How would you handle illegal drugs in a fantasy setting? Does the church/empire ban them...

Mana itself is a controlled substance.

There's always one user who takes the bait

Then why not ban them because the state want to monopolize all the magic power and shit. Maybe the heads of state make their desiccation completely fucked up and the population doesn't know this.

If they make me aware of the prescription and I feel it's legit and not a phony scrip by an opioid abusing parasite they're fine. I have never had a problem getting players, in fact many of them compliment me on pruning undesirables from the game and promoting an atmosphere of health and safety for my gamers.

And after they thought it was magic, they just thought it was regular and okay pills to use, just like we take aspirin or cough syrup.
Oh and German soldiers were high on amphetamines when they swarmed over France during WW2.

...

>he allows his players to chew gum
wew

was meant for
because I am a faggot.

Where the hell is a fantasy setting going to get the shit to make Crack and bath salts? Meth, weed, and coke I can understand if it's a trade empire.

the fact that most religions are against it contradict your fact, considering that religions used to have a huge impact on laws
alcool being the most obvious example
also you have to consider that your average joe didn't take many drugs beside beers and the occasionnal mushroom infected bread

Because no medieval state has the policing power to seize all drugs from all citizens. The best they can do is making public drunkenness taboo and punish those who break that taboo.

In my setting, drugs are made illegal to control supply. The government is am oligarchy, and those in power claim the ban is for public safety, but in reality it's so they can be the only ones that supply the drug dealers.

Shit's super corrupt. This is in just one region though. Most other places don't give a shit because they aren't refining them, it's like coca leaves vs. cocaine.

Next time I play in a fantasy setting, I want to make a witch who creates and sells highly addictive drugs

Why does it have to be medieval? The thread states that is a fantasy setting.

I like this idea alot

>How would you handle illegal drugs in a fantasy setting?

Honestly?
Drug use isn't illegal; no single nation or country or kingdom has the power, time, resources, or predilection to willingly instruct local law enforcement to confiscate drugs and punish people, nor are they interested in doing so, with that said though:

-Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana, and Opium are the drugs of "choice". People have access to harder stuff of course, but most people aren't interested in consuming or using Psychedelic Mushrooms or Peyote Cactus unless they're a shaman or druid.

-Alcohol consumption is so common and prolific that people don't even consider it a "drug". People drink and brew their own alcohol casually and the only thing usually stopping people from drinking is public intoxication is often a punishable offense (most communities will straight up whip the absolute fucking piss out of you if you're caught drunk on a 'work' day.).

-Most normal folks go down to the herbalist, pick themselves up some Tobacco or Marijuana and then roll their own cigarettes however they see fit. Hookahs and Pipes though are "the" way to smoke: people take a lot of pride in their pipes and hookahs are often available for use at smoke or coffee shops provided you're too poor to have your own.. Or maybe you'd just like to smoke with friends.
-Bongs haven't been invented yet- occasionally a dungeon crawl will surface an anachronistic bong, but it often flies under the radar of only the most experienced artificers.

-Opium is usually only seen as a "big city" drug and if there's any drug that might actually be criminalized; it's opium. Opium dens are always popping up in trading towns, sand-harbors, the maritime community by the freshwater sea is full of them and they're ALL fucking run by no-good, long-neck, fuckin' changelings. Opium addiction has become a minor to serious issue in some cities and with how few "functioning" cities there are- this is seen as a concern by some rulers.

lawl

Certain drugs and other products by the nature of the creation are illegal for various reasons.

For instance, the process of summoning or calling ghosts and spirits has a chance to leave behind a strange salt like substance called After Dust which is not only used as a sort of magic cocaine that boosts the ability of magic users and provides all kinds of fucked up highs for non-magic users. This has lead to groups trying to mass produce afterdust by killing and summoning the souls of recently dead people for the purpose of getting it but this also leads to imparting negative emotions into it which was discovered when the brat of a wealthy business man went berserk and tried to eat his small harem of call girls in a club backroom. This also seems to attract more powerful and dangerous spirits drawn to the negative emotions of the recently killed that can haunt the areas around production area so if hauntings are common chances are it's an Afterdust production facility.

In the 5e settings I've run, with alcohol and tobacco excluded; shrooms and skooma (probably already triggered someine there) are regularly found by the players, both varying in how legal it is to possess them. That's it though, with hallucinogenics really only used for a plot device.

Anyone who tries to abuse them are subject to con saves (with dis) and long term madnesses.

