I'm not entirely sure you want to downplay addiction. True, there's no need to go batting everyone over the head with elementary school slogans, but at the least you might show the depth to which addiction could impact the characters' lives. There are some major advantages to the drug, and in many ways, this is a strong justification to anyone with a working brain as to why use of an addictive substance may well be a reasonable thing under the circumstances. But I'd advise against pretending like this is a wonder medicine unless you don't really have room in the plot now to expand on this theme.
Addiction is a complex thing, that can have widely varying effects on different individuals. If subject to a chronic addiction, urges and cravings may actually never entirely cease, even long after access to a substance has been absent. It can mellow some people out, make others downright listless, give them an edge, make them irritable - but then this is all highly reliant on the substance and the individual.
Some substance addictions will have severe withdrawal symptoms, that can leave people feeling extremely depressed, nauseous, prone to hallucination, insomnia, paranoia, muscle twitches; the list goes on and on, depending on the substance. And while taking the drug, physical dependence often manifests in the form of stress release or even compulsive behavior; think of people who whip out a cigarette when their life starts to get harried, or have a drink after work. Now think of people who hit the bottle as soon as they get home, no matter what kind of day they had.
Addiction isn't necessarily a sign of weak character, especially when a heavily addictive drug is pushed on someone. Kicking a habit certainly isn't impossible, but an "extremely addictive" drug probably shouldn't be played down if you insist on referring to it as such. You don't necessarily have to keep it that way if it's difficult to reconstruct the story around a new theme. 'Mildly addictive' could probably suffice if you don't want it to seem like too much of a miracle drug. If you want to keep that aspect in the story, however, I'd suggest getting to know the nature of addictive substances and addiction very thoroughly.
How big of a deal you make it can depend on how much bearing it has on the plot—and how great of a physical effect the drug has can help determine how much effect it should have on the plot if used. If it really debilitating or mind-altering, for instance, it will, realistically, affect how the character carries out their role. Not so much for, say, coffee.
Confession: Reading the title, I thought this thread was going to be one of those character RPs. Not sure if that would've been the best or the worst character RP ever—certainly the most exciting.
edited 26th Nov '10 3:59:36 AM by SPACETRAVEL
whoever wrote this shit needs to step on a rake in a comedic fashionAny sort of addiction changes behavior, if only because the addict has to get more of the drug. It also changes thinking patterns, which should show up in your characters. The stronger the addiction, the bigger the changes. An example: one character has a child about whom she cares deeply. As the drug takes hold, she gradually comes to care more about the drug, about her next fix, than the child. Their jobs, even if crucial to national security, will become secondary.
If you want to send a message, don't *tell* your readers "drugs are bad, mmkay?" *Show* them that drugs will replace everything else in their lives.
Under World. It rocks!Thanks for the info and advice.
To clarify I don’t really want to make the addiction seem like no big deal. It’s more like I don’t want it to overshadow the fact that these are the Good Guys. I’m not trying to deliver an anti-drug Aesop, but I certainly don’t want it to look like a pro-drug Aesop.
I don’t insist in making the drug “extremely addictive” it just has to be addictive enough to deter people from quitting lightly or easily. I admit I need to do some more research.
The drug isn’t recreational and doesn’t really get you “high”.
My idea was that the characters are first exposed via spiked food/drink and thereafter supplied w/ transdermal patches. They feel fine until the patch starts to run out. They know to return to base before this happens but if they don’t they feel progressively crappier and more compelled to return to base. They usually do return before it gets too bad but if they don’t it’s not pretty. Is this to unrealistic?
My main character hates the fact she‘s on any sort of drug and hides it from her family (but not her Nakama their as addicted as she is). She does have a kid (via Promotion to Parent ) that she would “kill or die for”. Responsibility for the kid is why she got involved in any of this in the first place. Nothing, not even drugs can change her love for the kid or her relentless need to protect her. That’s the heart of her character so if I have to rewrite the drug to make it plausible that’s ok. Also any suggestions of letting/making the kid use are met with highly believable death threats.
Does getting some one hooked on a drug (“for their own good”) without their prior knowledge and consent cross the Moral Event Horizon ? Or is it just a Jerkass thing to do? Is it plausible for a character to hate being an addict but still be friends with and come to (platonically) love the one that got her hooked?
One last thing the story is set Just Before the End / After the End but w/ teeny pockets of civilization and some hope for the future.
I’m so glad I finally found a place to discuss this kind of stuff
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edited 26th Nov '10 10:07:03 PM by HistoryMaker
History Maker: What you're describing is very similar to nicotine. A mild stimulant, a digestive aid and a pick-me-up; the effects aren't pronounced, a lot of people use it, its socially acceptable (more or less) in-world but withdrawals are a bitch.
