frying pan to show the damage that drugs do not only to their users but to the people around them.
51** And then there's the great ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' parody [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4H517oi7pU of the '90s version]].
52** Ironically, twenty years later, Cook herself would turn the message on its head and remake the ad as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKXN6Vdr3g0 "Your Brain on Drug Policy"]], a vicious excoriation of the War on Drugs and the damage it does to working-class people and communities (especially people of color).
53* Avoided in commercials running on Canadian television: the message isn't that smoking marijuana is going to ruin your life, but that getting high and then driving, like drinking and driving, is a stupid idea.
54** They've dabbled in it during TheOughties but backed down.
55* Wrestling/CaptainLouAlbano had a pretty infamous one where he explicitly stated (on [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids for a TV station's kids block]] in UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}) that "if you do drugs, [[ScareEmStraight you go to Hell]] [[MindScrew before you die]]"; Not helping the fact is that he appeared in the commercial in his costume from ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow''.
56* One Ad Council PublicServiceAnnouncement has a girl's dog tell her he wishes she would stop smoking marijuana. (Hmmm, if she was high, that might happen...) Left unsaid was that if your dog is talking to you, you have much larger problems than smoking marijuana. The dog talking ad is brilliantly parodied by ''Website/CollegeHumor'' [[http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1815712 here]].
57** This kind of PSA is parodied in ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle'' when the titular characters are watching television. One teen pressures another teen into smoking marijuana; shortly afterwards, the kid grabs a rifle, aims it directly [[TooDumbToLive at his face]], and pulls the trigger, thinking that he's invincible. Cue the SpaceWhaleAesop.
58*** This was probably a direct parody of an ad that pretty much had that same set-up: two thirteen-year-old boys are smoking marijuana in one boy's father's office, and the father left a gun on the table. One boy asks if it's loaded; the other said no and shot it at his friend, not realising it actually ''was'' loaded and apparently killing his friend.
59* The British ''Talk To FRANK'' service originated as a comparatively neutral source of information about drugs, but gradually started becoming more and more {{Anvilicious}} in their advertising.
60** [[http://www.talktofrank.com/spliff-pinball Case in point.]]
61* The BrokenAesop shown at the top of this page, where the Washington, D.C. based "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peoples_Drug Peoples Drug]]" had notices on their shopping bags not to use the very type of product which is ''part of their name''. Might be one of the reasons they ended up being sold to the [=CVS=] drugstore chain.
62** Indianapolis-based [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook%27s_Drug_Stores Hook's Drug]] was one of these waiting to happen, too. Also sold to CVS.
63** There is also [[http://www.dreamshore.net/bluejay/images/cosmosdrugs.jpg this...]]
64* In a ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqtY88BUi0M PSA]], the turtles' anti-drugs message is undermined by Michelangelo's anti-munchies advice: "Get a pizza!". It also contains a hilariously LameComeback to an insult: "I'm not a chicken; you're a turkey!"
65** Calling someone a "chicken" is technically a bad insult already.
66* A PSA made for the movie ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'' showed the dangers of alcohol abuse.
67* Paul Reubens (in-character as Pee Wee Herman) made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHFnc_eV4Lg this]] anti-crack PSA as a part of his community service after his arrest for pleasuring himself in an X-rated movie theatre.
68* The infamous "I tried pot once, now I'm gay" print ad by Christians For Michele Bachmann (a satirical group).
69* Recently, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbmDGr3AEs0 The Real Cost of Smoking]]" ads focus on some of the most superficial effects smoking has, appealing to younger smokers' vanity.
70* There was a PSA on The N back in TheNoughties where an old man sang about tobacco to some teenagers.
71* This trope was the subject of a famous [[http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bhzCv8TX6kY McGruff The Crime Dog PSA]] that ran for 25 years on kids' programming in the United States.
72* There are some pretty whacked out (and downright NightmareFuel ones) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCHzdNzMX6Y here]].
73* The Advertising/PartnershipToEndAddiction (formerly the Partnership for a Drug Free America) has many other [=PSAs=] besides the ones mentioned above such as one from 2006 in which text that appears over a photo tells a true story about a couple that were high on meth who, while lost in a blizzard, wound up freezing to death before help could reach them. All while the actual 911 call they made plays throughout. (This is the RealLife basis for the film ''Lost Signal''.)
74* In the '90s, the Mexican television station TV Azteca ran an ad campaign aimed at children called Advertising/ViveSinDrogas ("Live Without Drugs"), consisting of two commercials wherein an anthropomorphic flower rapped about the dangers of doing drugs while a nearby boy failed to listen and died from an overdose.
75* ''Advertising/SupermanVsNickOTeen'' is dedicated to teaching children that cigarettes are harmful, by showing the heroic Franchise/{{Superman}} fighting a new villain named Nick O'Teen, TheAggressiveDrugDealer who tries to convince children that smoking is okay before handing cigarettes to them. Superman stops Nick O'Teen and crushes the cigarettes while telling the audience how harmful they are.
76* The Truth Initiative has a series of ads campaigning against smoking and vaping:
77** Their [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex9VJv0_XFM "It's A Trap"]] ad, which uses live-action versions of memes from the 2000's to dissuade teens and young adults from cigarette smoking and/or vaping. The ad was released in 2016, which makes those memes dated.
78** Their anti-vaping ads that feature puppets that talk about the subject. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcoaHBd6wYE One particular ad]] has two puppets about to kiss when [[MomentKiller one of them barfs up cloth upon the other]], saying that vaping weakens your immune system.
79** Their "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwyY6op9Bbk Twinkle, Twinkle Little Dick]]" ad, which suggests that [[TheLoinsSleepTonight smoking causes impotence in young men]], and possibly makes men go out with other men.
80[[/folder]]
81
82[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
83* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'' has Giorno Giovanna join the mafia in part so he and the others in his RagtagBunchOfMisfits can [[InternalReformist shut down the mafia's drug empire from the inside]].
84* An addiction to drugs was the cause of [[spoiler: Gilbert]]'s death in ''Manga/KazeToKiNoUta'', along with forgetting to LookBothWays.
85* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', there's the drug "Refrain", which helps the user not worry about the bad things. Anyone not using it are against it and [[WellIntentionedExtremist willing to go to extremes to get rid of it (such as sinking a freighter carrying trace amounts of it). Of course, that's because it's addictive, and seemingly causes neural degeneration]]. The one user with a name starts off dropping breakable things all the time, then, after taking a dose, spends the next season and a half in a bed, incapable of moving under her own power, and doesn't speak. It's fairly reminiscent of a stroke victim. And that's not even getting into the fact that its heavily implied to be [[FinalSolution specifically engineered as a weapon against the Numbers]] (before all the side effects, it lets the users relieve happier memories, so it's very popular with the conquered citizens).
86* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed'' and ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' there's the drug used to make Naturals able to fight on par with Coordinators, with the result of getting mentally unstable, psychotic pilots, who need a new injection every few hours. Anyone ever seen using the drug dies a more horrible death than anyone else (except for Stella, who dies in Shinn's arms).
87* In ''Manga/CityHunter'', Ryo Saeba takes a special interest in cases involving drugs, and tries his hardest to help his clients kick any addictions they may have. [[spoiler:This is because, as a {{Child Soldier|s}} in South America, he was forced to take an experimental LSD derivative that gifted him with his preternatural physical capabilities, but was highly addictive and dangerous. His interest is in preventing others from going through the hells of addiction that he had to endure.]]
88* In ''Literature/FullMetalPanic'', one of the more focused on aspects of the evil of [[NebulousEvilOrganisation Amalgam]] is the fact that they drug the girls they kidnap along with their AS pilots (in order to induce the AxCrazy psychological effects necessary). The fact that the organization goes around causing ''wars'' and ''mass destruction'' doesn't seem to hit Sousuke nearly as hard as the fact that they kidnap and drug girls (causing them to go crazy and become addicted). Then again, death has never been considered very important or horrible in [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror Sousuke]]'s mind...
89* One issue of ''Manga/{{Gantz}}'' featured a rival team whose use of drugs (and listening to music) during a mission was used to show how irresponsible they were. It also featured a hilarious overreaction on the part of the protagonists. "That ain't tobacco! It's grass... weed... ''ganja!''"
90* Alec Peterson of ''Anime/HelloSandybell'' grew up with a drug addict father. On bad days, when the drugs were driving him crazy, he would frequently assault Alec, his mother and his sister. As a result, he has a burning hatred for drugs and those who deal them.
91* Even ''Manga/OnePiece'' shows the evil of drugs. The FantasticDrug, Energy Steroids that the New Fishman pirates used to get themselves strength boosts comes back to bite them in the butt when [[spoiler: it causes them to age into old, frail men]].
92* One episode of the English ''Anime/SailorMoon'' dub had this line in a [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle Sailor Says]] segment:
93-->'''Serena:''' As long as we don't get into things other people want, like drugs and other bad stuff!
94* In the episode of ''[[Anime/TokyoMewMew Mew Mew Power]]'' where Kiki becomes a Mew Mew, when Kiki asks for a tip (she was asking for the kind of tip with money), Zoey tells her, "Don't do drugs, and stay in school!"
95* There are several times in ''Manga/ACruelGodReigns'' where Ian flips out on Jeremy either because he thinks he has been buying/taking drugs or Jeremy actually has been taking drugs, though in both cases Ian reacts perhaps a little ''too'' extremely.
96* Michel has this reaction in ''Manga/CopernicusBreathing'' when he finds's Bird's Nest stash of drugs. He doesn't ask what they are, why Bird's Nest has them, or whether or not they were prescription. He just takes them and assumes the worst. Which, in his defense, is probably the correct assumption.
97* In the ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' manga, Leigharch is implied to have gone irreversibly insane after snorting too much coke in the manga. In the anime, his drug of choice is marijuana rather than cocaine.
98* In ''Manga/{{Jormungand}}'', this appears in the background of "The Hill of Ruin" arc. Koko, an arms dealer, ruthlessly refuses payment in drugs, but that may be simply related to her rule of not accepting credit. Lutz justifies the group's refusal (in the spectacular fashion of murdering an entire group of would-be drug dealers) by simply stating "[[EverybodyHasStandards We aren't drug dealers]]." Ugo himself, an ex-mafia member before joining the bodyguard team, is the only one spared in a flashback incident of this when he looks in disgust at his boss paying Koko in drugs by recalling how his brother lost his life to drugs.