Most religions have drug use built in in some form or another. There are 2 and all they explicitly discourage is alcohol and even then there aren't agreements.

The first character I made was essentially from a clan of drug producers living near the border, they'd smuggle their goods into a religious empire. My characters reason for being out and adventureing was that things had gone quite badly once, there'd been dead guards and shit, and everyone figured it'd be for the best if everyone directly involved in that mess who they migt have a description of took a really long trip abroad for a couple of years.

Imagine like opium in china but remove british navy and americans.

Isn't crack just fried coke?
If there were a more Southern origin of a drug and meth didn't count, I'd be surprised

>in fact many of them compliment me on pruning undesirables
they told you that right after you resigned from gaming, right?

Yes and yes.

As recently as the 19th century, there was no concept of a regulator state being involved in the substances people could buy. Children regularly drank watered-down alcohol, and anywhere that was developed enough to have a chemist/apothecary shop around, people could buy any chemical they wanted (whether medicinal or recreational).

It's worth noting that most drugs available today either didn't exist at all in medieval/renaissance Europe or were too scarce and expensive for most people to use recreationally.

Most drugs seen as "dangerous" today, like amphetamines and PCP, didn't exist at all until the 1900s. Coca was unknown until the 1500s, unavailable until the 1600s, and had not been refined into cocaine until the 1800s. Marijuana had been brought to Europe by the Aryans in distant antiquity, but recreational smoking of it as a drug was not popular in Europe/America until the 1900s. Historical strains had very low THC content compared to weed today and it was mostly cultivated to use as hemp, not for smoking. Refined forms like hashish were definitely a thing in north Africa and the near east throughout history, but there was little export market for it. Opium was well known, but it was not cultivated in Europe so it remained too scarce and expensive to be used outside of medicine until the 1700s, and it didn't become super common until the 1800s. Plus, this was unrefined opium. Morphine didn't even exist until the late 1800s, and heroin came at the start of the 1900s.

Really, the only drug that historically grew native in Europe and had a modern level of potency was psilocybin mushrooms. And they aren't addictive and honestly aren't all that fun. Pretty much nobody is going to want to spend all day 'erry day tripping balls on shrooms. As soon as modern addictive drugs with a high abuse potential become readily available to the commoners of Europe, you started seeing lawmakers looking into regulating these substances.

prohibition is a modern invention. Feudalism rarely had the power to actually prevent a product or substance from circulating.

The only thing close I can think of are the "sword hunts" in Japan. You might argue they are the point when Japan moves out of Feudalism into true modern Empire as well.

A few more 'fantastical' footnotes to add about drug use:

-While drug use is high amongst adventurers & military personnel: alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, even opium, drug addiction and substance abuse is actually quite low among those who are still actively adventuring. This is entirely because of the radiating effects of magical healing, both divine, natural, or demonic in nature. Exposure to constant healing magics prevents individuals from developing bodies that crave substance abuse: their smoker lungs keep getting healed if you will.

-Sapient Undead consume the most drugs out of any other demographic across class, species, race, culture, etc.. Vampires, Liches, Creepers, and the few intelligent Skeletons, Ghouls, and Mound Makers all consume and buy drugs in exorbitant excess. All intelligent Undead suffer from some form of psychological disorder -it is inevitable-: dementia, paranoia, schizophrenia, depression, etc.. etc.. And many of them turn to drugs in order to alleviate their symptoms and suffering, unfortunately; undead must take SUBSTANTIAL amounts to receive any sort of effect.
Undead can, as well, become addicted to substance abuse and worse yet; cannot and will not ever recover from it as they cannot naturally heal themselves, necromancy merely "puts them back together", and any healing magic (not matter divine, natural, or demonic) would harm them- not heal them.

>What are Opium wars

Alcohol was also far less concentrated than it is today

My current setting is based on the mid-late 1800s, so the answer is "yes."

Doesn't World of Warcraft touch on this with addiction to magic? I think you could do a fun campaign around this if you wanted to, like, high elves leading up to the War of the Ancients and the great elven schism. Or maybe something more modern with high/blood elven survivors trying to stay on the level while using enough magic to keep the Scourge off them.

>things a long time ago were allowed so it must be okay now
This is you. You should stop

Hahahahahahah good bate bro.
I dintvknow the 7th day evangelicals ran fate game nights

In a setting I ran once, the drowned city of magicians (that resurfaced, setting the campaign in motion) grew a plant that would only burn when subjected to magical flame. Magic itself was easily tracked by their law enforcement officers, so the way they kept the drug from spreading was by controlling the manufacture of magical lighters (which all had planned obsolescence in the form of limited uses). Wizards with a fire magic certification or anything more complex to their name had carte blanche, because wizard supremacy.

