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Drugs Are Bad / Western Animation

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  • Bravestarr
    • "The Price": the kid actually does overdose and die. Shocking for a cartoon of that era, it's one of the best and darkest episodes of the series. The episode goes even further by having his death by overdose come as a result of the batch his drugs came from being tainted, which was a second part to the warning that is Truth in Television about illegal drugs.
    • Of course, the message couldn't have been made clearer any time Tex-Hex's stooge Scuzz showed his face. Likely the most unpleasant villain on the show, he was a guy who smoked large, smelly cigars, and was always coughing badly because of them. Even the other villains were repulsed by him and his habit. (Of course, a kid's show like this is more than likely going to portray smoking as bad when they portray it at all.)
  • The Capitol Critters episode "Opie's Choice" deals with a squirrel named Opie who is addicted to pep pills that make him to stay awake at all times, have big baggy bloodshot eyes, and in order to get them he sells everything he owns. In that same episode, Max is captured by the drug dealers, who force an entire bottle of the pills down his throat, putting him in a coma and almost killing him as a result.
  • Several episodes of Captain Planet and the Planeteers, including the memorable "Mind Pollution" in which Linka became addicted to drugs after eating one slipped into a pastry, and her cousin died due to an overdose.
  • Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, an animated special featuring cartoon characters from several different shows. It's the same thing with The Flintstone Kids "Just Say No".
  • The C.O.P.S. (1988) episode "The Case of the Lowest Crime" deals with this trope. A new villain called Addictum who deals in a skin-absorbed drug called Crystal Twist tries to form an alliance with Big Boss. Big Boss refuses, saying that, despite making money in the worst ways possible, he would never stoop so low as to deal in drugs, seeing as drugs kill. He even warns his henchmen to never ever take drugs, to which they reply that they might be stupid, but not that stupid. When Big Boss' nephew Beserko is hospitalized by accidentally overdosing (he fell into a crate of the stuff), Big Boss and his gang help the cops capture him.
  • DC Animated Universe:
  • In the Defenders of the Earth episode "The Deadliest Battle", both Rick and Kshin are (separately) offered drugs. However, while Kshin has the guts to refuse, Rick, who has recently (in universe) been under a lot of stress, quickly succumbs to temptation. As a result of taking the drugs, Rick's behaviour becomes erratic and his ability to make decisions is impaired. And, when Kshin tries to confront him about the drugs, Rick uncharacteristically snaps at the youngster to mind his own business. It takes Kshin's apparent death at the hands of a super-charged Ming to bring Rick to his senses and get him to take the first step towards quitting drugs.
  • Disenchantment: Bean has a drug-induced vision where she sees Elfo's (made-up) girlfriend, which leads to her kidnapping an innocent giant and accidentally forcing her to act like Elfo's girlfriend for a few days. Even after the truth comes to light, it takes her a second to figure it out.
    Bean: No, but I had a vision and — oh, drugs are bad.
  • According to The Drug Avengers, an obscure and very weird educational cartoon recently exhumed by Everything Is Terrible! (and is now on YouTube), the reason Earth will not be able to join the Galactic Federation in the future is because you smoked a joint at that outdoor Radiohead concert.
  • Family Guy:
    • In the episode "The Thin White Line", Brian gets hooked on cocaine. While we don't see his withdrawal, we do see the terrible effects coke has on him — wild mood swings, paranoia, etc. Dogs, don't do drugs.
    • Subverted, in that Brian smokes weed and it isn't really shown as a bad thing. As do Peter, Lois, and the Evil Monkey. Even Meg has good connections.
    • And Peter/Carter sell Meg a bag. Then clock her and steal it back.
    • Double-subverted in the episode "420". At first, the characters sing a musical number extolling marijuana, and make a successful argument to legalize it. At which point the law is passed, and everyone is completely stoned all the time with a few exceptions, to the point where society basically freezes. Apparently in the world of Family Guy, there's no room for "responsible moderation".
    • Played straight in another episode where Brian overdoses on magic mushrooms and has a bad trip, complete with hallucinations, chills, et cetera.
    • In another episode, Peter and Lois smoke pot for a talent show because they used to do so when they had a music act in their youth, and they believe that their best songs were inspired by it. While at first, they appear to give an amazing performance to rounding applause, they are later shocked to learn that they lost... whereupon Chris comes in and informs them that they were "so stoned out" that they were nowhere near as good as they thought, in fact they were babbling, incoherent and disturbingly manic. He proceeds to give them a speech on the dangers of marijuana use and how the chief ingredient of marijuana is a type of acid, so prolonged use of the drug can cause brain damage. It's mostly Played for Laughs, albeit because it's Chris who's eloquently explaining this.