99* ''Manga/{{Holyland}}'' examples:
100** Kato, the delinquent expelled from Sawakoh, is explicitly shown to be a junkie, and is one of the viler characters in the show, introducing himself by having [[NiceGuy Shin]] [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beaten within an inch of his life]] because, in his own words when asked about it, [[ForTheEvulz he was out of drugs at the moment]].
101** The final story arc is pushed by [[BigBad King]] introducing the new and extremely addictive drug True to the area, causing enormous damage by not only getting people addicted (including a few friends of the protagonist) but also trying to take over the local gangs and causing enough of a mess that the {{Yakuza}} threatens to get involved. [[EvenEvilHasStandards That said, King and his gang find Kato too insane to let him join]].
102* In ''Manga/CellsAtWorkCodeBlack'', the host body has been abusing [[MustHaveNicotine nicotine]] and [[TheAlcoholic alcohol]] for a pretty long time, and the cells are overworked at trying to keep the system chugging on all the while being negatively affected by their host body's terrible habits (which also include an unhealthy diet and a lack of exercise). It all culminates in [[spoiler:the body undergoing a near fatal heart attack that is essentially TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt for the cells. Thankfully, doctors are able to resuscitate the body and clear out the clogged artery that caused the heart attack, plus this serves as a wake-up call to the host to start taking better care of himself]].
103* ''Manga/Metamorphosis2013'': Saki's downfall starts when Hayato plies her with booze and drugs. She gets hooked on having sex with him while high, and her addictions eventually escalate to the point that she takes payment for her sex work in drugs rather than money. After getting hooked on heroin, she tries to go sober after learning she's pregnant, but falls OffTheWagon due to the severe pain of withdrawal, and eventually dies from an overdose.
104[[/folder]]
105
106[[folder:Asian Animation]]
107* ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf:'' In ''Happy, Happy, Bang, Bang!'' episode 50, Wilie almost accidientally drinks/sniffs glue after doing homework, but Wolffy stops him from doing so. And yes, drinking or sniffing glue is on the same level of bad as doing drugs. Even the Chinese text on the glue label is very obvious.
108[[/folder]]
109
110[[folder:Comedy]]
111* Creator/BillHicks attacked this idea without mercy.
112-->'''Bill Hicks:''' You see, I think drugs have done some good things for us. I really do. And if you don't believe drugs have done good things for us, do me a favor. Go home tonight. Take all your albums, all your tapes and all your [=CDs=] and burn them. 'Cause you know what, the musicians that made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years? Rrrrrreal fucking high on drugs. The Beatles were so fucking high they let Ringo sing a few tunes.[[note]]If this sounds familiar the original audio of this bit (minus the last sentence about The Beatles) is part of the into to Music/{{Tool}}'s "Third Eye", a song that's very much ''not'' this trope[[/note]]
113* The Creator/CheechAndChong comedy skit "Sgt. Stadanko" from ''AudioPlay/LosCochinos'', where the titular character tries to convince the class of students that marijuana is a dangerous drug to deal with. This message goes over as well as you would expect it would with a bunch of Catholic high-school students that are being portrayed by the comedy duo. Plus the narcotics officer is so doped up that when a fight breaks out in the classroom, [[PoliceAreUseless he ends up calling the police]].
114[[/folder]]
115
116[[folder:Comic Books]]
117* MANY ''ComicBook/TandyComputerWhizKids'' comics contained anti-drug messages.
118* ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} has this trope applied to him a few times:
119** There was an entire ''Wolverine'' comic arc featuring PsychoSerum cocaine which, after a while, ''turned into a horrific monster from the dawn of humanity''. "[[SpaceWhaleAesop That's right, kids, take crack and you may well turn into a horrific blobby goo abomination.]]"
120** For years, Wolverine was depicted with a big smelly cigar in his mouth, explicitly pointing out that his HealingFactor makes him immune to its bad health effects. When Logan [[BroughtDownToNormal lost his powers]] briefly in the 2000s, he tried smoking as a normal human and suddenly realized it was ''disgusting.'' Even after getting his powers back, he hasn't smoked since.
121* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' occasionally deals with this; in fact, it was what ended up doing in UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode, as they would not let Creator/StanLee publish an anti-drug issue, even though drugs were portrayed in nothing but a negative light ''and the United States Government had asked Stan to produce the issue'', solely because it portrayed drugs at all, leading Marvel to publish the story without Code approval.
122* In ''ComicBook/TheNewGuardians'' #2, Snowflame, [[AddictionPowered a supervillain powered by Cocaine]], proving not only that Drugs are Bad but [[BrokenAesop sometimes they give you superpowers!]] (Ironically, Snowflame's sheer [[LargeHam hammy]] insanity ended up being a huge hit when [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] dug the comic out for a review, and he became known as [[EnsembleDarkhorse basically the best thing to come out of that series]]. He even got [[WebComic/{{Snowflame}} his own webcomic]]!)
123* ''ComicBook/CloakAndDaggerMarvelComics'': Cloak and Dagger got their powers after being forcibly used as guinea pigs by drug dealers to test a new type of heroin. This was ''not'' a benefit to them. Cloak has one of the worst cases of BlessedWithSuck in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse. And they were the lucky ones; most of the other test subjects didn't survive. (As you might guess, most of the duo's enemies are drug dealers.)
124* Two examples featuring Green Arrow's former sidekick Speedy (now Arsenal):
125** The infamous ''Snowbirds Don't Fly'' two-parter VerySpecialEpisode of ''ComicBook/GreenArrow/ Franchise/GreenLantern'' had Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy (Roy Harper) addicted to heroin. Green Arrow throws him out and is generally a total judgmental dick, but somehow it's ''still'' the Evil Drug Dealer that's the villain of the story. Green Arrow was, and has been since, treated as being in the wrong for throwing Speedy out instead of helping.
126** The "Rise of Arsenal" comic where Roy Harper, former sidekick, Titan, and Justice League member returns to drugs after a string of tragic events including the death of his daughter.
127* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'s'' resident happy-go-lucky vampire Cassidy mentions early on a problem with heroin in his past, but it's slowly revealed just how bad his addiction was, in which during he hit his girlfriend and performed oral sex on a drug dealer for a fix.
128* An issue of ''ComicBook/TheDesertPeach'' had CloudCuckooLander Dobermann's pills end up in Oberst Pfirisch Rommel's tea, causing the normally CampGay Pfirsich to become a psychotic berserker.
129* Demon from ''ComicBook/JusticeMachine'' was addicted to a drug called Edge which he believed would enhance his super-acrobatic skills.
130* The ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' got a couple of {{Anvilicious}} one-shots produced as part of the "Just Say No" campaigns, complete with [[TheAggressiveDrugDealer the requisite aggressive drug dealer.]]
131* Zig-zagged for all its worth in the ''Shadow of the Bat'' Very Special Story Arc "Leaves of Grass". Yes, it comes with the prerequisite speech from [[ComicBook/Robin1993 Tim Drake]] about how smoking marijuana is bad and features one of Tim's friends trying the stuff for the first time, but the main villain, [[spoiler:Jason Woodrue]], is far from TheAggressiveDrugDealer archetype. Notably, he actually wants to ''bring about world peace'' by getting everyone stoned, and it's noted several times that his particular strain of marijuana, sold at dirt-cheap prices, is already squeezing out the "in it for the money" drug dealers. Oh, and the story does go into detail about [[ShownTheirWork the history of the hemp plant and its many non-dope-related uses]], including making rope and cloth - UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington is noted to be one of its earliest American growers.
132* ''ComicBook/Marvel2099'': ComicBook/SpiderMan2099 has this as part of his origin story; Miguel O'Hara undergoes a dangerous science experiment to shake a drug addiction given to him by his [[CorruptCorporateExecutive boss]]. [[SpaceWhaleAesop Yes, kids, endangering yourself by]] ''[[SpaceWhaleAesop rewriting your DNA]]'' [[SpaceWhaleAesop is preferable to getting hooked on]] [[strike: cocaine]][[FantasticDrug Rapture!]]
133** It wasn't that taking drugs was bad, it was that the drug is instantly and permanently addictive at a molecular level, and only available from the corporation. Shaking the addiction was the only way he could leave the hideously unethical company.
134* The "Streets of Poison" storyline in ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' featured Cap busting up a drug cartel, and incidentally falling under the influence of drugs after an explosion causes said drugs to bond to the Super-Soldier Serum, turning the Captain into a violent, berserk druggie.
135* Subverted in ''ComicBook/TheFabulousFurryFreakBrothers'' comics, where Fat Freddy tries to present an anti-drug message -- but the problem is, he is so high on amphetamine sulphate that he can't get the words right... This is also quoting the Canned Heat song ''Amphetamine Annie'', where the repeated chorus line is simply '''Speed kills!''
136-->'''Fat Freddy:''' Kids! Peed Skills! er... Seed Pilks! er.. Kleed Spills!"
137* In ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics'', Anti-Mobius has lots and lots of Anarchy Beryl. The power it gives you is even stronger and longer lasting than Chaos Emeralds but results in a massive burn-out. It has been stated that "What Chaos Emeralds are to a good Caffeine buzz, Anarchy Beryl is to a Cocaine trip". Oh, and did we add that Scourge uses it to power up?
138* The ProductPlacement series published by Marvel comics, NFL Superpro, had a StarterVillain that was a football player mutated into rampaging muscular giant by experimental steroids a company illicitly tested on corruptible players. He was defeated not by the hero, but by a heart attack induced by the change.
139* ''ComicBook/IceCreamMan'' has done several issues that show how drugs can damage and destroy people's lives, with even the BigBad noting that he's never understood the appeal of such things. (Though he'll still happily use drugs to spread suffering and misery when it suits him.)
140* ''ComicBook/StrontiumDog'' had some material along this line, showing the deleterious effects of drugs on the outcast and marginalized British mutants in much the same vein as ''Film/{{Trainspotting}}''. Then there's [[NeverMessWithGranny Granny [=MacNulty=]]], who is very insistent that young Archie stick to whisky.
141* The ''Comicbook/XMen'' comics have "mutant growth hormone," essentially mutant steroids that can boost your powers at the expense of driving you berserk (which is, obviously, a bad combination).
142[[/folder]]
143
144[[folder:Fan Works]]
145* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'':
146** In "The Survivor," Mittens's first owner Jack has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and his abuse of alcohol and drugs intensifies his worst tendencies.
