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  • Film & TV Moderators: ghostfreak

Film Does anyone know which drug the drug on A Scanner Darkly was based on?

FunctionalJnkieGrl

Bluelighter
Joined
Mar 22, 2020
Messages
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Just wondering. I know substance D is a fictional drug, but I'm sure the writer was inspired by actual drug(s). My guess would be meth/Adderall or maybe MDMA given the psychosis and brain damage references. The withdrawal scene seems to nod more to heroin/opiates though.
 
Heroin I'm pretty sure; Phillip K. Dick lost a lot of friends to it and it inspired him to write the novel. And look at the plot; a government sanctioned entity produces a drug that creates addicts to fuel a rehab industry... sound familiar? *CIA/China/Fentanyl cough cough*
 
If I remember correctly it’s was just kinda loosely based around most drugs of abuse, or atleast that’s kind of the message I got from the end of the movie where he listed the friends lost and the substances associated with their downfall. It’s been a while since I watched it though so my memory may not serve me as well as I hope it has.
 
^yeah I recall that list playing at the credits. It's probably based off heroin with the mix of paranoia/hallucinations that come with stimulant abuse/psychosis.

Obviously it's just a sci-fi book/movie, but I'll be damned if it doesn't mirror modern issues.
 
^yeah I recall that list playing at the credits. It's probably based off heroin with the mix of paranoia/hallucinations that come with stimulant abuse/psychosis.

Obviously it's just a sci-fi book/movie, but I'll be damned if it doesn't mirror modern issues.
Right?! Some of the RC stimulants can certainly mirror “substance D” as far as the hallucinations and paranoia go. I can certainly remember a time or two I resembled Charles Freck! Especially with A-pvp and the like. Even meth psychosis could fit the bill and certainly with the added effects of opiates in a “speedball” scenario I have definitely heard people say “there are no weekend warriors on black tar heroin” that may have just been something people around my hometown say but atleast in the scene surrounding my hometown that’s a very true statement nonetheless.
 
Heroin I'm pretty sure; Phillip K. Dick lost a lot of friends to it and it inspired him to write the novel. And look at the plot; a government sanctioned entity produces a drug that creates addicts to fuel a rehab industry... sound familiar? *CIA/China/Fentanyl cough cough*
You're right. The end with the government secretly harvesting the flowers used to make substance D made me think of the US government fueling the opiate epidemic. After all, they didn't send around 15,000 troops to Afghanistan in the mid 2010's for nothing, followed by declared "opiate epidemic" a couple of years later. In turn, the government makes bank, big pharma makes bank, doctors make bank and treatment centers make bank. They all fuel it, us addicts pay for it.
 
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Right?! Some of the RC stimulants can certainly mirror “substance D” as far as the hallucinations and paranoia go. I can certainly remember a time or two I resembled Charles Freck! Especially with A-pvp and the like. Even meth psychosis could fit the bill and certainly with the added effects of opiates in a “speedball” scenario I have definitely heard people say “there are no weekend warriors on black tar heroin” that may have just been something people around my hometown say but atleast in the scene surrounding my hometown that’s a very true statement nonetheless.
Freck definitely nailed the effects of meth psychosis. I've seen people go through it. It's sad. There were some scenes when they were high on it that mimicked meth and one scene that possibly mimicked mdma (the scene when Robert Arctor was getting high with Donna and she displayed her agoraphobia/fear of being touched).
 
The first time I watched a scanner darkly there was massive amounts of ketamine involved. The movie was already crazy enough. I think the director was referencing opiates though.
 
The first time I watched a scanner darkly there was massive amounts of ketamine involved. The movie was already crazy enough. I think the director was referencing opiates though.
I never tried ketamine. It's a dissociative, right? I don't do well on dissociatives. I wig out. Haha.
 
It's hard to wig out when you're in a metaphorical hole in the ground and can't move nor think sad thoughts lol
Right! I’ve convinced myself I turned into a statue before.. lmao watching the world from my emotionless and motion free perch.. it was amazing.. god I miss dissociative’s.. I always figured dxm would be involved in my death somehow.. it was cheap and everywhere and I loved it so much..
 
To my knowledge, no psychoactive substance can cause the severing of the corpus callosum to disconnect the two hemispheres of the brain, as substance D caused in ASD. I am no PKD afficionado, but I believe that PKD was strongly influenced by Roger Sperry's split-brain experiment and amphetamine-induced psychosis etc. as he himself was dependent on amphetamines in the mid-1970s. I believe substance D was more of a manifestation of multiple psychological properties associated with drug-induced psychoses than just one psychoactive entity.
Interesting take. I didn't know all that.
 
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