Writing About Drugs

turducken.:

^ I think that's what pisses me off the most. When people write about being high on pot and the craziest crap happens to them, and they see the most random things like I read one once, where the guy saw a bunch of purple penguins.
That doesn't happen.
>.>

Actually it does happen. Only rarely and hallucinations are usually more like a band of psychopath penguins than a bunch of cute cuddly ones, but marijuana can cause them. Burroughs recorded his experiences with heroin, morphine and marijuana in Naked Lunch and the book reads a lot like a series of random creepy hallucinations.

^
I was under the impression the marijuana had to be mixed/cut with someone else in order to cause hallucinations.

But regardless, I think your post still says it all. "Only rarely." For being so rare you see a lot of stories with pot leading to hallucinations.

I really want to write a one-shot about the bad trip that lead to my friend Will's fear of rabbits. "They'll kill you with their fucking carrots!"

Uh, yes.

I've got some tobacco use and pot use in my stories. Harlow Summerford was going to get into the really hardcore shit and AIDS while Hard As Nails wasn't going to get much further than pill popping and blotter acid once or twice.

Siriano;:

I really want to write a one-shot about the bad trip that lead to my friend Will's fear of rabbits. "They'll kill you with their fucking carrots!"

Uh, yes.

I've got some tobacco use and pot use in my stories. Harlow Summerford was going to get into the really hardcore shit and AIDS while Hard As Nails wasn't going to get much further than pill popping and blotter acid once or twice.

How do you "get into" AIDS? You mean he managed to contract it?

Jinxeh:

How do you "get into" AIDS? You mean he managed to contract it?

I simply mean that the story was going to discuss the disease and my character would know people who were both HIV positive and had the full-blown disease.

dru goes live.:

^
I was under the impression the marijuana had to be mixed/cut with someone else in order to cause hallucinations.

But regardless, I think your post still says it all. "Only rarely." For being so rare you see a lot of stories with pot leading to hallucinations.

Space cakes lead to hallucinations.

I think it's better when stories have drugs as a casual plotline, otherwise like people say it's filled with pink elephants etc. Stories are more creditable if the story focuses around other things, but witha strong drugline.

death to the pixies.:

I wouldn't say space cake always leads to hallucinations, but in my experience it definetly gives a more intense hight than smoking it. And overdosing can lead to a very bad trip which can be similar to a bad trip whilst on Acid (my friends experience.)

That's one thing that bugs me. When characters in stories try space cake, even by accident, they tend to eat a lot of it and nothing bad happens. Space cake is normally a lot stronger than just a joint, so scoffing down 5 hash brownies would at least make your character a little sick, not just sitting there giggling.

I wish people would research simple things like that

But hash and marijuana are somewhat different, I know. Eating a hash brownie is different than smoking a joint. Smoking a joint (pipe/bong/whatever) is most likely not going to cause hallucinations.

I think the most common mistake I see when I read stories about drugs is the writer's lack of knowledge of the particular drugs they may be writing about, or their lack of detail into what exactly the user is taking. You don't have to be a user of the drug to be able to write about it properly, you just have to make sure you don't have a character hallucinating and jumping out a window on heroin, or doing lines of marijuana. haha.

death to the pixies.:

Space cakes lead to hallucinations.

I think it's better when stories have drugs as a casual plotline, otherwise like people say it's filled with pink elephants etc. Stories are more creditable if the story focuses around other things, but witha strong drugline.

Not always... there are always those stories like Trainspotting completely based around drugs that are still awesome. Still, in most cases I do agree that it's better to have the drugs as a minor or sub plotline.

^
It really matters on the reader/writer preference in those scenarios, I think. I'm not a fan of heavily defined plotlines in general, so I certainly wouldn't prefer if a drugfic I was reading had a strong plotline to carry me through everything.

I'm just wondering... Is there any rules against the content of drugs in stories? because my new one is focusing on the good side of drugs, and although I'm going to leave an authors not encouraging any of the behaviours in the story... Would there be anything mibba would be frowned up?

And (although I don't need secondary reseach for majority of my story) where do you guys generally go for research so you can write accurately?

death to the pixies.:

I'm just wondering... Is there any rules against the content of drugs in stories? because my new one is focusing on the good side of drugs, and although I'm going to leave an authors not encouraging any of the behaviours in the story... Would there be anything mibba would be frowned up?

Just rate properly and there's no issue.

I Will Save You talks a lot about drugs because the main character Jamie did drugs in the past. I had to do some research but I really wanted to do a story with drugs in it. I've never done drugs or alcohol or anything like that so it's been a bit difficult to write but it's all turned out mostly okay.

Whilst my experience of drugs is kinda limited, I have written vaguely about characters who have had a habit. I cannot recall writing one specifically about someone on it or whatever.

But going overboard with the "ZOMGZ UNICORNS" shit with hallucinagenics is just stupid. I know that LSD gets a bad rap for that.

death to the pixies.:

I'm just wondering... Is there any rules against the content of drugs in stories? because my new one is focusing on the good side of drugs, and although I'm going to leave an authors not encouraging any of the behaviours in the story... Would there be anything mibba would be frowned up?

And (although I don't need secondary reseach for majority of my story) where do you guys generally go for research so you can write accurately?

Like Dru said rate properly and everything will be all good :)

And for drugs I normally ask a few friends and see what they, they've done a lot of drugs, and if you need any information with heroin, I can help so if need be message me

My brother and I were just discussing casual marijuana usage in fics and how it's not exactly filler, but it's not part of the storyline really either. But it's sort of great because it gives the characters something to do and can create an interaction or, if the character's alone, it still gives them some sort of action thing to do.

It is so incredibly normal for my characters to just be randomly smoking and it have nothing to do with the plot really.

This is why I make up new drugs for my stories- so that I can't be wrong about them!

dru saw god.:

My brother and I were just discussing casual marijuana usage in fics and how it's not exactly filler, but it's not part of the storyline really either. But it's sort of great because it gives the characters something to do and can create an interaction or, if the character's alone, it still gives them some sort of action thing to do.

It is so incredibly normal for my characters to just be randomly smoking and it have nothing to do with the plot really.

I agree with this, I don't see smoking weed as a key activity to my day, it's a minor thing like brushing my teeth. So unless a story is about someone picking up (which I doubt I'd ever do it's just the first thing that came to my head) or their first experience, marijuana will not be the main drive of the plot.

And I've now forgotten what my initial post was going to be

I'm writing a story where my character ODs on heroin. I've never been around drugs, so I have no idea how to write about it. I really don't want to get anything wrong and I've gotten several different answers by searching the net. Is it a different experience for everyone?