  • The Flintstone Kids "Just Say No" special shows Wilma joining a group of cool kids, the leader of which, Stoney, wanting her and his other friends to use drugs, which Wilma doesn't want to do. Her friends advise her to talk to her parents, who explain to her that drugs not only hurt your body but make it hard for you to think straight and that it's better to avoid being friends with someone who want you to do something that can get you in a lot of trouble. Taking her parents' advice, Wilma says no when Stoney insists she go along with him and his friends, and she even suggests to her own friends that they start their own Just-Say-No club, just like Freddy's cool cousin in Hollyrock. Near the end of the special, not only Stoney's friends desert him because his drugs have caused a lot of trouble for them, but he's arrested by Officer Quartz, which makes Stoney wish he could've said no to drugs.
  • Futurama:
  • In an episode of Galaxy High, Doyle takes "brainblasters" from a dealer to make him smarter and pass his classes, he soon becomes addicted to them and as a side effect he has big baggy eyes and zones out at the most inappropriate times, eventually he spends all his money and resorts to stealing from his friends to get more, eventually they get him to admit he has a problem after he goes to a planet that criminals hang out and returns their stuff, and he finds out that if he continued to use the stuff he could end up in prison.
  • G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero has an episode where the Joes team up with COBRA to take down a drug lord after a COBRA agent's sister gets hospitalized due to the drug lord's new product, "Sparkle". Cobra Commander only gets involved when the agent persuades him that, since drugs are big business, the drug lord is sure to have piles of cash on hand to steal. In a rare scene from a show heavy on the Bloodless Carnage, the drug lord gets dropped into a vat of pure Spark and dies from a horrific overdose. It also turns out that the drug lord's bags of "cash" were really bags of shredded newspaper.
  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983):
    • In "A Friend In Need", the villain Jarvan gets a girl named Ileena addicted to a drug. She almost gets herself and Prince Adam killed when she attempts to drive while high. Also, she becomes willing to assist Jarvan in his plans in order to get more of the drug. Eventually, she managed to beat the addiction and helped defeat Jarvan.
    • In "The Eternia Flower", Count Marzo cultivates a special flower called the Black Nightmare that has an intoxicating and addictive scent. He gets a boy named Jahno hooked on it so that he would assist him in his plan to lure other children in. While high, Jahno nearly killed himself by playing on top of a high wall. Marzo planned to addict all the children so that they would obey him and serve as his army. Jahno beats the addiction and turns on Marzo when he sees what the flower has done to his little brother Chad.
  • Parodied in Home Movies. Coach McGuirk, through a bout of Insane Troll Logic, comes to the conclusion Brendon is using drugs and dismisses Brendon's truthful denial of using drugs because "denial is the first step of admitting you have a problem". After screwing up an intervention, Coach McGuirk admits to Brendan that he made it up as part of a hairbrained scheme to motivate the kids.
  • "Alone Again" from Jem fits this trope. Laura, the newest Starlight Girl, is so depressed over her parents' deaths that she's easy prey for a drug dealer. Within a minute of taking a pill she has an intense hallucination and tries to jump out of a window thinking she can fly. She becomes addicted within a few weeks but quits after learning Bobby is a False Friend who repeats the same thing to every girl he wants to buy drugs. Pity about the Anvilicious Aesop, since the first five minutes describing Laura's self-hate and loneliness are an intense Tear Jerker.
  • Lastman:
    • The new drug "sector" and its increasing use in Paxtown are one of the background scenaristic threads.
    • In episodes "Action!" and "Restez avec nous sur PaxNews", two sector's addicts take the main characters hostage in a mall.
  • An episode of The Littles, appropriately entitled "Prescription for Disaster", plays this straight in a surprisingly realistic manner for a Saturday morning cartoon. Also unique in that it calls out parents who use drugs.
  • "Mojo Jonesin'", an episode of The Powerpuff Girls (1998), uses tainted Chemical X as an allegory for drug use, but otherwise plays this trope straight. Mojo Jojo, a clear metaphor for a drug dealer, gives a diverse group of kids the aforementioned tainted Chemical X, which gives them superpowers, on the condition that they fight and defeat the Powerpuff Girls. Blossom even tells the kids that when dealing with people like Mojo, to "just say no-no". Doubles as a Too Smart for Strangers Aesop, as the kids use what happened as an example of why not to deal with strangers.
  • One episode of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo has one of the suspects revealed to have a history with drugs. Every time the D-word was mentioned, the main characters (especially Scooby) express near-Pavlovian revulsion. It turns out that the suspect in question is still involved in smuggling drugs, despite having given an Anvilicious claim that he'd quit that stuff.
  • Rambo: The Force of Freedom actually did an episode titled "Just Say No".
  • The Simpsons:
    • The kids' favorite cartoon characters, Itchy and Scratchy, spend a whole episode doing little more than standing on the screen and tepidly fighting. They end the episode with the non-sequitur "Kids, say no to drugs!" Bart and Lisa decide it was a pretty lifeless outing.
    • "Boy-Scoutz 'N the Hood": When Bart loses in the arcade game Panamanian Strongman, the Game Over screen shows George Bush Sr. stating "Winners Don't Use Drugs" before kicking the Panamanian Strongman repeatedly in the head.