147** Mary, a beagle who is Bolt's first girlfriend, tries to dry out after being adopted from the pound by a farm family but can't shake her addictions in "The Wind." She's very indiscriminate regarding what she'll ingest to get high.
148* ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'':
149** In the story "Smurfnip Madness", Papa Smurf has Tapper head a campaign to show that smurfnip (a FantasticDrug analog to pot complete with MarijuanaIsLSD) is ''supposedly'' bad for the other Smurfs. The true {{Aesop}} of the story is more treating recreational drug users like criminals is ''bad'', as Hefty and Brainy go around throughout the story as police officers that bust Smurfs for even having a smurfnip joint in their possession.
150** In "The High Cost Of Smurfing", Vanity is seen doing pixie dust (an analog to cocaine) and collapses on the floor in near-death, inspiring Empath to find out who and where Vanity is getting the drug from. There's a brief section at the beginning where Snappy Smurfling eats glowberries (which in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981'' episode "St. Smurf And The Dragon" helps create Papa Smurf's spell of invisibility over the village) which gives him hallucinations but also gives him a sour stomach and "[[BringMyBrownPants smurfarrhea]]". Vanity recovers and learns his lesson, but Snappy, being the Smurfling that he is, goes and sniffs the pollen from a dumdum flower, which makes him both high and stupid.
151** In "The New Shop In The Village", Empath has a dream that the entire village has succumbed to the lure of doing all sorts of drugs because he has legalized smurfnip in it as its current leader, which occurred after a new strain of smurfnip that gets Smurfs high but does not produce hallucinations has been developed. The whole village becomes full of Smurfs that look like "[[ZombieApocalypse the walking dead]]".
152* The unlikely Aesop of ''FanFic/MarijuanaSimpson''; Homer realizes that marijuana dependency is holding him and his family back and subsequently [[spoiler: burns all of his pot and embraces the Roman Catholic Church.]]
153* The author of ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/980776/chapters/1988634 Moiraillegiance is Science]]'' [[BreakingTheFourthWall takes a moment]] to inform the audience of this after Eridan [[VomitIndiscretionShot throws up]] following a particularly nasty hangover. Made particularly funny by the fact that it was [[spoiler: [[TraumaCongaLine during a pretty sucky series of events in the chapter for Eridan]]]]
154-->Alcohol is bad, children.
155* The infamous VideoGame/{{Portal 2}} fanfic FanFic/ItsMyLife has perhaps the ''[[SpaceWhaleAesop strangest]]'' use of this trope ever, since the two characters that the author repeatedly uses to preach this aesop, Atlas and P-body (or [[RougeAnglesOfSatin Altas and P-boy]], as she calls them), are ''lungless, mouthless robots''. She never explains how they are ingesting drugs in the first place.
156* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' fanfic ''Fanfic/PrisonIslandBreak'' features this prominently. For a story that features rapists, murderers, and terrorists, the deciding factor is always ''drugs'' and the manner of their use. As early as the first chapter, Silver the Hedgehog is forcibly depowered using drugs, turning him into a ''victim.'' And when it's SerialKiller vs SerialKiller, the one you're rooting for is the one who ''isn't'' a recurring Heroin addict and prison dealer. While it's clear the author has a grudge against irresponsible drug use, they've ShownTheirWork. This is especially obvious in the chapter where Ketamine is used in its capacity as a rape drug.
157* ''Fanfic/AiYoriAoshiKoi'': It's implied in chapter 8 that Kaoru's grandfather was abusive at least partially because his aunt Suzuno secretly fed him mind-altering drugs and poisoned him with morning glory seeds.
158* ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' has a PSA where Yami Yugi speaks out against drugs. It starts out rather straight (he'd lose respect and his ability to play [[SeriousBusiness a Children's Card Game well]]) but then gets weirder as he [[CrackIsCheaper advocates selling cards as a better way]] to get kids addicted (without getting arrested).
159* In ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'', the game's tutorial NPC spouts this message along with other nuggets of "wisdom."
160-->'''Charlie:''' Remember, Winners Don't Use Drugs! Except steroids. In which case, [[DrugsAreGood use lots of drugs!]]
161* In the ''Anime/HeatGuyJ'' {{Yaoi}} fanfic ''In a Different Light'', both Daisuke and Clair have problems in their lives caused by drugs. Daisuke got hooked on a FantasticDrug known as "Black Tab" [[note]] It is likely scopolamine, or some derivative thereof, perhaps mixed with some other things. [[/note]] at the age of 13, and ended up becoming a victim of sex trafficking as a result. Meanwhile, [[BrokenBird Clair]] turned to drugs as a way of coping with the pain of being abused (and also trafficked) by his father, and has, on more than one occasion, nearly died from them. And while they aren't the reason for his ({{Canon}}) mental health issues, they sure aren't helping him in any way here.
162* In the ''Fanfic/ShiningAndSweet'' chapter "Dragged Into Drugs", Katrina spots some kids at her school smuggling cocaine. Her parents are both upset when she tells them this; her stepfather reminds her that [[TitleDrop drugs are bad]], while her biological father is concerned about how some high school students could even get their hands on such a drug, citing that in his youth, it was difficult for kids to even smuggle cigarettes. Katrina meets with the guidance counselor and school nurse to tell them what she saw, and they take it from there, leaving the fates of the three coke-using students ambiguous.
163[[/folder]]
164
165[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
166* The ''WesternAnimation/JonahAVeggieTalesMovie'' song "A Message from the Lord" contains the line: "Don't do drugs, stay in school!"
167* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', Ming holds this view.
168-->'''Ming:''' This is what happens when you don't wear sunblock and do drugs all day!
169[[/folder]]
170
171[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
172* ''Film/AmericanBeauty'' features a subversion of this principle (though this may depend on your opinion of the characters): Drugs are GOOD. The 3 people who don't smoke pot are a battered wife, a cheating wife and a [[ArmoredClosetGay closeted homosexual]] wife beater. All the characters that are even marginally sympathetic smoke marijuana. [[ZigZaggedTrope Then again]], the main character that takes pot is trying to seduce a young girl and escape responsibility, along with the drug dealer, being a well-meaning, but [[BuffySpeak off-kilterish and stalkerish]] guy. On the third hand, [[spoiler:the main character does NOT sleep with the (not really) wannabe Literature/{{Lolita}} at the end.]]
173* ''Film/BadBlack'': Subverted. One of Black's gang members tries to talk Kenny out of buying drugs... [[EveryManHasHisPrice until he finds out that Kenny has plenty of money he's willing to spend]].
174* ''Film/CocaineBear'': The film makes a point of this, starting by quoting Wikipedia on the non-violent nature of bears, before showing the titular bear attack a pair of European hikers. From there, it makes it clear that the predator’s violent behavior is driven purely by coke, even showing anti-drug [=PSAs=] of the eighties to make its point.
175* In ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'', Henry Hill is warned by his bosses in TheMafia not to get involved in drugs... not so much because they disapprove of it, [[PragmaticVillainy but because it'll bring the full weight of the federal government crashing down on top of them]], which the bosses do not want. True enough, when Henry gets involved in drugs (both dealing and addicted), the feds bust in on the party and the good times are definitely over.
176* In ''Film/TheGodfather'' Don Vito Corleone initially turns down a narcotics dealer who wants his support. His stated reason is that his friends in politics would withdraw their assistance if he were to get in the drug business, though it's implied he finds the idea distasteful too. His refusal kind of starts a war. The EvenEvilHasStandards version is a key theme of ''Film/TheGodfather''. At least enough so to keep them from selling them to white people.
177* ''Film/DieHard'' made sure that annoying loser Harry Ellis used cocaine. This was probably done in equal parts to show how pathetically depressed he was, though.
178* The TotallyRadical and SoBadItsGood movie ''Film/HighSchoolConfidential'' offered these words of wisdom: "If you flake around with the weed, you'll end up using the harder stuff." The "evidence" for this argument usually involves taking a sample of crackheads and noting that over 95% of them had used weed in the past; you could say the same about bread or water. [[LogicalFallacies Correlation does not imply causation.]]
179* In ''Film/LaHorse'', upon discovering that his grandson Henri consumes drug and is involved in drug trafficking, the old French landowner Auguste Maroilleur (Creator/JeanGabin) whips him with a small branch out of anger, berates him for abandoning his literature studies for such things and throws the heroin in a barrel of water.
180* ''Film/Judy2019'': Substance abuse is part of what ruins a young Judy Garland's life, and she has trouble maintaining performance quality in adulthood because of them.
181* In ''Film/Parking1985'', Orpheus gets into a violent argument with Eurydice when he discovers she's been using again, and she later dies of an overdose.
182* Parodied in ''Film/WalkHard'': Dewey will frequently walk in on his drummer Sam engaging in some illicit narcotic accompanied by a crowd of beautiful young women. Sam will urgently tell Dewey that "you don't want no part in this!", but will then with the same urgent tone list all the great things about that particular drug. Dewey inevitably ends up hooked on it. For example, when Dewey notices friends smoking reefer:
183-->'''Sam:''' No, Dewey, you don't want this. Get outta here!\
184'''Dewey Cox:''' You know what, I don't want no hangover. I can't get no hangover.\
185'''Sam:''' It ''doesn't'' give you a hangover!\
186'''Dewey:''' Wha-I get addicted to it or something?\
187'''Sam:''' It's ''not habit-forming!''\
188'''Dewey:''' Oh, okay...well, I don't know...I don't want to overdose on it.\
189'''Sam:''' You ''can't OD on it!''\
190'''Dewey:''' It's not gonna make me not wanna have sex, is it?\
191'''Sam:''' It makes sex ''even better!''\
192'''Dewey:''' Sounds kind of expensive.\
193'''Sam:''' It's the ''cheapest drug'' there is. You don't want none of this!\
194'''Dewey:''' I kinda think I ''do''.
195* ''Film/ReeferMadness'', which says that people who use marijuana may become "hopelessly and incurably insane," is the most famous of several "social menace" movies made in the mid-1930s to sensationally portray marijuana as a menace to society. A good example of this occurs during a scene where a bunch of people are sitting around smoking and laughing. This quickly degrades to a man mercilessly beating another person to the floor while everyone else laughs. The implication being that smoking marijuana will make you compelled to violently assault your friends.
196%%* ''Film/RequiemForADream''.
197%%* ''Film/AngelsRevenge''
198* Many of the "educational" films Sid Davis made throughout the [[TheFifties '50s]], [[TheSixties '60s]] and [[TheSeventies early '70s]].