There are two ways you can go with this; either keep morality completely out of it or present both sides of the argument as valid so that it's clear that you the writer are morally neutral on the subject, and let readers think what they like. I doubt that a drug addiction would disconnect readers from your protagonists, especially if its presented as "this is normal for this world".
As a smoker, I can tell you that while the effects of smoking aren't as pronounced as the anti-tobacco people would have us believe, they are noticeable; a few coughs on waking, shortness of breath, and of course the irritability that results when you can't light up.
One place the anti-smoking people ARE spot-on is in the addiction level; I went cold turkey once for a week, it was one of the most miserable experiences I've been through recently.
I include this because making withdrawals a dirty bitch for your imagined substance likely won't be a problem, as there are plenty of drugs in the real world (most readily available, surprisingly enough) that do this. You should be all good.
If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~If your protagonists are deciding they don't want to continue being addicted, that sounds like plenty Drugs Are Good-proofing.
Edit: ... provided they are shown on the other side of the withdrawal with an improvement in their living situation. It would help if there were some physical benefits, but being free of their controllers would be enough.
edited 27th Nov '10 12:47:37 PM by TParadox
Fresh-eyed movie blogWall of Text ahead.(Speculation about characters disclaimer)
These are good people who were put in a bad situation and can't get out of it. Must Have Caffeine doesn't show coffee as a good thing, at least not to me, it shows it as something the character depends on.
I think your characters being good drug addicts isn't really a problem, it could become a problem if you show the drugs as being cool, but if your characters hate the drugs because they can't live without them, if they hate themselves for not quiting before, that's tragedy there, not preaching. Think of Gollum and the ring, how it poisoned him. Your characters (I'm assuming) are Badass. Make the drugs make them less Badass because they don't care about being cool as much as they care about getting more of the drug.
These are easily tragic characters, addiction has millions of sides to it, some people may think that the drug is doing them no wrong, so they shouldn't quit it because it feels good. Others think that they'll quit tomorrow, or the day after, or the day after. Others are always quitting, but somehow they end up falling in the cycle again. Characters with kids could try quitting because there has to be a better way, but fall back again when they need to meet ends, or are really stressed.
These people are being forced to work for something that they feel they need. The more transparent the ruse gets, the more addictive the drug is, the more tragic these characters are for not choosing to quit (at least not for the first and second act, right?). They would feel guilty, they would feel like crap all the time, if only emotionally, because they understand what's going on (assuming your characters are smart.). They understand they're being manipulated, they understand they could leave whenever they chose, but it's so damn hard to choose that they end up not wanting to.
edited 27th Nov '10 9:03:32 PM by Faramir
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore.Getting young men drunk stupid and then hauling them aboard a ship used to be a way to round up a crew in less scrupulous ages. That's pretty reprehensible, even if it meant that someone had to get stupidly drunk mostly of their own volition. From the details you've given, if the job these characters have is a steady way to support themselves, I'd feel more worried about the group that got them addicted not coming off as complete monsters ripping off regular folk.
You'd really have to push the circumstances here before grunts getting caught up in all this seem too lazy or naive. And to make them unlikeable as well as morally insufferable...well, you'd need some kind of well-informed, yet lazy indignant who knew exactly what they were getting into when they signed up, who sticks around bitching about being tricked, and then snaps at anyone who suggests that they work on quitting the addiction and getting a job elsewhere.
From the other side of the equation, though, if you had someone basically shanghaiing workers into a job they have a hard time leaving, this is a position that is harder to keep sympathetic. Making it clear that said crimp is just doing it to keep their own head afloat still leaves them at the level of Jerkass if they had the slightest chance to get out of the profession, even if it meant their life would be a good deal harder for it; they have pretty much made it their business to abuse people, after all. It's not an impossible position to make sympathetic but it is probably one that requires a character who is constantly hoping to reform and repent, or a character who is a decent person all-around, caught up in a business they'd get out of given half the chance, with no opportunity having arisen yet.
That's what I've gathered from your descriptions so far, at least. If you still aren't sure how people will see the situation, perhaps you should share what's going on with a little more detail.
I think I’ve gotten a lot of constructive advice and ideas here. If you’re interested in details here goes.
