Basic Trope: A drug dealer uses and potentially becomes addicted to his own drugs.
- Straight: Bob is a drug dealer who samples the various drugs he sells.
- Exaggerated: Bob is a kingpin who heads a massive drug cartel specifically to obtain the "cream of the crop" for his own personal use.
- Downplayed: Bob takes an occasional pinch of coke, with "testing the quality" as a convenient excuse that his bosses may believe.
- Justified: Bob became addicted because of accidental exposure either during the making or transporting of the drug.
- Inverted: Bob is a drug addict who sometimes sells drugs from his own personal stash.
- Subverted:
- Bob is a cocaine dealer infamous for appearing high nearly all the time, but he is addicted to cannabis bought from other dealers.
- Bob's drug boss believes that he has become high, but the redness of his eyes was actually from irritation.
- Bob is noted to "sample the product", but this is not his drug trafficking but human trafficking.
- Double Subverted:
- Turns out that the cannabis Bob use is laced with cocaine originating from his cartel.
- Even if he is buying the drugs he inhibes from other dealers, he is still using a significant amount of his profits to purchase them, to the point it would just be cheaper to steal from his own supply.
- Bob's eye irritation is caused by an after-effect of drugs which sets in after the high ends.
- "Sampling the products" of human trafficking also causes deleterious effects to Bob & his business like STDs.
- Parodied: Bob does the whole "Scarface copycat" plot with placebos. And he knows they are placebos, and everybody and their dog know they are placebos, but the whole mess is played straight anyways.
- Zig-Zagged: Whether or not Bob is a drug dealer or just plain drug user is never clear, but the cops note his stash is much bigger then a personal one.
- Averted:
- Bob does not use his own drugs.
- Bob does not sell drugs, only using them.
- Bob does not have anything to do with drugs.
- Bob has an addiction and he sells drugs, but the addiction is not to drugs (ex. exotic animals).
- Enforced: The writers wish to add a "crime does not pay" messsage to their ending and having Bob be an idiot who steals from his own supply thinking he can have his cake and eat it too is one of the easiest methods (at the very least it will lead the audience to argue how stupid and survival are not synonymous).
- Lampshaded: "Everyone knows the rule, 'Don't get high on your own supply'. But there's always that one asshole who just ain't got time for common sense."
- Invoked:
- Bob decides to get high so the police think he is an addict, not a dealer.
- One of Bob's customer's get him high to steal his stash.
- Exploited: The police always knew Bob was a dealer, but could never prove it. His drugged up behavior gives them a perfect excuse.
- Defied: Bob's drug boss is a Straight Edge Evil, and expects his men to do the same.
- Discussed:
Do drug dealers get high like that?
Must don't, but it sometimes happens.
Must don't, but it sometimes happens.
- Conversed: ???
- Played for Laughs: The typical character arc of this trope is performed by Bob, who is getting high on the strawberry yogurt ice cream he is supposed to be selling as an ice cream man.
- Played for Drama: Bob sells highly addictive combat stims. Him using his own supply makes him a nightmare for The Hero to fight, as he displays disproportionate stamina, pain tolerance, strength, reflexes along with a shutting down of his fear reflexes...
- Played for Horror:
- Bob becomes addicted to the Expy of Krokodil he is supposed to be selling. He is not just addled and wasting away; he is literally dissolving from the inside.
- The other dealers in Bob's circle are ticked off that he is doing this and decide to get rid of him; and it is not a quick and painless process (Colombian Necktie, Necklacing, etc.)
- Implied: Bob purchases a kilo of cocaine and sells 300 grams to other dealers, leading to the question what he is doing with the last 700 grams.
Back to Getting High on Their Own Supply