199* ''LSD: Insight or Insanity'' is another, made in 1967 by Max Miller and with Creator/SalMineo narrating. Yes, you'll be tempted to take acid to keep up with the crowd or for self-expression, but of course all LSD users end up jumping off a cliff or walking into traffic to "merge with the automobiles." At the end LSD is shown to be pharmaceutical RussianRoulette. This used to be shown on local television on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. You can now see it on Youtube.
200* ''Film/TheFaculty'': Inverted. You've got to take the drugs to prove you're not one of them, man. [[spoiler:Besides, the cocaine powder really is crushed caffeine pills.]] Zeke even [[spoiler:smokes a joint right after ''playing football'', at the end]].
201-->''"Guaranteed to jack you up!"''
202* The film of ''Film/LessThanZero'' was essentially one giant 'Just Say No' PSA. Kinda ironic, considering that Bret Easton Ellis has said he wrote the original novel during an eight-week crystal meth binge.
203* Referenced and PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/Super8'', where one of the kids has to take over the wheel as their driver got stoned. And during a really tense scene, he can't wake up (leading another kid to say "Drugs are so bad!").
204* ''Franchise/RoboCop'':
205** All the bad guys in ''Film/RoboCop1987'' deal in and snort cocaine.
206** The villain of ''Film/RoboCop2'' is behind a new street drug called "Nuke".
207* In ''Film/AlienNation'', the Newcomers' former alien overlords kept them under control by feeding them a blue substance. Sam/George Francisco keeps this a secret from his human buddy-cop partner because he fears what humanity would do to the Newcomers if we ever found out they were a bunch of drug addicts. Near the end of the movie, a rogue Newcomer consumes an entire giant tube full of the concentrated drug and turns into a mutated rampaging monster.
208* ''Film/TheBreaks'': "Crack is bad! Get that shit away from me!"
209* In ''Film/ScannersIITheNewOrder'', the new version of Ephemerol inevitably causes mental and physical deterioration while also being very addictive. Those psychics who take it inevitably turn into dying drug addicts in less than a year.
210* Parodied in ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle'' with the "Marijuana Kills" commercial.
211* ''Film/RequiemForADream'' is Drugs Are Bad: TheMovie!
212* In ''Film/PulpFiction'', heroin proves to be the undoing of Creator/JohnTravolta's character, who's so strung out all the time that he's totally incompetent as a hitman. Mia also OD's on his heroin, which she thinks is cocaine, while under his guard and nearly dies.
213* {{Subverted}} in ''Film/LoveActually''.
214-->'''Billy Mack:''' Oh... Hiya kids. Here's an important message from your Uncle Bill. Don't buy drugs. ...Become a rock star, and they give you them for free!
215* This just might be the moral of the movie ''Film/DrugstoreCowboy''. The original book, on the other hand, takes a more neutral position.
216* This trope is what drives the plot of ''Film/TheProfessional''. Not only does Leon take out a drug gang in the film's ColdOpen but the antagonists are corrupt [[NaughtyNarcs DEA agents]] [[DirtyCop and cops]] who killed Mathilda Lando's family after her abusive father didn't return the drugs to them because they were only 90% pure.
217* ''Film/ABCsOfDeath2'': PlayedForLaughs in "M is for Masticate". The man's cannibalistic rampage started because he snorted bath salts 37 minutes earlier.
218* In ''Film/BachelorParty'', the [[BestialityIsDepraved Sexual Mule]] ends up doing drugs at the party and then keels over and dies. The party hosts deposit the mule's dead body into an elevator car, where it is discovered by the hotel's manager as well as Rick's fiancee and her friends.
219* ''Film/BansheeChapter'': Taking psychoactive drugs will result in [[spoiler: being possessed by an EldritchAbomination]].
220* Film/JamesBond allies himself with criminal organisations to defeat the BigBad in ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService'', ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'' and ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'', and on each occasion it's stressed that while they're smugglers they have nothing to do with drugs. Unfortunately in OHMSS the organisation is the Unione Corse, who ran Film/TheFrenchConnection to smuggle heroin into the United States.
221* ''Film/KillerNun'': Sister Gertrude, fearing that her health may be in decline following the removal of a brain tumor, begins stealing painkillers from the hospital where she works and soon becomes addicted, which does wonders for her mental state.
222[[/folder]]
223
224[[folder:Literature]]
225* ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'': In ''Dragon Bones'', the protagonist's mother is TheOphelia, and her mental absence is at least in part caused by herbal drugs. They might have some medical value, but she clearly and obviously overdoes it, using them to flee the horrible reality she lives in. After her abusive husband, the most obvious cause of her wish to escape reality, dies, she is not able to stop her drug abuse. [[spoiler:She dies eventually, but her soul does so before her body. At one point, Ward notices that he can't find her with his magical ability, even though her body is there.]]
226* On the Literature/{{Discworld}}, Sergeant Detritus of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch would like to remind you all of this. Especially all his fellow trolls out there, as some troll drugs have a tendency to make the heads of their users ''literally'' [[YourHeadAsplode explode]]. But rather than attacking the kids who take it, he's more into getting the dealers...
227-->'''Detritus:''' ...Mr Vimes is lettin' me run a... pub-lic a-ware-ness campaign tellin' people what happens to buggers what sells it to kids...\
228''[he waves a hand at a large and rather crudely done poster on the wall; it says: "Slab: Jus' say 'Aarrghaarrghpleeassennonono UGH'"]''
229** He also nailed a dealer (selling to troll kids) to a wall. [[EarAche By his ears]].
230* This is one of the main points of ''Literature/AScannerDarkly''. The newest drug on the market gives a great high but can cause hallucinations and dissociative personality disorder. The novel is told from the point of view of an undercover narc. Throughout the book, he [[spoiler: uses the drug to maintain his cover, watches several of his friends suffer mental breakdowns, begins to lose his sense of identity, ends up shipped off to an evil rehab clinic which actually manufactures the drug, and is then revealed to have been sent there by his own superiors. Everything about his breakdown was engineered, and he was basically a sacrificial lamb for the government. Because Drugs Are Bad.]]
231* Also doing it right is ''Literature/RequiemForADream'', which at first seems to be a story about the brilliance of drugs a la ''Film/AlteredStates''. This idea ends badly.
232* ''Literature/HouseOfTheScorpion'' looks at the trope, depicting a nation where an entire nation is run by drug lords after deals were made with the U.S. and Mexican governments. The nation keeps illegals out of both countries and doesn't ship drugs to either of them. In return, the two nations leave them alone to ship drugs to other places in the world. The Keepers, corrupt officials that run a work camp, are arrested not because of abuse of the boys, but because of [[spoiler: a failed drug test]]
233* Subverted in ''[[Literature/WindOnFire The Wind Singer]]''. Mumpo becomes somewhat addicted to chewing on some leaves used by one of the tribes the group has passed. When they awaken the [[PuttingOnTheReich beautiful, blond and evil Zars]], they're so afraid and hungry that they can't concentrate on their task. Mumpo then shares the leaves with the others, and it eases their feelings, leaving them so high and giggly that they're halfway back before they know it.
234** That'll be coca. It's the plant cocaine is made from, but was part of traditional native cultures in the area. From what I've heard, the plant contains very low levels of the active ingredient and isn't really any worse for people than coffee. Dose matters.
235* ''Literature/GoAskAlice'' is basically "Drugs Are Bad: The Book".
236* In Creator/DavidEddings' ''[[Literature/TheBelgariad Malloreon]]'', Sadi presents Silk with a business proposal involving the setup and operation of a worldwide drug supply chain. Silk declines on the grounds that "[[EvenEvilHasStandards a man has to draw the line somewhere]]", despite Sadi's LongList of morally dubious acts about which Silk has few qualms - Silk's actual reason for refusal was {{Squick}}. On a personal level, Sadi's drug use is treated as a personal flaw and a bad thing in general, but no worse than the bouts of drunkenness and petty larceny other characters engage in.
237* ''[[Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt The Spine of the World]]'' is a less heroic novel by R. A. Salvatore, featuring the former-ish hero Wulfgar after he has been broken by torment and fallen into disgrace. This involves alcohol. Drizzt Do'Urden doesn't appear in this novel, but [[WolverinePublicity there are monologues by him at the start of each part anyway]], and the one appearing before Wulfgar's drinking problem is described broadens the topic into a general Drugs Are Bad. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even the drow don't use them, apparently,]] because they need to stay alert for when their allies stab them in the back--which in fact contradicts an event from an earlier Drizzt book, where a graduation ceremony involved a drug-fueled orgy. Of course, Drizzt being Drizzt, he gives a fairly well-reasoned and intelligent argument against drugs from the standpoint of his IncorruptiblePurePureness. He does describe all drugs as having a sedative effect (like alcohol), while the opposite is true for some of them.
238* ''Literature/LatawnyaTheNaughtyHorseLearnsToSayNoToDrugs''. The only children's book to feature a dead horse that OD'd from marijuana. A non-anthropomorphic horse. And other non-anthro horses smoking weed and drinking beer. As you'd expect, the possibility that the horses might have a reason to enjoy the drugs is ignored, and they are treated only as poison, as the following precious dialog shows: "I feel sick to my stomach. I feel very ill." "I heard some other horses talking about doing drugs and getting high. [...] I think they got their words mixed up. They should call it getting low."
239** It gets better: The book illustrates the non-anthro horses as "holding" the drugs (including alcohol) in their hooves.
240* ''Literature/JackRyan'':
241** Invoked in ''Literature/DebtOfHonor'', in which drugs are involved in the coverup of [[spoiler:Kimberly Norton]]'s murder.
242** In ''Literature/PatriotGames'', Jack is noted to have an aversion to use of painkillers due to an earlier incident where a sympathetic nurse gave him a heavier dose of morphine that resulted in an addiction problem.
243** There's also ''Literature/WithoutRemorse'', in which the drug dealers are portrayed as possibly the most disgusting individuals in the entire series, beating Stalinist Machiavellians, sadistic Vietcong, fascist [=ChiComs=] and Islamist terrorists who tried to start WorldWarIII. Every single one of them gets what's coming to him.
244* An early example of this, though more realistic than most, is Arthur Conan Doyle's Literature/SherlockHolmes stories.
245** Holmes's cocaine and morphine habits are initially portrayed as amusing idiosyncrasies, fodder for Watson to moralize and Holmes to blithely dismiss his concerns; but Holmes's drug use soon vanishes, and in one of the later stories Watson refers to "that drug mania which had once threatened to check his remarkable career," and reacts with horror at the sight of Holmes holding a hypodermic needle (though it only contains a strong-smelling liquid for a dog to track).
