These listings are just general information. For more detailed and specific information on a drug for the purposes of your roleplay, feel free to research more using resources outside the game.

LSD

LSD is a common form of hallucinogen that comes in tablets, capsules, liquid form, or on absorbent papers. A common name for LSD is acid.

LSD causes unpredictable psychological effects, depending on the person. With large enough doses, users experience delusions and visual hallucinations. Many find the experience enjoyable and sometimes spiritual, but it is possible to have a "bad trip". Physical side effects include increased blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature, along with sleeplessness and loss of appetite. Effects last between 8 and 14 hours. LSD is notably difficult to overdose on and become addicted to.

Withdrawal symptoms, if they occur, include intermittent visual hallucinations, a sense of loss of meaning, and overall mild depression.

LSD is made from lysergic acid, which is derived from a grain fungus (typically rye, but mutated fungus that grows on some grains in the NCR has been found to produce lysergic acid). LSD is very sensitive to oxygen, UV light, and chlorine, so often, producers make the product under particular conditions.

Steroids

Steroids are derivatives of naturally-made human and brahmin hormones to enhance physical performance and muscle growth. Long-term effects can include the development of cancer, jaundice, tremors, testicular degeneration and breast development in males, stunted growth during teenage years, and increased facial hair production.

There is no addictiveness to steroids and thus no withdrawal, although you can overdose on them and send your body into shock.

Making steroids involves deriving and distilling the particular chemicals from the blood of male humans and/or brahmin.

Opium

Opium, derived from the seeds of opium poppies, is a powerful narcotic often smoked in a pipe. In centuries past, it was considered the drug of choice for higher castes in society; now, it is merely an escape. The resin contains various opiates, including morphine, but has its own unique properties to it. It can also be drank in a solution called laudanum in past centuries, in which opium is dissolved in alcohol.

Opium has a narcotic effect on the body. It is a powerful painkiller and sedative, reducing the body to a generally pleasantly numb or euphoric state.

Withdrawal symptoms include hallucinations and terrible nightmares as the effects of the drug wear off, often forcing addicts to take another dose of opium as soon as the effects of the previous use wear off. Additionally, tolerance is built up over time, increasing the dependence.

Opium is harvested by making slashes with a knife or razor in the round seed pod of the poppy plant. A thick, white ooze issues forth, which dries to a sticky, brown resin. This is raw opium, but it can be processed and refined to a more pure state. The Shi have greenhouses filled with opium plants, and while these are largely for the production of morphine, some plants have escaped to fuel the opium market.

Cocaine

Cocaine is a crystalline drug derived from coca plants, which persisted in a rare few places in the Fallout world and have now been cultivated once more. Cocaine can come in a variety of forms and, thusly, can be administered in a variety of forms.

The coca leaves themselves can be chewed, which itself puts only a small amount of cocaine in the bloodstream. Pure cocaine can be cut and reduced into a fine powder, which is then snorted through the nose for absorption into the bloodstream. It can be injected, which litters New Reno with used, rusted needles. Crack cocaine, a more raw and cheaper form of the substance, can be smoked in a specialized pipe, in which the crack rocks are melted and vaporized with a lighter, which is inhaled. It also isn't uncommon for pushers and dealers to mix cocaine with other similarly powdery substances to get more bang for their buck. When choosing a cutting agent, the illegal drug manufacturer or dealer attempts to find a chemical that is inexpensive, easy to obtain, relatively non-toxic, and mimics the physical attributes of the drug to be adulterated. For example, if a drug is soluble in water, the preferred adulterant would also be water-soluble. Similar melting and boiling points are also important if the drug is to be smoked. Finally, the adulterant cannot be too toxic, because dead customers are not repeat customers. This is the case not only for cocaine, but also for all other drugs.

Cocaine creates restlessness, increased blood pressure, increased heartrate, hyperactivity, and euphoria. It can also cause sexual arousal and an increased libido. Side effects of long-term use can include impotence, twitching, and paranoia.

Following the high, the user may feel discomfort and depression, both in relation to the high and in realizing that he still is in New Reno, and this can cause a craving for another dose. It is easy to get addicted to cocaine, and withdrawal symptoms are often painful and uncomfortable. Overdose can also occur, causing painful heart palpitations and heart failure.

Marijuana

Marijuana, mary-jane, weed, cannabis. It is a drug derived from certain leaves of the cannabis plant, often smoked in cigarette form or through specialized pipes called "bongs" but occasionally ingested.

Marijuana has a hallucinatory and pain-relieving affect on the user. Often it is said to improve the mood, which is often an effect of the pain-relieving aspect of the chemical found in the plant.

Most addiction comes from a behavioral addiction, desiring the pleasant effects. Withdrawal simply includes a foul mood and a desire to have that pain-free state. It is difficult to overdose on marijuana, but possible.