The plant wasn't just a cannabis expy, it had magical properties that made all other kingdoms want some of it. For one, it magically cured most minor diseases, and a tincture of it could be used to heal wounds. Ingesting a concentrate could awaken inborn magical abilities, too, though with a risk of death (it's how sorcerers happen in the setting).

While the city was drowned, and most magic with it, a relative of the plant became popular among secret orders, and explains Druids (as well as being an ayahuasca expy)

Well, yeah. Now please excuse me while I go buy myself a Negro slave and commit marital rape without prosecution.

Sorry user I thought you were agreeing it was a good idea to decriminalize all drugs based on historical precedents

All 5 of you are being silly. Stop it!

This might surprise you, but when certain substances don't make you a criminal just for having them, it enables people to produce them with more regard for quality and safety and partake in them in a more responsible manner.

Making drugs """"""""illegal""""""" is an entirely modern conceit and doesn't fit into fantasy settings at all, nerd.

What is the safe and responsible way to speedball

>I heard the term speedball on television I know about drugs now

It starts with knowing your smack isn't cut with fentanyl.

Readily recognize the inherent risks thanks to public discussion of drug usage not being risky or taboo, pay a non-artificially-inflated amount of money for a reasonable dosage produced with scrutinous oversight in a facility more sophisticated than someone's basement and bound by health and safety regulations, and stay home without committing any crimes while under the influence because you haven't really ever done anything illegal in the past and it doesn't really occur to you that you should do so for whatever reason.

Please tell me the definitive list of what does and does not fit in fantasy, nerd.

Me? I would make and smuggle skooma.

potato

>How you handle things that are not managed by goverment in places that barely define/have borders?
Like said

...Mr. Sessions? Is that you? Could you please tell the Emperor to stop bombing Syria for a second and kick all these spics out of my neighborhood, they're eating all my ice cream.

We do. Mostly Shadowrun actually.

Wizards and shit.

Seriously, there's a reason why most wizards are batshit insane power hungry arrogant crazy bastards.

Just look at owlbears. Who the fuck would create something like that while sober?

You're forgetting the power of gods and shit. Not only that, but RL history.

Drinking alcohol: Drinking alcohol was originally just meads made from fruits and berries. It actually had a very low alcoholic content. What it was, was basically a way of storing the vitamins and nutrients of the berries/fruit it was made from long term without it going bad and rotting away. Which made it invaluable during winter when you can't gather fresh fruit. Getting drunk was just a pleasant side effect, especially when it prevents scurvy. Not only that, but strong alcohol like whisky or vodka is a disinfectant. On a ship at sea for months, or in the middle of a desert, and your only source of drinking water is old as shit and has green algae and who knows what else in it? Pour yourself a glass, add in a single shot of hard drinking alcohol, wait, and all that nasty stuff is dead as a door nail. It's the main reason why all the stereotypes of pirates have them drunk off their ass. They did hoard booze, but it was to purify their drinking water, not to get drunk off of. Not to mention the hard alcohol can be poured directly onto wounds to disinfect them, as well. Where do you think the concept of rubbing alcohol came from?

Now, take all those awesome health benefits, and increase them tenfold with the blessings of your character's favorite God/Goddess. Or with a Wizard, or Druid, or Enchanter, or whatever.

Now apply the same process to weed, opium, etc.

After all of that, what ruler in their right mind would want to ban any of this? The average person would be up in arms over having the basic quality of their day to day life drastically decrease over night. Not to mention the gods themselves would be seriously fucking pissed at having all of their hard work at trying to give their individual followers the means of improving their own lives ruined. "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish, he eats for the rest of his life." etc.

In our setting alchemists are able to refine drugs, so their guild sells it to the rich as luxury commodity. It's not as strong as the shit we have today, but acts more as an additional sign of decadence of the ruling class in this setting. Making it illigal makes no sense as the long-term effects of hard drugs on the brain and such are only known for a few decades and in a fantasy setting they may even be reversible through magic. We haven't found out if that's a thing yet

That movie was weeeeeird

They're not a thing in the first place. Any herb or substance that might even pass as a drug, aside from alcohol, are often times just picked from the wild found in small quantities, and no feudal lord would ever give a fuck to mass cultivate any of them. Wait a few centuries

When it comes to drugs, not in the sense of alcohol or tobacoe, actually skooma from TES is a good example how to go with it.