Wizarding dope

[Padfoot Patronus]

Hey all -

I'm wondering what can be some wizarding equivalents of Muggle drugs, dope. The only thing that comes in my mind are certain potions that can have an addicting characteristic. But what sort of potion? Also, how will these be used?

Will appreciate help,

- Akay

[Tim the Enchanter]

Hey all -

I'm wondering what can be some wizarding equivalents of Muggle drugs, dope. The only thing that comes in my mind are certain potions that can have an addicting characteristic. But what sort of potion? Also, how will these be used?

Will appreciate help,

- Akay

Hmm... I don't know about an equivalent of marijuana. It's not exactly something I think about on a regular basis, but I did come up with two magical drugs for one of my stories:

The first is Magic Pixie Dust. It's an electric-blue powder made from pulverised Cornish Pixies - the effect is like having an atomic sugar rush, or drinking ten million cups of coffee. I didn't bother describing its adverse side effects, but it probably wouldn't be good.

The second is Dragon Breath. It's some sort of flame-coloured gaseous/liquidy substance (like the thoughts in a Pensieve) that you drunk/inhaled from a bottle. I describe the effect as being like swallowing the "hottest hot sauce in existence, seasoned with gunpowder and napalm." Again, I didn't bother describing its addictive qualities and ways it would be hazardous to your health.

But to come up with a wizarding drug like dope, I'd suggest you just use the first thing that pops into your head - if it's random, then that's probably a good thing. With the above two drugs, I didn't exactly put much thought into them, but since they weren't all that important to my story, I didn't need to.

Tim the Enchanter

[Halgy]

Well, the Euphoria elixir that Harry made in his sixth year would probably be pretty cool. Perhaps Felix Felices and have the user get poisoned after taking it too much.

Those are the only cannon examples I can think of; anything else would just be made up. Have fun with it.

[OliveOil_Med]

We know that powered dragon's claw is supposed to super charge your brain and Ron wanted some to help him study. When I hear that, I almost think of students taking Adoral or Ritalin to help them study during exams.

That might be something to think about.

[apollo13]

I read a fic once which described the effects of "dragon weed".

I think you could take any magical plant and make characters smoke it, or make a potion from it. As the world is so magical, you could make stuff up. You can have them crushing snargaluff pods into powder or something. :P

~Evie

[moonymaniac]

I almost think of students taking Adoral or Ritalin to help them study during exams.

And I thought the kids who took NoDoze were hard core. What happened to a thermos of coffee and some donuts?

Anyway, Billywig stings are said to produce drug like affects. They produce giddiness and euphoric feelings as well as levitation. The downside is, if you use them too much, the levitation can become permanent, if I remember my FBaWtFT properly. And I think they are a controlled substance because of it. Ground up, the dried stingers are used in potions and I'd guess would be one of the ingredients in the Euphoria Elixer Harry made.

*wrote a drabble about it once*

[OliveOil_Med]

And then there is also just good, old fashioned Firewhiskey; which every seems to make poor George hit pretty heavy after he loses his brother.

His sibling is dead, and now he is the victim of his own cliche? Where is the justice in that?

[liquid_silver]

In the Shoebox Project, the Marauders smoke Gillyweed, and its effects are very similar to those of marijuana. However, I think that idea is kind of ridiculous, as Gillyweed is supposed to be slimy and damp, and as such wouldn't light up very well. I, personally, prefer the idea of Floo Powder as a drug. It takes you to new places! (Get it? Floo Powder? Transportation? Yeah, I have a stupid sense of humor.)

I imagine wizard drugs wouldn't be as harmful as Muggle drugs, as the creators would probably have magical ways of circumventing all (or at least a lot of) the adverse effects. Magical items that were never intended to be used for recreational purposes, however, I imagine would be even more damaging than Muggle drugs, since magic is about a billion times more powerful than chemicals and crap.

[A.H.]

Magical drugs: What's FF coming to?

I think you could take any magical plant and make characters smoke it, or make a potion from it. As the world is so magical, you could make stuff up. You can have them crushing snargaluff pods into powder or something. :P

That's a good idea. Marijuana is a natural substance (not so natural when grown for mass-distribution, but originally, it was natural) in our boring world, so you could play with ideas for a magical plant with the same characteristics as THC. Though, since it would be a magical plant and all, the effects could be much more interesting and cooler than plain ole' pot.

Like Tim the Enchanter said, random ideas (plants, potions, dragon's breath) would more than suffice and pass believability, but if you want to get technical with the drugs you could do some research on the effects/ingredients/methods of forming (cooking, drying, boiling, etc.) of regular drugs and make the changes necessary for them to fit into the HP world.

Or crushed dragon egg-shells, soaked in Felix Felices potion for three days, dried on a bed leaves from the Whomping Willow, and then re-crushed could have the same effects as methamphetamines. The wonderful world of FF has no boundaries (er... okay so it does, but in cases like this it doesn't!).

[AurorKeefy]

You know, it's not often I'll get to ask the latter half of this sentence, but what's wrong with just using normal drugs?

I know wizards have their own ways of doing many muggle activities, but in terms of the foods and drinks they consume there appears to be a great deal of overlap. I think every dish served at the Hogwarts dinner table appears in the muggle world, and of the drinks we encounter many are either available in muggle society or else are very similar to muggle drinks (eg. Redcurrant Rum and Damson Gin). Mundungus smokes tobacco that is apparently quite similar to that of his muggle counterparts, if not identical. The consumption habits are far from mutually exclusive.

Knowing this, it seems perfectly plausible that things like cannabis, magic mushrooms and opium should be used within wizarding society. Perhaps the means of consumption and production might be different, given that produce in the wizarding world tends to be less mass produced, but I would have thought that such things would have been at least similar.

By extension of this, certain muggle-made narcotics, made on a wider scale and predominantly distributed through urban muggle society, may be far less common. Refined cocaine, ecstacy, LSD and amphetamines look like they would be restricted to the muggle world, unless a particularly adventureous and/or foolish wizard went out to seek them. I would assume that these would be more likely to have true wizarding counterparts than the more naturally occuring drugs mentioned earlier.

Of course, this is not to say that wizarding equivilants of drugs shouldn't be used, rather that they are not completely necessary, and magical replacements are not needed in every instance of writing. Still, whatever works for your story, and all that.