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Welcome to Pharmacopoeia Fantastica – the encyclopedia of imaginary drugs 
Week by week – and sometimes more often – I’ll be building up a comprehensive list of mind-altering substances that don’t exist, with descriptions of each one and notes about its origin. On occasion, I may even indulge in the odd speculation regarding the drug in question, if it seems warranted.
For the time being, they’ll just be sorted alphabetically by name, but if it seems needed, I may wind up splitting them into subcategories later on.
As with a lot of the features here, this is something where I’m definitely open to requests – if there’s a drug you want to see here, let me know.
Little is known about Amazo Pills other than the name. Certain inferences can be be made based on it, however.
| Amazo Pills are named after an android created by one Professor Ivo, which was able to duplicate all the superhuman abilities of the Justice League of America.
it is likely, therefore, that the pills duplicate this effect to some extent, and presumably allow the user to duplicate the powers of nearby superhumans. Amazo himself was able to duplicate even powers granted by artifacts such as Green Lantern’s ring or Wonder Woman’s lasso – it is unlikely that the drug is anywhere near this powerful. |
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Related drugs: Darkshots, Hyperdrene, Mongoose Blood and Xenite
One of the most societally destablising drugs ever developed, Ascomycin is an anti-agathic, which is to say, it is a drug that prevents or retards aging.
| Ascomycin is a drug that confers non-specific immunity. It’s less an anti-biotic than a true endotoxin, and works to prevent nearly any disease from affecting those dosed with it – and a single dose lasts about 70 years.
The mechanism of the drug involves stimulation of the reticulo-endothelial system (the white blood cells and such). It is apparently a biological drug with multiple sources, though generally not more than one or two to a plant.
The Okie ‘Cities in Flight’ use it as part of an their immortality drug suite. |
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Related drugs: Tricetyltriparanol
Made from the sundried meat of the giant aquatic Brazilian centipede, the Black Meat is a rare delicacy even among drug users.
| Little is known of the giant aquatic Brazilian centipede, and indeed, conventional taxonomies do not list it. It is unclear whether it the insect inhabits freshwater or the seas, although the former is more likely.
The centipedes are harvested by Interzone Inc., and taken to Interzone in North Africa where the flesh is dried by the hot Saharan sun. It is then ground up to form a light black powder, which can be injected or snorted by the user. Its effects are largely undocumented, although one user who was using it mixed with Bug Powder described the experience as ‘a Kafka high’, in reference to his story, Metamorphosis.
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Related drugs: Bug Powder, Mugwump Jism and The Drug That Does Not Exist.
The Blue Mold grows wild on the walls of the derelict parts of London’s underground railway network. It’s slightly luminous, but for the real fun to start, you have to smoke it.
| Smoked in a pipe, joint or bong, the Blue Mold is a powerful hallucinogenic that unshackles one’s mind from this reality, and allows it to perceive normally invisible parallel dimensions.
It’s used in the initiatory ceremonies of the mysterious conspiracy known as The Invisibles, and possibly in others of their ceremonies as well. In the world of the Invisibles, not only are the words of the prophets writtten on the subway walls, but the source of all their visions grows there free for anyone to take. |
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Related drugs: Key 17 and Zombie Crack.
A basic insecticide of the fifties in common use throughout New York City, Bug Powder is a yellowish powder that apparently kills bugs.
| I say ‘apparently’ because from what little we see of it, it’s none too effective on bugs. Indeed, it is sufficiently un-threatening that it can be eaten or injected by humans, which is hardly the quality of a deadly poison.
It apparently improves the sexual experience, at least for women, with one user stating that she no longer needed to reach orgasm thanks to the drug. Its other effects are not well-known, although one user who was using it mixed with Bug Powder described the experience as ‘a Kafka high’, in reference to his story, Metamorphosis. |
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Related drugs: The Black Meat, Mugwump Jism and The Drug That Does Not Exist.
There is no drug more pernicious or addicting than this. Fortunately, there is also no drug more rare or hard to find. In fact, you can only find it in the movie version of Naked Lunch.
| The Drug That Does Not Exist appears to be a creation of the fevered imagination of withdrawing multiply-addicted writer William Lee. God only knows what he was addicted to at that point - Bug Powder, Mugwump Jism, the Black Meat, and possibly even some real drugs like heroin or morphine…
For obvious reasons, little is known about this drug. But the smart money says that William Lee is right, and that withdrawal from it is a real bitch…
After all, if a man as experienced in the matters of addiction and withdrawal as William Lee is absolutely terrified of this particular withdrawal above all others, then it’s something the rest of us are better off not knowing too much about. |
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Related drugs: The Black Meat, Bug Powder and Mugwump Jism.
A street drug developed by the very people who are charged with policing it, Dust is a red powder that stimulates telepathic powers in humans (and some other species) for the duration of its use.
| Dust was created by the Psi-Corps in an effort to create more human telepaths. It has been an unmitigated failure in that respect, and remains potentially a huge embarassment to the Psi-Corps should its origins become public. In the meantime, the same people who created the drug have the job of hunting down and punishing those who use it.
The fact that the drug works on non-human races, notably the Narn, is most llikely indicative of the genetic meddling of the Vorlons with these races, with the drug tapping the telepathic genes implanted by that race. |
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It’s somewhat unclear whether Ent-Draughts are some form of enchanted juice or some form of enchanted water. Certainly it is loved by Ents, as Treebeard keeps a supply laid in. But what is most attention-grabbing about this liquid the effect that it has on hobbits.
| Even a single draught will cuase feelings of extreme well-being and act as a restorative to good health and boundless energy.
In the cases of Merry and Pippin, it even caused them to grow a considerable amount, making them two of the tallest hobbits ever. Presumably, it would have analogous effects on humans, although thiis has never been tested – and the only species to drink Ent-Draughts are the Ents themselves. The effect it has on them is unclear, although it is implied to be a mild intoxicant. |
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Related drugs: Miruvóre
Key 17 is a potent hallucinogen with highly specialised effects.
| It causes the user to experience written signals as the objects themselves – a coffee mug reading ‘world’s greatest dad’ would be perceived as the user’s father, for example.
Key 17 is used as a means of interrogation by the agents of the Outer Church, who use it to substitute for actual torture by creating the illusion that such torture has taken place. Key 17 also appears to have a secondary effect (common to hallucinogens in general) of messing with the user’s sense of time’s passage.
A similar drug called Key 23 also exists – it appears to be a later refinement of of the original. |
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Related drugs: Blue Mold, Sky and Zombie Crack.
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