Drugs/medical issues in T2k (includes 'Drug use & availability in the Twilight War')

[HorseSoldier]

Opium poppies are cultivated by gardeners for the flowers, though. They'd tend to be out there, being grown, by groups where someone -- avid gardner, medical professionals, pharmacists, well-read junky -- knew enough to identify the seeds for the proper species and get cultivation online. The poppies themselves aren't hard too demanding once you get the seeds in the ground, and very hardy (they grow like weeds in Afghanistan, making me believe you could probably also grow them on the face of the moon . . .)

How much processing could be done with resulting opium would be limited by both expertise and available chemicals. Opium itself and Laudanum are easy enough that they'd be very common. Morphine and heroin aren't super complicated -- they are, after all, produced in bulk in clandestine labs in A'stan, SE Asia, and Mexico every day. However, I don't know how much personal expertise or written references are floating around in the mid-90's in the US or Europe, especially after the nukes fly.

No ideas on pricing, but I'd think availability would be something like:

Marijuana V/V or C/C
Hashish C/C or S/S
Opium, Laudanum S/S or R/R
Processed Morphine or Heroin/Diamorphine R/R

Of course it is entirely possible that in various locations some group would have a monopoly on some of the above (poppies more than marijuana, I'd think, as well as on production of the complicated derivatives), which would effect price, availability, and possibly provide gaming ideas. I could see New America as part of their survivalist prep thing making sure cells had access to opium poppy seeds and the know how to use it to make both medical grade morphine and recreational heroin, for instance (the better to control the restive non-white masses and all that).

Coca isn't grown anywhere outside the Andes, I don't think, and unlike opium poppies, possession of coca bushes in Europe and the US is a criminal offense. I could see some very limited continued importation to the US after the nukes (i.e. if you're going to risk trade all the way from northern South America to CONUS, it's only going to be for goods worth their weight in gold), but availability would tend to be -/- with acquisition being specific to some sort of gaming scenario.

Alternately, some New America cells could also be growing and processing coca as part of the same keep the masses high and subordinate plan. I could see them, as presented in the T2K universe, having sufficient connections and protection from politically powerful patrons to manage importation of coca bushes and their covert cultivation in CONUS. (Hell, maybe New America and it's secretive patrons in the US government are the reality behind the "CIA started the crack epidemic" meme from back in the 80s -- and New America being involved in the drug trade might help explain their funding -- all things PCs might learn along the way.)

The more processed drugs along the lines of LSD, PCP, Meth or other forms of amphetamines, synthetic opioids, etc., are probably a thing of the past entirely by 2000, unless somebody managed to stockpile chemical precursors and such in mass quantities. Which might not be too implausible -- in the post-TDM chaos, a group of bikers or somesuch could have been doing focused raids and thefts to acquire mass quantities of sudafed and other necessary chemicals. While not commonplace, it's another potential gaming storyline -- a large enough group of bikers to carve out some stable enclave and using continued access to crystal meth both as a super high end trade good.