  • Completely and utterly ripped into by Sit Down, Shut Up. The teachers decide that they need a scapegoat problem to lecture about for Parents' Day and decide to have an anti-drug conference sponsored by a prescription drug company. One of the teachers is declared the "drug czar" (for confiscating non-company drugs, including prescription drugs) and forced to quit drinking coffee, the negative effects of not taking prescription drugs are emphasized (including the principle going into a coma from various vital organs shutting down), and one of the teachers mishears "Math Lab" (he had previously been taking anti-ear-blockage medication) and instead builds a meth lab. Everyone seemingly gets sick from the meth being accidentally left among the dipping sauces, which is censored for being "kind of gross", and it turns out that nobody had taken drugs at all and they got sick from the food. For The Stinger, after it being said that they never did have a chance to show that drugs are bad, shows the baby who had several times been referenced as a "permanent consequence" of using drugs sitting in the duffel bag full of meth bags... and its tooth falls out.
  • The Smurfs (1981): In the episode "Lure of the Orb", Poet Smurf is given an orb by a witch named Allura. When someone touches the orb, it helps them think and makes them more energetic. Poet, Painter, Handy, Harmony, and Farmer get addicted to its power, which makes them perform their work sloppily and have big bloodshot eyes. The other Smurfs realize they have a problem and have Papa Smurf take it away, but they take it back when he's asleep. When Hefty finds out he breaks it so they go back to Allura for more, but when they do, she makes them her slaves and tells them that they will become completely unable to function without the orb. Farmer manages to escape and brings Hefty with him to save the others and destroy the main orb. Once the effects have worn off the affected Smurfs realize how the orb affected them and how awful their work was while under the influence.
  • South Park has long parodied the trope, with the protagonists being school-age kids and the useless adults knowing that they have to steer the kids away from drugs but not knowing how or really why. This leads to characters believing hilarious misconceptions about drugs, like the common Marijuana Is LSD line. The show's actual stance on drugs like cannabis is that it's not so harmful as to be illegal across the board, but if all you're doing is getting high, you're not getting much else done — so the best argument against drug abuse is just that it's not usually worthwhile.
    • "Ike's Wee-Wee" gives us the quote on the main page, coming from Mr. Mackey's scrambled attempts to tell the kids why they shouldn't use drugs. The main joke comes from him not having any ideas beyond "Drugs Are Bad", but there's also a Broken Aesop to it. Mackey tells the kids that if you use drugs, you become a poor, depressed, homeless loser, when it's actually the other way around — poor, depressed, homeless losers of all kinds start using drugs to cope with their lot. Then Mackey accidentally loses a cannabis plant among the students (Mr. Garrison stole it) and gets fired — the loss of his job and the stigma of being a drug user turn him into poor, depressed, homeless loser who uses drugs to cope. The drugs help him, though; he sleeps with a hot hippie girl, marries her, honeymoons in India and has a spiritual reawakening, and loosens his tie — turns out he didn't have enough blood flow to his head. And when he finally felt he was happy and in control of his life, he stopped doing drugs because he didn't need them anymore. When he tries to explain this to his rehabilitation counselor, she simply brainwashes him into once again believing that Drugs Are Bad, because, well, they just are, m'kay. In all of this, he only kind of got through to the kids:
    • "My Future Self 'n Me" was written in response to the creators spotting a poster claiming that smoking marijuana supports terrorism.note  This evolved into Stan's parents going to extreme lengths to Scare 'Em Straight, to the point of hiring an actor to pretend he's Stan himself from the future, a drug-addicted loser who needs to head off his past self before it's too late. It gets to the point of Stan's parents cutting off the actor's hand to maintain the ruse. In the end, Randy gets the message across much better by just sitting down and talking honestly with Stan about drugs.
  • Done subtly in Transformers: Prime, where Megatron frequently uses Dark Energon as a performance-enhancing drug. Aside from the more esoteric and supernatural side effects that come from it being the blood of Unicron, there are familiar negative side effects, such as heightened aggression, loss of rationality, and psychological dependence. Granted, these realistic performance-enhancers are mostly subtle due to being overshadowed by the Demonic Possession vulnerability, the raising zombies, and the barring the user's soul from the afterlife.
    • Done more blatantly when Ratchet uses Synthetic Energon to similar (but more focused on) effect.
  • Probably the only unattractive thing about Dr. Girlfriend on The Venture Bros. is her masculine, gravely voice. After a few seasons (and a lot of bad jokes), it's revealed to be the result of chain smoking.
  • Used in Young Justice (2010), where Superboy, a half-clone of Superman with weaker powers, is offered "Super Shields" which grant him full Kryptonian powers for an hour, at the cost of making him extremely violent, mindless, and angry. They're also addictive, though whether that's the actual shield's fault or the power they give is ambiguous. Thankfully, Superboy realizes how dangerous the addiction is to him (especially since it makes him dependent on Luthor), and comes clean of his own accord.

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