246** Watson is sent to rescue a man from an OpiumDen, presented as a WretchedHive. To his surprise, Holmes is there in disguise, and reassures Watson that he hasn't added opium to his vices.
247** Nicholas Meyer covered this territory in ''Literature/TheSevenPercentSolution'', an [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation alternate retelling]] of "The Final Problem". In Meyer's story, Holmes was deep in the throes of addiction, increasingly paranoid that Moriarty would destroy him (turns out Moriarty was his old maths professor in university and not a criminal mastermind), and Watson pulled something of a BatmanGambit by leading a trail of fake clues for Holmes to follow that would lead to Vienna. There Watson managed to arrange for Holmes to meet [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Sigmund Freud]], who was able to treat Holmes for his drug dependency. The choice of UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud specifically is probably the oddest part; Sigmund Freud not only used cocaine himself but prescribed it to all his patients.
248* In ''Literature/ThePaleKing'', Chris Fogle spends a few pages discussing his drug habits in college, and he's clearly embarrassed in retrospect.
249* In Literature/SweetValleyHigh "On The Edge" (#40) a heartbroken Regina Morrow goes to a party, tries cocaine for the first time, and dies soon after.
250* ''Literature/ShipBreaker'': Many people are addicted to Red Rippers, a drug that's normally used for animals. Nailer's [[ArchnemesisDad father]] Richard is the worst example, being an utterly crazed addict.
251* The drug MDT-48 from ''Literature/TheDarkFields'' is this writ large. MDT-48 makes the narrator brilliant, socially loved, accomplished, wealthy... and then he loses it all. And then [[spoiler: everyone involved with the drug is murdered or dies of withdrawal.]] The [[Film/{{Limitless}} film version]] has a rather different ending.
252* Shows up in the third ''Literature/RangersApprentice'' book. [[spoiler:Will]] gets addicted to a fictional drug called warmweed to help control him, and his recovery is a slow and hard one.
253* Not actually a major theme of it, but ''Literature/DecisionOfFate'' has this.
254* In ''Literature/DoctorDog'', the teenage boy smokes and then gets a cough and is taught smoking is bad. The grandfather also gets drunk. The only symptom of said drunkenness is gas, but that's treated as bad anyway.
255* It is possible to gain this impression from ''Literature/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas''. Duke and Gonzo smoke snort and swallow everything that they can get their hands on, but they don't have much fun. Duke's hallucinations are frightening and disorienting and Gonzo keeps on lashing out with knives, but do they learn A Lesson? No, they carry on regardless.
256* In ''Literature/{{Zeroes}}'', Mob's father is a drug dealer, and some of her sections include graphic descriptions of her seeing the progressively worse effect of his products on his addicted customers while growing up.
257* James Leo Herlihy's ''Literature/TheSeasonOfTheWitch'' has both DrugsAreGood (the protagonist and her friends, taking marijuana, hash, and LSD) and Drugs Are Bad (the beautiful, doomed Archie Fiesta, taking meth, heroin, and God knows what).
258* Creator/HPLovecraft took time out from his usual horror oeuvre to pen the short-short story "Literature/OldBugs", which gently parodies heavy-handed anti-drinking screeds.
259* Comes up ''twice'' in ''Literature/AlienInASmallTown.'' The crisis that led to Indira's nervous breakdown happened when she was very drunk, and Amos [[spoiler: kills Jawaharlal]] while tripping on a hallucinogen.
260* Pretty much how it's depicted in the ''Literature/LeftBehind'' series, the few times it appears. The Middle Eastern former black marketeer Albie sees that his whole hometown of Al Basrah has been given over to drugs in the Tribulation period. During the Millennial Kingdom, The Other Light seduces young people who were below the age of 100 to wild parties where hashish is used to sway them to joining their side against God. In the latter instance, Kenny Bruce Williams comments that the Other Light would end up being too wasted to put up any sort of fight against God at the end of the Millennium.
261* In Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's short story ''Literature/TheCaskOfAmontillado'', Fortunato is already drunk at Carnival before he is lured to his doom by the prospect of taste-testing a cask of valuable wine. As he and Montresor walk deeper into the catacombs (used doubly as a wine-cellar), Fortunato is given more and more to drink, slowing his reactions to the revenge awaiting him.
262* Another Victorian Gothic take on this was Creator/MarieCorelli's ''Wormwood'', about the dangers of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe absinthe]]. Gaston's girl throws him over and his dissolute StarvingArtist friend André recommends absinthe as a cordial that helps with depression. After his first glass he is irredeemably hooked and he spends the rest of the book lurching from one horrific situation to another. [[http://museeabsinthe.com/Marie-Corelli-Wormwood.pdf Summary here]].
263* In ''Literature/BraveNewWorld,'' a drug called soma is distributed by the govenment and used by everyone, to keep them too happy and sedated to think or complain about the civilization they live in.
264* Ray Marais' energetic short story "Captain Stoopendous" (''Golden Magazine for Boys and Girls'', April 1969) is more like ''Untested'' Drugs Are Bad. A mild-mannered clerk is chosen by the famous scientist/scholar Fu Ah Chu ([[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed not to be confused with]] Literature/FuManchu) to test a drug he's just devised that confers superpowers for twelve hours. He warns the clerk that the drug is very new, has never been tested, and may have side effects. Sure enough, our hero becomes imbued with Superman-like powers, but loses parts of his memory. He wants to be "Captain Stupendous", but can't remember that name and says "Captain Suspenders," later "Catsnip Subfieldmouse" and "Carsnatcher Benders." He manages to save the day anyhow and is relieved to recover his memory as the capsule wears off. This may have been intended as part one of a series.
265* From ''Literature/LifesLittleInstructionBook'':
266-->'''81.''' Don't mess with drugs, and don't associate with those who do.
267[[/folder]]
268
269[[folder:Music]]
270* One of the very first examples of this was "Kicks", a song written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil that became a major hit for Music/PaulRevereAndTheRaiders in 1966. The chorus:
271-->''Kicks just keep gettin' harder to find\
272 And all your kicks ain't bringin' you peace of mind\
273 Before you find out it's too late\
274 Girl, you better get straight''
275* Music/CannedHeat's first album from 1967 contains the tongue-in-cheek "Amphetamine Annie", a dread warning against stimulants:
276-->''This is a song with a message.\
277 I want you to heed my warning;\
278 I wanna tell you all a story,\
279 About this chick I know;\
280 They call her "[[AlliterativeName Amphetamine Annie]]",\
281 She's always shovelling snow.\
282 I sat her down and told her,\
283 I told her crystal clear,\
284 "I don't mind you getting high,\
285 But there's one thing you should fear!\
286 Your mind might think its flying, baby\
287 On those little pills;\
288 But you ought to know it's dying, 'cause...''\
289'''Speed kills!'''
290* "Just to Get High" by Music/{{Nickelback}} talks about watching someone's downward spiral into drug addiction.
291* Music/RedHotChiliPeppers have done this a lot, from their album ''Music/{{Californication}}'' onward (with singles such as "Scar Tissue" and "Otherside").
292** Unfortunately, their commitment to speak against drug abuse has led fans to believe that certain songs that are ''not'' about drugs do reference certain stimulants (the obvious ones being "Snow (Hey Oh)" and "Charlie", both of which are slang terms for cocaine). The band has tried to dispel these rumors by even releasing a series of videos where they described the meanings behind most of the songs on ''Stadium Arcadium'', but these falsities continue.
293** "Under the Bridge", recorded eight years before ''Californication'', also has anti-drug themes.
294* Played (relatively) straight in the video for "The Last Journey Home" by Music/DragonForce, where Vadim and ZP turn down the offerings of a drug dealer who accosts them in a seedy back alley. Played straight with the song "Give Me the Night", which is told from the perspective of a drug addict.
295* Done well in Jamey Johnson's brutally honest hit song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4EarfzxcCQ "The High Cost of Living"]]. Not ''quite'' SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic quality, but pretty darn close.
296* Contrary to popular belief, the UsefulNotes/StraightEdge movement usually does ''not'' fall prey to this trope. Straight edgers believe drug abuse such as alcoholism to be unhealthy, yes, but traditional straight-edge ethos is against mass-marketed morality (force-fed anti-drug StockAesops would fall under this category) just as much as mindless hedonism. The idea of straight edge isn't to practice temperance for moral or political reasons, but for the sake of self-control and independence, usually amounting to a "be your own god" ideology that very much runs contrary to the conservative or religious intentions of most anti-drug aesops. Rather similar to Creator/FriedrichNietzsche's belief that traditional values and mind-altering substances were both equally detrimental to an aspiring {{Ubermensch}}.
297* "That Smell" by Music/LynyrdSkynyrd is a cautionary song about how dangerous drugs are, with lyrics such as "The smell of death surrounds you" and "Tomorrow might not be there for you". At the time the song was penned, the band was dealing with myriad drug problems, with the impetus for the song coming from an incident where Gary Rossington, one of the band's guitarists, narrowly survived a car crash while drunk and high; Ronnie Van Zant wrote the song as a warning of the dire consequences of their continued drug abuse. Also from the same band, "The Needle and the Spoon" is about how using heroin will kill you.
298* More or less the AccidentalAesop of a large percentage of SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll rockers. For a couple of examples, just compare pictures of [[Music/{{Aerosmith}} Steven Tyler]] or Music/TaijiSawada taken when they first began their lives of SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll... to what they look like now, in their middle age.
299** Taiji Sawada. While his cause of death is disputed, his strange behavior near the end and Saipan's reputation for being a methamphetamine capital of the world could explain some of what led to his suspicious death as being a particularly bad fall OffTheWagon.
300** Hell, just look at [[Music/StoneTemplePilots Scott Weiland]]. He may have been the founding member of one of the biggest rock acts of the Nineties and the singer for an equally-prominent supergroup, but his drug-addled idiocy and complete refusal to take some responsibility for it has resulted in his being fired from virtually every band he's ever been in.
301* Afroman:
302** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls4qXjZtZXI Because I Got High]]" [[LyricalDissonance sounds like]] a pretty cheerful and upbeat OdeToIntoxication, [[SubvertedTrope but as the song goes on]], increasingly bad things happen to him, [[TitleDrop because he got high.]]