Marijuana is a relatively simple, but lengthy, process to produce. Careful cultivation of the cannabis plant is required, which can be difficult to find soil that isn't pure dust. Certain leaves, particularly from the female plant, are gathered, processed, and finally sold.

PCP

Once known as Angeldust, it can either come in a liquid form, which is often used to dip cigarettes in for smoking, or in a powder form, which is snorted.

PCP has hallucinatory, psychotic, psychotoxic, and pain-killing effects on the user. The effects can vary between a near comatose state, in which the user feels detached and distant from their surroundings, demonstrating slurred speech, numbness, a blank stare, and little coordination. This too can lead to a sense of invulnerability, due to the lack of sensation or pain felt. However, it is not uncommon for PCP users to fly into fits of rage and violence, as well.

PCP (phenylcyclohexylpiperidine) is a synthetic chemical derived originally for veterinary and pharmaceutical anesthetics. You’re going to need a chemistry kit for this one, bud.

Methamphetamines

Methamphetamines, also sometimes known as speed or dope in the less pure forms and crystal meth in the crystalline, pure form, are stimulants that can be swallowed, snorted, smoked, dissolved in water and injected, inserted anally (with or without dissolution in water), or into the urethra.

Meth's immediate effects are incredibly similar to the body's fight or flight reaction. Heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration increase. Blood vessels dilate. The user feels a more mental and physical awareness, in addition to pain and appetite suppression. Most users feel all of this as an incredible euphoria, a sense of well-being, intelligence-boosts, and power. However, the effects wear off relatively quickly as the body metabolizes the substance, and the user can feel weak, powerless, and depressed, both from the physical effects of the absence of the drug and in comparison to the high. Long term use can lead to sleep deprivation and all its effects, including a depressed immune system and hallucinations, as well as chronic fatigue and stress on the body, which will weaken over time.

Meth is incredibly psychologically addicting, from both the extreme high and the resulting following depression. It often entices users to take another dose as soon as they start coming down. Withdrawal is extremely difficult due to the cravings and urges and often results in relapse. Those trying to stop using the drug often feel slow, stupid, and powerless. Chronic use, too, may build up a tolerance to the drug.

Making meth involves common but highly dangerous chemicals and equally dangerous processes. Individually, the chemicals are relatively harmless and can be purchased over the counter in general stores in NCR. However, the combination of the chemicals itself is highly volatile. It does not take a degree in chemistry to make meth, but those not trained in chemical processing or, particularly, in making meth can create very dangerous situations.

Common Pain Killers

Pain killers are a common enough thing, as this post-apocalyptic wasteland of a world has many, many ways to dish out the pain. It is commonly abused, however, among all groups of people, but particularly the more well-to-do or reputable who cannot afford the cost or reputation associated with more hardcore drugs. Pain killers can come usually in a liquid or a pill form.

Many pain killers are agonist opioids, although unrelated to other opioids such as opium and morphine. They have strong pain-killing properties which, with overuse, can cause euphoric effects.

Most overdose occurs from combination with other depressants, such as alcohol. Addiction is largely behavioral, and users become tolerant after even mildly chronic use.

Most painkillers are made synthetically through various chemical and physical distillation/precipitation processes.

Morphine

Morphine is an age-old drug, abused throughout the centuries. It is the principle component in opium. Primarily, it is injected, although it can also be given orally as a solution or as a pill.

Morphine is a powerful pain reliever and analgesic, still used sometimes in the field. Mental processes are slowed, and with the pain relief sensation comes euphoria, as well as drowsiness, lethargy, and blurred vision. It suppresses appetite. Users often are seen coughing more frequently because of the drug. Users also often experience insomnia and bad nightmares.

Morphine is incredibly physically addicting, and tolerance builds up very rapidly, forcing users to become dependent on the drug simply to feel normal. Withdrawal symptoms include cold sweats, shaking, and intense aching pain across the body.

Morphine is derived from opium through a refining, purification, and distillation process. It is relatively simple process and requires only common chemicals. The Shi package and sell morphine for medicinal purposes, but it is often used for far less humane reasons.

Ecstasy

E, the love drug. Ecstasy almost always comes in a pill form and is common among those wanting to "just have a good time".

Ecstasy incites a feeling of openness, euphoria, empathy and understanding, love and other positive emotions, as well as heightened awareness. People "rolling" on Ecstasy often have heightened feelings of love and other positive emotions, as well as a connection with those around them, leading to an increase in interactions with them. This is also bolstered for some users by increased tactile sensitivity; although it is not an aphrodisiac, all of those factors often lead to increased physical and emotional pleasure with others. It can also lead to a more positive outlook on life while on the drug, a sense of universal understanding, and relief about normal stresses and pressures that seem less significant.