Warnings: Wall of Text, Better Than It Sounds, YMMV
Big picture: The Virus hit. It started in Asia and appeared to spread slowly. It actually spread like lightning but most cases had a long incubation period so, by the time the US started quarantining the sick virtually everyone was infected. The Virus was like nothing anyone had ever seen. (It may have been a bio-weapon run amuck, but we’ll never know. Riots broke out. Quarantines and martial law became unenforceable as the enforcers themselves sickened. Basic services broke down and we were left with a Crapsack World. The Virus killed about half of the infected, half of humanity. Those who survived weren’t out of the woods either. They suffered relapses every few months. People were not nearly as likely to die from a relapse as from a first wave infection, but they still ended up bedridden and/or delusional. Before things got out of hand, while the rest of the world was still clueless, someone realized what was going on and implemented protocol-755 locking down “Phoenix” a quasi-governmental research facility in New England. Most of the scientists and a couple administrators locked themselves inside the “secure”/“clean” buildings/areas of Phoenix. These people become the “Insiders”. The Insiders were shadowy and morally ambiguous. They’d be Big Bad if it weren’t for the feeding the hungry, and trying to save the world. They’d be Big Good if they weren’t such bastards. Their new directive is to find a cure for The Virus. Other projects are repurposed to suit this end, and for survival (got transgenic goat’s milk?). The Insiders aren’t exposed to The Virus and don’t get sick. The interns, staff, contractors, and a few very loyal minions (including a couple M.D.’s) continued to show up for work every day. They still had access to offices, cafeteria, and a few labs. They knew something’s up but were told nothing. As they inevitably got sick they were told to remain at Phoenix. The Dr.’s tried to care for them even as they themselves became ill. Those that survived, along with those they would later recruit became the “Outsiders”. The story is about the Outsiders. On the orders of the Insiders all of the Outsiders are given the drug “Sunshine”. The Insiders provided the Outsiders with food and drugs and were the only local authority. The Outsiders serve two purposes. 1) human guinea pigs 2) their “jobs”. There were three basic jobs. “Maintainers” kept Phoenix running. “Scavengers” went out and brought back various supplies for both the Insiders and the Outsiders. “Vampires” got trained as phlebotomists and went out seeking out other survivors, trading them food etc. for blood samples. The Insiders use the blood samples to develop a treatment/cure.
Small Picture: The main POV character is Ace (she is decidedly not The Ace). She started out as a nerdy but fairly average 19 year old collage student called Anna. Through a unique set of circumstances she ended up sick and delirious at her uncle’s house in the middle of nowhere. When she came around she was stranded there with all that is left of her family: her mom and a 5 year old cousin. She feels extremely responsible for them especially the kid. When supplies run low she goes out to look for food. She ran into a girl her age wearing a red cross armband. The girl gave her a protein bar and talked to her eventually asking for a blood sample. She gave it and the girl gave her a bit more food. As the girl turned to go Anna grabbed her and asked her where she got the food and if they’re hiring. The girl told her to be at a certain place at a certain time. Anna went and met a guy who brings her in to Phoenix. Now as I have it written the guy gives her the Sunshine spiked drink and later apologizes saying “I was only following orders” and “I owe you” etc. However he is supposed to be her mentor so after reading this thread I’m considering rewriting is so either a more despicable character does the dirty work, or he warns her but she drinks it anyway because it’s the price of admission and she’s desperate. Anyway Anna is the Naïve Newcomer. She is given the name Ace and trained as a “Vampire” and the rest is plot.
Oh and the whole thing has a framing device where Ace (now clean sober and healthy but a bit messed up due to long term drug use and PTSD) is telling here story to a teenager 10 years after the fact.
If you read all that I commend you. I hope it made sense. It’s really late right now. I welcome feedback.

For a major chunk of the story all my main characters (with the notable exception of 2 young children) are addicted to a Fantastic Drug.
Its mind-altering effects are pretty minimal it’s a mild antidepressant and stimulant, and it lets you get by with very little sleep. The drug also gives you an iron stomach so the can eat lousy food and take anti-virals w/o nausea.
The major feature of the drug is that it’s extremely addictive and withdrawal is unpleasant to say the very least. As such, the powers that be use it as a leash to ensure the characters keep doing their jobs and never stray very far.
Eventually most of the characters quit (with great difficulty) not because Drugs Are Bad but because freedom is awesome and there is only one source of the drug.
I’ve been working on the for a while and yesterday just hind of hit me: my heroes are drug addicts and drugs are bad, … addiction is usually synonymous with weakness or poor character. It freaked me out a little.
What do you think? Dose being an addict have to be a big issue? These are just good people doing what the need to do to get by in a Crapsack World .
edited 25th Nov '10 2:41:33 PM by HistoryMaker