303--->''I messed up my entire life, because I got high,\
304 I lost my kids and wife, because I got high.\
305 Now I'm sleeping on the sidewalk, and I know why,\
306 Because I got high, because I got high, because I got high.''
307** However, his new remake of "Because I Got High" is an OdeToIntoxication played straight, extolling the benefits of marijuana and advocating legalization.
308* In a live performance by Music/RobbieWilliams, he [[AuthorFilibuster stopped the show dead in its tracks]] to deliver the message that "alcohol is good; drugs are bad".
309* Old Crow Medicine Show:
310** "Methamphetamine" (on their third album ''Tennessee Pusher'') plays this straight. However, The song avoids being preachy by showing how meth cooking is often prevalent in economically depressed areas.
311--->'' 'Cause when it's either the mine or the Kentucky National Guard\
312 Mmm, I'd rather sell them a line than be dyin' in the coal yard''
313** OCMS (as they're known) has [[OdeToIntoxication a song about drugs]] once each album; the songs on their first two albums (''Old Crow Medicine Show'' and ''Big Iron World'') are about cocaine, and treat the subject somewhat lightly (with the guy in the song on ''Old Crow Medicine Show'' "bemoaning" his habit the way drunks in old country songs do--saying it's a sin and all, but refusing to do anything about it besides asking the others not to join in; the guy on ''Big Iron World'' doesn't even bother with that--"take a whiff on me," indeed).
314** OCMS also doesn't seem to have a problem with marijuana, if the lyric "Walk into the south outta Roanoke/Caught a trucker outta Philly, had a nice long toke" in "[[SignatureSong Wagon Wheel]]" is any indication.
315* Parodied in Music/{{Eminem}}'s "The Kids", which sends up the ''South Park'' episode of the page quote. [[note]]Although Eminem's backing vocal in the chorus tells the listener to smoke crack.[[/note]]
316* Played completely straight about pot in Music/TheOffspring's "What Happened to You?" and partially PlayedForLaughs in "Mota".
317* 101 Rules Of Power Metal #58. Drugs aren't metal.
318* A major theme of {{Music/Savatage}}'s ''Music/StreetsARockOpera''. The main character, DT Jesus, is a drug dealer turned rock star turned junkie. The RockOpera begins with him wandering the streets in a drug-induced haze before a similarly-fallen mentor makes him realize he needs to clean up his act. Disaster strikes during his come-back show and a friend is killed because of him. The rest of the story is DT trying to make sense of his life and the world, with the numbing "comfort" of drugs being a constant temptation.
319* The entire point of Music/{{Metallica}}'s ''Music/MasterOfPuppets'' is that drugs turn you into a slave and both rule and ruin your life. The majority of the song is from the P.O.V. of the drug itself as it taunts and mocks you, making it very clear who's in charge.
320-->''Taste me you will see\
321 More is all you need\
322 Dedicated to\
323 How I'm killing you\
324 Come crawling faster\
325 Obey your master\
326 Your life burns faster\
327 Obey your master, master\
328 Master of puppets I'm pulling your strings\
329 Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams\
330 Blinded by me you can't see a thing\
331 Just call my name cuz I'll hear you scream, Master, Master''
332:: One section is from the addict's P.O.V. as they cry out to a master that "promised only lies".
333* Another heavy metal example is ironically enough from Music/OzzyOsbourne. The song "Suicide Solution" is about alcohol abuse and how it will slowly and painfully end up killing you. The song was written after Music/{{ACDC}}'s original singer Bon Scott died at 33 from alcohol poisoning.
334-->''Suicide is slow with liquor\
335 Take a bottle and drown your sorrows\
336 Then it floods away tomorrows''
337* PlayedForLaughs in Stephen Lynch's mock-children's song "Superhero," which involves an audience participation portion:
338-->'''Stephen:''' Kids, sometimes criminals want you to be a criminal too, don't they? They offer you things like drugs and alcohol. But we know to just say no, right?\
339'''Audience:''' ''[{{beat}}]'' Right.\
340'''Stephen:''' You drunk motherfuckers. Except for the ol' stoned table. I know who you guys are. I can smell it from here.
341* "Slow Down" by Brand Nubian is a WhatTheHellHero directed at the speaker's ex-girlfriend, who is addicted to crack cocaine and has been selling her body (and his new sneakers) to pay for her habit, and he mentions how the drugs have taken a toll on her looks as well as her personality.
342* Music/BillyJoel's "Captain Jack" is about a RealLife heroin dealer in a Long Island housing project and a young man whose life is falling apart and turns to drugs as a result. The chorus at the beginning includes the line "Captain Jack will get you high tonight." By the end, it changes to "Captain Jack will make you die tonight."
343* No one is going to say Music/NeilYoung's "The Needle And The Damage Done" is subtle in letting you know what Neil feels about heroin. Neil wrote this in response to Crazy Horse's Danny Whitten being fired from the band for his constant heroin abuse, and the next day, Whitten was found dead after [=ODing=] on alcohol and valium. (The heroin was for pain management due to severe arthritis. Whitten wanted to quit, and his doctor prescribed valium for the pain instead.)
344* Music/{{Queensryche}}'s concept album ''Music/OperationMindcrime's'' protagonist Nikki is a heroin addict and the BigBad Dr. X uses his addiction to control him. Nikki directly confronts how the drug has completely fucked him up on "The Needle".
345* The Music/DavidBowie-led HardRock group Tin Machine had a song on this subject with "Crack City" in 1989. (Bowie himself had some personal experience with this during his cocaine-induced CreatorBreakdown, an experience he reflected on in the RealitySubtext of "Ashes to Ashes" from his album ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps''.)
346* Hoyt Axton's "No No Song" (remade by Music/RingoStarr) has this refrain (in reference to the "marijuana" part):
347-->''No-no-no-no, I don't smoke it no more\
348 I'm tired of waking up on the floor\
349 No, thank you, please, it only makes me sneeze\
350 Then it makes it hard to find the door''
351** The song says the same of cocaine and moonshine whisky, with appropriate changes in the verb [" I don't [audible sniff]/drink it no more..."
352* Music/LouReed:
353** The whole of the ''Music/{{Berlin}}'' album is an account of a couple falling apart due to dependency on legal and illegal drugs, culminating in the woman's suicide. This laugh-fest has gems like "Caroline Says II":
354--->''All of her friends call her Alaska\
355 When she takes speed, they'll laugh and ask her\
356 What is in her mind?\
357 But she's not afraid to die;\
358 All of her friends call her Alaska;\
359 It's so cold in Alaska...''
360** Music/LouReed's best-known and loved song, "Perfect Day" from ''Music/{{Transformer}}'', has been misinterpreted by people taking it at face value as a song about a loving couple enjoying a perfect summer day. It is about a love affair: between a man and heroin.
361--->''It's such a perfect day;\
362 You made me forget myself;\
363 I thought I was someone else, someone good....''
364* The Music/BlueOysterCult do a lot of drugs songs. ''Then Came the Last Days of May'' is about another peril associated with drugs: three Naive American kids on a trip into Mexico to buy drugs are double-crossed and murdered for their money. (Message: drugs are bad because their very illegality means you do not know who you are dealing with). ''Hungry Boys'' is about heroin dependency
365-->''Now look at Hungry, he's really got the need;\
366 Valerie's got the needle and she always makes him plead;\
367 Louis was the one who really brought the stuff to town;\
368 But the cops moved in and shut the operation down! That's why we're hungry boys!''
369* Music/PattiSmith, a long time associate of the BOC, recorded ''Poppies'' on her ''Music/RadioEthiopia'' album. The poppies in question are the opium variety. Among other things, buried away in a double-tracked lyric she sings graphically about the laxative and emetic side- effect of heroin. If this were better known to non-users, what a deterrent it would be.. ''"Kids! Heroin makes you [[BrownNote shit yourself!]] Now do you think it's cool to do drugs?"
370* Music/TheKinks' "[[UsefulNotes/BritishEnglish Harry Rag]]" is a light-hearted singalong number about addiction to a more mundane and legal drug: nicotine.
371-->''Tom's old ma is a dying lass,\
372 Soon they all reckon she'll be pushing up the grass,\
373 But her bones might ache, and her skin might sag-- \
374 She's so content because she's got a Harry Rag!\
375 Oh, Harry Rag, Harry Rag,\
376 She'll do anything just to get a Harry Rag!\
377 She curses herself for the life she's led;\
378 Then rolls herself a Harry Rag and puts herself to bed...''
379* Music/AliceInChains:
380** The second album, ''Music/{{Dirt}}'' is a genuinely chilling example of this trope, with many of the lyrics being written by singer Layne Staley about his own heroin addiction, [[DownerEnding which eventually killed him]].
381** Their first album also contains the song "Real Thing" and the third self titled album has "Sludge Factory," among many others.
382* Xorcist's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u3jBK4hgqQ "Crack"]] opens with a sample of a crack user flatlining and having a near-death experience, taken from a 1980's anti-drug commercial, followed by the repeated lyric "Don't let it take your soul".
383* Music/{{Kiss}}' "I" from ''Music/MusicFromTheElder'': "Don't need to get wasted, it only holds me down." Said to be a TakeThat to their then-lead guitarist Ace Frehley.
384* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpoEmlxUPeQ The Pusher]]" by Steppenwolf, once banned by MoralGuardians for being too pro-drug, is actually one of the most ''anti''-drug songs ever recorded, right up there with...
385* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSgNOlZhK4E Hand of Doom]]" by Music/BlackSabbath, an anti-heroin song.
386* Music/RunDMC: ''Roots, Rap, Reggae'' from ''Music/KingOfRock''.
387-->''Don't drink alcohol, don't snort cocaine\
388 Reggae music is not so strange\
389 Know the cocaine will hurt up your brain''
390* Music/{{Down}}'s second album ''II: A Bustle In Your Hedgerow'' has many about lead singer's battle with heroin and opiate addiction, including ''Learn From This Mistake'' and ''Ghosts Along The Mississippi''.
391* Similarly, Phil's more famous band, Music/{{Pantera}} has several, especially on ''The Great Southern Trendkill'', written in the midst of Phil's growing problem. ''Suicide Note Pt. 1'' and ''Live Through Me (Hell's Wrath)'' are chilling examples.
392* Music/{{Rancid}} has a few from their earlier albums, as several members had had bad experiences with heroin and also witnessed the drug kill many of their friends. ''Rats in the Hallway'' and ''Brad Logan'' being prime examples. The song ''The Bottle'' also recounts Tim Armstrong's battle with alcoholism.
