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* ''ComicBook/ElongatedMan'': Elongated Man drinks a lot of gingold soda and gets super-stretch powers. Evidently, it works only on him.
** Somewhat explained: Gingold can increase flexibility in most people who drink it, but you have to go to serious overdose levels to get actual stretching abilities, which can then be maintained by regular drinking of the normal product. A significant section of the human population is allergic to gingold extract and thus unable to take advantage of the herb's special properties.

* ''Film/Scarface1983'': Just before the climactic confrontation with Sosa's goons, Tony Montana takes a huge dose of cocaine. Combined with the adrenaline of the ensuing firefight, he's able to withstand being shot multiple times and takes out several of his attackers, even taunting them as they pepper him with bullets. It takes [[TheDragon The Skull]] shooting Tony in the back with a shotgun to finally kill him.

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E16ThreeHundredBigBoys 300 Big Boys]]" has Fry tap into the [[Franchise/TheFlash speed force]] when he gulps his hundredth coffee cup of the episode.

* In the superheroes parody ''WebVideo/SuperTherapy'', Franchise/TheFlash gets his SuperSpeed from what he calls "Flash Powder". His therapist rightly concludes that he's addicted to cocaine.

* Grifters in ''[[TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}} Deadlands Noir]]'' are spellcasters who derive their powers (or, more precisely, their ability to draw power from the Hunting Grounds) from some addictive and self-destructive vice, either a substance or a habit such as gambling.
* Adepts in ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'' play much like this, as they gain their charges by religiously sticking to a pattern of behavior that is somehow self-destructive and lose their powers if they act against it. This can be as simple as Plutomancers hoarding money or Videomancers having to catch absolutely every episode of a TV show, but Dipsomancers, Narco-Alchemists, and Ustrinaturges gain power from literal substance addiction; for Dipsomancers it's booze, Narco-Alchemists it's drugs, and for Ustrinaturges it's smoking. Part of playing such Adepts is balancing the magical power you get with the health effects of your habits- and none of your spells are going to help you negate the negative consequences of being that type of Adapt to begin with.

* The weird-ass ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' comic ''Storming Heaven'' revolves around superhumans being born from experiments with LSD in the 1960s. Unfortunately, this also gives rise to new supervillains like Charles Manson.
* {{Averted|Trope}} in ''ComicBook/CaptainAlcohol'', where the use of alcohol hinders his abilities as opposed to helping them.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Diabolik}}'', those who have recently used cocaine and similar drugs tend to recover faster from the title character's TruthSerums and sleep agents. {{Justified|Trope}} as [[TruthInTelevision stimulant drugs and narcotics (including the truth serum) do in fact counteract each other]].
* ComicBook/ElongatedMan drinks a lot of gingold soda and gets super-stretch powers. Evidently, it works only on him.

** In [[ComicBook/ForeverEvil the New 52]], Ultraman (Superman's [[MirrorUniverse Earth-3 counterpart]], is shown to snort powdered Green Kryptonite to gain power.

* ''ComicBook/TheNewGuardians'' villain Snowflame is the poster boy for this trope (he's the page image!), having actual observable supernatural abilities powered by cocaine, which he worships as a god.

* Gin Genie from Creator/PeterMilligan and Creator/MikeAllred's run of ''[[ComicBook/XForceMilliganAndAllred X-Force]]'' was an alcoholic mutant who gained the ability to create earthquakes whenever she drank.

* One of the active items that can be used in ''VideoGame/EnterTheGungeon'' is [[Literature/{{Dune}} a cube of spice]], that, when consumed for the first time, increases the player's maximum health and movement speed. However, using it also [[ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere increases the likelihood of more spice replacing future weapon and item pickups in the same run]], and, while further consumption does incur other buffs (such as increasing your damage output and slowing the speed of enemy bullets), the player's 'Curse' stat will also increase each time, making encounters of [[DemonicSpiders Jammed enemies]] more common. To drive the point home, the tagline associated with the spice will change on each pickup to reflect its addictive nature:

* In the ''Franchise/{{Dune}} novels'', Guild Navigators fit. Breathing great quantities of melange/spice gives them limited powers of prescience, enough to find safe passage when their ship is traveling faster than light. It also [[BodyHorror deforms them significantly]]. The general population doesn't gain this benefit, but that's because they don't literally breathe nothing but spice all day, every day (at most, they take it in tablets and put it in their food and drink -- particularly their coffee, since it tastes like cinnamon).
** The Bene Gesserit are also an example, particularly demonstrated in Literature/GodEmperorOfDune when they are forced to supplicate to GodEmperor Leto II for their Spice allocation. Also noteworthy in Literature/ChapterhouseDune in showing the Sisterhood's need to re-create the Spice after the Honored Matres [[spoiler:destroyed both Arrakis and Tleilax, the two sources of the drug]]. It also had an updated version of the Agony portrayed.
* In Creator/LawrenceWattEvans' ''Literature/TheLegendsOfEthshar'' books, the magical power that warlocks have was given by something, possibly a meteorite. It suddenly awoke power in thousands of people. The more that warlocks use their power, the more powerful they get, the more they want to use it, but when they use too much of it, they are compelled to fly to the source and are never heard from again. It's portrayed as an addiction.
* ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'':

* ''Literature/SzamankaOdUmarlakow'': Kwiatuszek ("Flower"), whose AwesomenessByAnalysis powers are powered by junk food and caffeine. They still make her fat, but she long ago decided that she won't be a BrainlessBeauty.

* Similarly, in ''Series/DesigningWomen,'' the girls' wacky friend Bernice is required by her niece to have a competency hearing. The morning of the hearing, they come downstairs to see her drinking some leftover champagne from the night before. This worries them since Bernice is kooky at the best of times. Bernice then mentioned how she had played loud music the night before to keep the aforementioned niece up all night, saying "Of course I kept her awake all night, does she think I want her fresh for ''my'' sanity hearing?" Mary Jo lampshades it, saying "Liquor seems to have the opposite effect on you, you seem sharper."