Ecstacy is a dangerous chemical to take because it makes the users unaware of the dangers presented. E can result in increased core body temperature and decreased thermoregulation, causing the body and brain temperatures to soar and cause cell and tissue failure. This is coupled with severe dehydration. Additionally, water intoxication might occur, where liquid in the bloodstream is forced into brain cells through osmosis and swells the brain, causing brain damage.

Ecstacy can become addicting through the psychological effects, and the above dangers compound with overdosing, which is all too easy. Withdrawal includes general depression of mood and a lack of motivation for things that were previously important.

E is a synthetic drug made through dangerous chemical processes. The components are difficult to find, but with the right connections in Reno or NCR, and with enough cash, you should be able to find them.

Heroin

Heroin is one of the more common drugs found in the streets. A derivative of morphine, it is most often injected into the arm as a liquid, which leads to lines of puncture marks on the arms and needle-sharing, which itself has the implications of spreading disease. Heroin can also be snorted in powder form, or it can be inhaled. This is achieved by putting the powder into a thin metal cup, such as folded tin foil or a spoon, and heated from below, such as with a lighter. This has still retained the term "chasing the dragon" by the Shi. The powder is usually white, but Black Tar Heroin made with a different derivation of the opium plant is dark in color.

Heroin has largely the same effects as morphine, since heroin is converted into morphine in the body. The most notable effect is a strong euphoric feeling.

Heroin is a dangerous drug because tolerance builds up very quickly and is incredibly addictive. Heroin users then start taking the drug to start feeling normal, and without it, they feel the terrible effects of withdrawal. Withdrawal includes general sweating, anxiety, depression, a "heavy" and ponderous feeling, cramp-like pains in the muscles and body, sleep deprivation, cold night sweats, chills, severe muscle and bone aches, nausea, and fever. It is one of the more difficult drugs to try to kick, which is why many users persist in using it and need help to break free from the addiction.

Heroin is derived from morphine through a relatively simple and easy set of processes which don’t require much pre-training to perform. First, the morphine itself is derived from the raw opium of the opium poppy through reacting with a lime base and then ammonia to precipitate out the morphine. The morphine is then heated for about six hours with a common component used in making asprin, which is easy enough to find when looking in the right places. Sodium carbonate, which is often found in cleaning chemicals, is added to settle out the particles in the mixture. Alcohol and a filtering charcoal are added, and the mixture is heated until the alcohol is burned away. This final product is liquid heroin, although another refining step, and a quite dangerous one, can be done to precipitate out the tiny white flakes of heroin, producing the powder. This step is particularly dangerous because the mixture is very volatile and may explode. Such an explosion can level an entire building, and everyone’s heard at least one story about that happening in Reno.

Psychotropic Mushrooms

Shrooms are an occasional choice with drug-users because of the simplicity of the drug. These naturally-growing mushrooms can be cultivated, and beyond having a green thumb and being able to dry them, they do all the work. There are a few types of psychotropic mushrooms, including a few mutated out in the wastelands and later cultivated, but the two main types are a small, brown mushroom and a wide, flat, larger reddish-orange mushroom. The mushrooms, for the full effect, are simply eaten, and a dose of dried shroom is about 1 gram.

The effects of these mushrooms on people is incredibly varied between a near coma-like state, sluggishness, blurred vision, and numbness to restlessness, hyperactivity, and fits of rage. It can have vast mental effects, from confusion, mental clarity, and a universal understanding. The effects on the mood can be calming, euphoric, or maddening. Commonly, however, visual hallucinations are associated with consuming shrooms. The effects can be setting and mood dependent.

The process to grow the mushrooms is extremely easy, one of the draws of the drug. Getting the spores requires only to find the right person, which is not too terribly hard, and then growing them in dark, moist areas with semi-decent soil. Drying is even easier: lay it out on a cloth or sheet of paper in the hot desert sun, and let nature do the rest.

Alcohol

The age-old escape, popular among all societies and among all classes, in different forms. The Wrights control almost all alcohol supplies in the city, usually getting most of it from the NCR or from Klamath. The usual fare is bitter-tasting, warm beer, rotgut, or what Klamath tentatively calls whisky. All of it is rotgut, although a few rare places have pre-war booze that they’ve come across. Expect to pay out the ass for that, though.

Alcohol has variable effects, depending on the imbiber. Alcohol is a depressant, which typically causes sluggishness, both physically and mentally, and can cause blurred vision, slurred speech, and impairment of judgement. Some people fall asleep while drinking, some become very friendly, and some become angry and violent. With enough ingestion, alcohol poisoning and death can occur.

Alcohol is made through fermentation, although alcohol types vary based on the processes and ingredients used. Beer is a grain-based alcohol, with a plant called hops added. Whisky is based on barley. Rum is derived from molasses, which is from sugar cane. Wines are fruit-based, which is almost exclusively from NCR.

NOTE: New Reno RPG and its staff do not advocate illegal drug use or illegal drug making in any form. This information is for entertainment and educational purposes only.