393* ''Life of Agony'' frontwoman Mina Caputo witnessed her father destroy his life and eventually die from heroin use. ''Let's Pretend'' and ''Heroin Dreams'' reflect this.
394* Music/FrankZappa's ''Cocaine Decisions'' from ''Music/TheManFromUtopia'', an attack on coke sniffing yuppies.
395* The Death From Above 1979 song ''Dead Womb'' is a song against cocaine, specifically pregnant women abusing the drug.
396-->''So many girls I know poison their wombs for sure\
397 I'm sick of all these girls poisoning their...\
398 We're looking for wives, so tired of sluts coming to us in the clubs with their cocaine\
399 We're looking for wives, so tired of sluts coming to us in the clubs with their cocaine\
400 I know you think you have it all but you will never even''
401* "Heroïne" from Music/VirusAlbum'' by Music/DoeMaar is an anti-heroin song, directly inspired by their drummer who was addicted to the stuff. It took him more than 30 years to kick off the habit. As recently as 2014 he released his autobiography detailing his addictions and even mentioning he didn't even get the song was about him at the time.
402* Music/TheGratefulDead, of all bands, have an example of this trope. Casey Jones crashes the locomotive because he is high on cocaine. There's also a rueful reference to "living on reds, Vitamin C, and cocaine" in "Truckin'".
403* The Music/MissyElliott album ''Miss E...So Addictive'' has the underlying message of getting high on ''music'' rather than drugs.
404* Music/GeorgeMichael's song "Monkey" from the ''Music/{{Faith|GeorgeMichaelAlbum}}'' album is about drug abuse, according to George's official website.
405-->''Why can't you do it?\
406Why can't you set your monkey free?\
407Always giving in to it\
408Do you love the monkey or do you love me?''
409* "Cocaine", written and originally recorded by J. J. Cale but [[CoveredUp better known]] as an Music/EricClapton song, is anti-cocaine. Even so, Clapton refused to sing it for decades after he cleaned himself up from his own cocaine addiction.
410* "White Horse" by Laid Back is anti-heroin.
411* "High Hopes" by Sammy Hagar is about a man who failed to amount to anything because of his marijuana abuse. He kept making fantastic plans but was unable to ever carry any of them out because he kept getting stoned.
412* Music/{{Primus}}'s "Lacquer Head" is about the horrors of huffing household chemicals.
413* At the end of "Once You Understand" by Bobby Susser's studio group Think, a father named Mr. Kirk learns from the police that his seventeen-year-old son Robert died of an overdose. This dialogue was SampledUp in 4hero's "Mr. Kirk's Nightmare" and a few other '90s techno songs.
414* German comedian Frank Zander has the "Nick Nack Man", a rather black song for him. Selfsame man [[{{Satan}} (Old Nick?)]] applauds when you take drugs. (Or start a nuclear war.)
415* "Heroin (It's All Over)" by the Lurkers. ([[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein Probably.]])
416* In the Hungarian song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMKbUq3bEQE "Horváthék fia"]] ("The Horváths' son") by Tamás Pajor (music by György Szentkirályi), the title character has died because of drugs. Part of the refrain says "The tabloids pick up the news for a day, but the paper is in the trash can the next day." The song is also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48VuyeMdosU sung]] by the children’s choir Twist Olivér Kórus – Rockgyerekek.
417* In the Hungarian song "Túladagolás" ("Overdose") by 4F-Club, someone starts taking drugs at sixteen, causes a fatal car accident while on drugs, then fatally overdoses—all shown in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93hVQPnBfwQ the music video]].
418* Music/MichaelJackson's "Morphine" from his remix album ''Blood on the Dance Floor: [=HIStory=] in the Mix'' is a song about addiction to painkillers, complete with a moment where the IndustrialMetal drums suddenly cut off and are replaced with an orchestra, Not only was this extremely poignant for Michael to address this while being addicted to it himself, it got even more notability after his death in 2009, more or less from the same cause.
419* Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}' "Mother's Little Helper", which is about a housewife abusing prescription drugs (presumably meprobamate (Miltown) or diazepam (Valium)) to deal with her everyday life, eventually leading to a fatal overdose.
420* Music/BritishSeaPower: One might guess that the frenetic “K Hole” isn’t entirely in favour of recreational ketamine use.
421-->''I think I took a little too much\
422We may be in some trouble...''
423* "Better Things to Do" by ''Music/JudyPancoast'' is about how drugs are bad because there are better ways to entertain yourself.
424* "The Future" by Music/{{Prince}} from ''Music/Batman1989'' features this:
425-->''Yellow Smiley offers me X''
426-->''Like he's drinking 7Up''
427-->''I would rather drink 6 razor blades''
428-->''Razor blades from a paper cup''
429* Music/BillieEilish's "xanny" is about going to a party of teenage friends and deciding ''[[OdeToSobriety not]]'' [[OdeToSobriety to take drugs there.]] Interestingly for this kind of aesop, she doesn't so much condemn drugs directly as much as find herself alienated and worried from watching her friends get intoxicated, and that alone tells her she doesn't need to experience it for herself.
430* Music/DemiLovato nearly died from substance abuse, and they put that experience into their song "Dancing With The Devil".
431* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWitRABYVBk Angel Dust]]" by Gil Scott Heron is anti-PCP.
432* Music/IndioSolari has "Chau Mohicano", from ''Pajaritos, Bravos Muchachitos'', about a guy who decides to quit the consumption of drugs, with the song detailing the process, the consequences and the side effects of the decision.
433* During the mid-to-late 80s, when the crack epidemic was underway, this was a very common topic for hip-hop songs. [[https://www.discogs.com/lists/Anti-Drug-Raps/653691 This list]] has nearly 200 examples of this over a ten-year period.
434* Music/TypeONegative's ''Music/WorldComingDown'' has three soundscape tracks - "Sinus", "Liver", and "Lung" - that depict agonizing deaths relating to cocaine, alcohol, and nicotine, respectively. The album also has "White Slavery", which is about suffering from cocaine addiction.
435[[/folder]]
436
437[[folder:Pinballs]]
438* Like their VideoGame brethren, [[PhysicalPinballTables arcade pinball machines]] of TheEighties and TheNineties regularly had "Winners Don't Use Drugs" messages in their {{Attract Mode}}s, either in the alphanumeric score display or the dot matrix screens.
439* The backglass for Creator/WilliamsElectronics' ''Pinball/{{Cyclone}}'' shows First Lady [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Nancy Reagan]] riding the rollercoaster while wearing a "Say No To Drugs" shirt.
440* One of the police cars in ''Pinball/PoliceForce'' has a "Say No To Drugs" bumper sticker on the rear trunk.
441* The AttractMode for ''[[Pinball/BugsBunnysBirthdayBall Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball]]'' shows a message reading "Drug Users Don't Get The Cake."
442* A billboard in ''Pinball/BoneBusters'' states simply "Say No To Drugs."
443* ''Pinball/WWFRoyalRumble'' was in development when Wrestling/VinceMcMahon was indicted in federal court on a steroid controversy. As a result, the original translite was redrawn to tone down the muscle-bound appearance of the wrestlers.
444[[/folder]]
445
446[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
447* Wrestling/CMPunk's whole {{heel}} gimmick is pretty much telling everybody Drugs Are Bad over and over and over again, and wagging an accusatory finger towards the audience. Of course, in his mind, anything stronger than caffeine is worthy of scorn.
448* In Wrestling/RingOfHonor, CM Punk came off as correct sometimes, thanks to the existence of Special K, a [[PowerStable stable]] of burnouts who blew their money and college opportunities and so turned to professional wrestling. They respected nothing and aimed to turn as much of the ROH roster as they could into drug addicts, apparently having already gone through Jersey All Pro Wrestling. The group became "Lacey's Angels" following a hostile takeover, Cheech and Cloudy would eventually go on to become [[{{Face}} babyface]] TagTeam "Up In Smoke" though.
449* During the International Wrestling Association's invasion of WWC, IWA co-owner Savio Vega taunted WWC Heir Wrestling/{{Carlito C|olon}}aribbean Cool with a medicine bottle, saying he'd always see Carlito as a tecato for refusing rehab in Wrestling/{{WWE}}, [[BatmanGambit in a bid to get WWC to return to favor and invade the IWA shows]], boosting interest in the IWA ''Summer Attitude'' show.
450* In Wrestling/{{CZW}}, the usual spokesmen are [[TwoGuysAndAGirl The body the bomb and the god]], health guru Pepper Parks, proper lady Cherry Bomb and [[CulturalPosturing Greek supremacist]] Dimitrios Papadon. Matt Tremont also had a feud with The Nation of Intoxication, who he accused of being too busy getting high to help him in his time of need.
451[[/folder]]
452
453[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
454* ''WebVideo/TheFundayPawpetShow'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71s2uEhsK04 Meet Earl]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=JamT63Wefm0 the Eyeball]].
455[[/folder]]
456
457[[folder:Religion]]
458* In New Testament Scripture from ''Literature/TheBible'', the Greek word translated as magic and witchcraft is ''pharmakeia'' (φαρμακεία), which can also double for drug use. In fact, [[Literature/BookOfRevelation Revelation 22:15]] in the Common English Bible translation reads: "Outside are the dogs, the drug users and [[MagicIsEvil spell-casters]], those who commit sexual immorality, the murderers, the idolaters, and all who love and practice deception." Peter the Apostle in [[Literature/EpistlesOfPeter his first epistle]] warns believers to "be sober and vigilant, because your adversary the Devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking out whomever to devour." (1st Peter 5:8)
459[[/folder]]
460
461[[folder:Scripts]]
462* In ''Script/{{Watchmen}}'', Moloch snorts some blow in a restroom stall at the Gunga Diner. Rorschach does not approve.
463-->'''Rorschach:''' Drug habit. Highly illegal. Hnrrh. In future -- [[TheEighties just say no]].
464[[/folder]]
465
466[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
467* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Pretty much anything that appears in ''The Book of Vile Darkness'' (which includes rules for torture, execution, and rules that make "Sadistic" a trait that a character can benefit from) is depicted as evil even by the usual standards of the game, and not recommended for player characters. Rules for and examples of magical addictive drugs (along with rules for how addiction to them is handled) are included in this book.
468* ''TabletopGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAndOtherStrangeness'': The supplement ''Turtles Go Hollywood'' (1990) has an impassioned plea on the copyright page telling kids not to do drugs that fits its end-of-the-80s time period perfectly.
469* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': The original backstory involved a shade of this trope. The [[{{Precursors}} Thran's]] civilization declined due to an addiction to Powerstones, their energy source. The addiction later became a disease, which the doctor Yawgmoth treated by [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul replacing infected parts with mechanical ones]]. Eventually, they became [[HordeOfAlienLocusts the Phyrexians]], primary antagonists for the entire first half of the game's run, and then recurring villains later.
470* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': This is a view that Fleurity, the Demon Prince of Drugs, has worked very hard and very diligently to spread. In addition to the lure of the forbidden apple effect, his ideal situation is one in which people believe mind-altering substances to be evil and polluting and then use them anyway, thus staining their souls in a way that they wouldn't if no such moral value was present.
471* ''TabletopGame/PsionicsTheNextStageInHumanEvolution'' is generally favorable towards drugs, but they occasionally play this straight. Becoming addicted to a drug or overdosing has nasty (and potentially fatal) side effects.
472** Certain drugs unlock psypotential, but they pose a risk of overloading or killing the user.
473* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Recreational drugs are almost entirely the domain of Slaanesh, the Chaos god of hedonism and excess, so indulging in them is less the domain of law enforcement and more the Inquisition. Combat drugs, on the other hand, are used in industrial quantities by gladiators, penal legions and the Dark Eldar.
474[[/folder]]
475
476[[folder:Web Animation]]
477* Parodied in ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' when Simmons tells the other members of Red team that he and Grif were drugged. Donut immediately assumes that they were intentionally abusing drugs and proceeds on a long tirade about how drugs are bad, much to Simmons' annoyance. Simmons even comes right out and says that the only thing Donut is accomplishing by going on the anti-drug tirade is making him ''want'' to take drugs out of spite.
478* ''WebAnimation/RevengeFilms'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SSJ_WkPtLE Mubio's wife]] got arrested for possession and consumption of illegal drugs. However, it turns out it was [[spoiler:her college friend who got her hooked on drugs and took advantage of her knowledge on economics to invest in foreign exchange to feed their addiction]].
479* Spoofed in the ''Saturday Morning Watchmen'' theme song. "Say no to drugs!" is sung while Rorschach is shown turning away from a dealer.
480* ''Lollipop'' by Re-animation is a ''[[SarcasmMode delightful]]'' little cartoon about a boy who literally sold his body for a ''[[FantasticDrug magical green lollipop]].'' First he sold his right eye, them right arm, them left leg... At the end, all that's left of him is just one ear. His mother takes the ear home as a keepsake, but it escapes as soon as she turns away.
481* Coco Kiryu, of WebAnimation/{{Hololive}}, makes jokes about how potentially dangerous her [[FantasticDrug "Asacoco" drugs]]. In one case, she showed how injecting Asacoco directly into your neck was a bad idea by playing a clip of [[https://youtu.be/-I89zQmVKQI?t=137 Matsuri Natsuiro suddenly shouting "penis" repeatedly]]. An advertisement for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-drPBQH7Kg Stimulant-type Asacoco]]" also ends with the implication that Coco and her cohort Watame Tsunomaki were arrested for peddling Asacoco meth.
482[[/folder]]
483
484[[folder:Webcomics]]
485* Enforced in ''Webcomic/TheComebackPathOfPrincessFromMars''. The terran emperor doesn't usually interfere with aristocratic politics, unless his own interests are directly threatened, but when he learns of the use of illegal drugs, he responds with extreme prejudice, emphasis on extreme, on the offender's house. In the first arc, all Olga has to do to avenge herself is agree to a duel with her abusive "boyfriend" Mofu Torrus Jr. to whom she was sold into an ArrangedMarriage at the age of 8. He does the rest when he starts to lose said duel, in spite of his overwhelming advantage, and openly cheats by using an illegal performing enhancement drug. The very instance this comes to light, Mofu Torrus Sr., who loved to berate Olga's father as a "loser" for becoming a cowardly boot-licker to avoid imperial wrath learns what it means on the receiving end as the emperor is driving him into a penniless commoner, at sword point!
486* Parodied in a ''Welcome to Pixelton'' [[http://www.welcometopixelton.com/2007/09/06/peer-pressure-the-comic/ strip]] with a [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros certain mushroom]]:
487-->'''Fil:''' You know you want to get ''real'' height!\
488'''Kirby:''' I'm not trying nothing!
489* ''Webcomic/CoolCatStudios'', a discontinued strip created by T. Campbell and Giselle Lagace (the creators of ''Webcomic/PennyAndAggie'') told a surprisingly less-{{Anvilicious}} story in which [[http://www.coolcatstudio.com/d/20070626.html Bones (a female body-builder) considered taking steroids to bulk up.]] [[spoiler: She ultimately chose not to because she was afraid of hitting her boyfriend in a fit of 'roid rage.]]
490* Drugs are painted in a negative light in ''Webcomic/FurryFightChronicles'' because of the consequences they provide to the users.
491** Cookie forces Muko to throw away her painkillers in Chapter 7 because she doesn't want Muko to get addicted to them. [[spoiler: Chapter 18 reveals that her best Combagal had a painkiller addiction that Cookie ignored, leading to her retirement.]]
492* Subverted throughout ''Webcomic/TheLessThanEpicAdventuresOfTJAndAmal''. The titular characters partake throughout the strip without any negative consequences.
493* [[http://hiddendepths.smackjeeves.com/comics/1359291/005-charmeleon/ Charmeleon's]] story in ''151 Hidden Depths''.
494-->'''Clefairy:''' And besides, look at what those drugs did to your HEALTH!
495* Parodied in ''WebComic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella'': [[http://nonadventures.com/2009/01/24/doobie-druthers/ Wonderella]] discourages marijuana use cause that will just lead your dealer to push harder drugs on you to make a better profit... but beer and cigarettes are legal, so they're A-OK! (Also, marijuana is illegal because it leads to harder drugs because of the dealers, and you have to go to a dealer because it's illegal.)
496-->[[AltText Wonderella will not support any product she cannot get paid to endorse.]]
497* ''Webcomic/{{Forestdale}}'': One of the core aspects of Jake Noel's backstory tends to evoke an anti-drug message. [[spoiler: The kid grew up with an abusive, drug addicted mom who went on to die from an overdose and left Jake an orphan. The fact that he ended up being so well adjusted after being placed into a much more functional and loving home is nothing short of a miracle.]]
498* ''Webcomic/ThinkingTooMuchToThinkPositively'': Parodied in "[[https://comicsbyxan.com/comic/this-is-your-brain-on-estradiol/ This is Your Brain on Estradiol]]"; a woman named Beatrice does an anti-drug PSA, attempting to cite her history with drugs in an attempt to ScareEmStraight, but she actually hasn't experienced any negative consequences at all, and she's forced to awkwardly guess that she might have "used up all the good luck" about it before the whole thing is shut down.
499[[/folder]]
500
501[[folder:Web Original]]
502* The About.com entry on marijuana says that the effects of it are "Distorted perception, problems with memory and learning, loss of coordination, trouble with thinking and problem-solving, increased heart rate and reduced blood pressure." Anyone reading that may wonder ''why'' people smoke marijuana in the first place. It's accurate, from a medical standpoint, but also something of a lie of omission.
503* Spoofed (or played straight? hard to tell) in this [[http://www.somethingawful.com/d/flash-tub/psa-rap.php Flash Tub "PSA"]] from ''Website/SomethingAwful''.
504* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', [[ReformedCriminal Weaver]] deconstructs this trope when talking to middle-schoolers, explaining that drugs ''don't'' instantly ruin people's lives like they say, and that LiesToChildren claiming they do just discredit people talking about the ''progressive'' harm they do. [[FantasticAesop She then segues from this into an explanation of why being a supervillain sucks in much the same way.]]
505* ''WebVideo/WhatTheFuckIsWrongWithYou'': Nash Bozard looks at this from a practicality standpoint. While it may not be a good ''idea,'' it's not hard to understand ''why'' people do drugs; they want to experience the effect the drug has on them, be it chilling out, euphoria, etc. Once you get to something like bath salts, this justification rapidly evaporates in a cloud of naked crazy and there's no good reason for doing it; you don't feel good by any definition, and you'll probably go on a rampage trying to get away from the people around you who have turned into demons or the lightning chasing you down the highway.
506* A lot of health websites seem to want to remind you that if you want to avoid getting nearly any illness on the planet, you must avoid doing drugs, especially smoking, as if they are pounding it into your brain.
507* ''WebVideo/AlphaOmegaSin'' tells kids not to do drugs (and then [[SarcasmMode sarcastically]] says that sounds convincing) at the end of his video talking about the Nintendo drug in the Netherlands.
508* ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLswjthJ2j4 In his review of the top eleven drug PSAs]], Nostalgia Critic both parodies this and plays this straight. At the beginning, he does calmly say that children shouldn't do drugs, since they can hurt you, get you in trouble, and damage your brain, and wonders why [=PSAs=] [[BoringButPractical can't simply do that]], rather than put on ads that are [[{{Narm}} utterly stupid and ridiculous]].
509** WebVideo/JonTron [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B--f-CcEyKk later does the same]], and goes on to parody UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan's PSA in the end.
510* [[https://youtu.be/y5rita8a9_E Organ Story]], created by Splapp-me-do (who was also responsible for VideoGame/TheImpossibleQuiz), pretty much gives a summary, in Splapp's unique art style, of several of the ways in which one can harm their organs, but the most prominent message seems to be that smoking is bad for you, as it causes the main character to develop cancer and eventually die from it.
511* Website/{{YouTube}} personality [=CgKid=] has a channel called [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCacn-Cy4KtIm-dl0iuLHAUA Shameless Protocol]], in which he as a recovering drug addict reaches out to people about his experiences with various types of drugs that he has done, hopefully to help people both steer clear of doing drugs and seek help in case they're caught in an addiction.
512* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05CXzjS8HX4 Drugs? No, thank you...]]
513* ''WebVideo/SMPLive'': '''Heavily''' [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zagged]] with Cooper in regards to [[GRatedDrug potions]]. Cooper is the server cop that installs the rule outlawing potions in the first place, yet when the job is handed off to Joko just a week later, he decides to start a BlackMarket for them. And then a few weeks ''later'', he freaks out when Travis uses potions in a fight against him, begging Schlatt & Co. to arrest him for this crime.
514[[/folder]]
515----
516''...m'kay?''

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