8 Things Movies Always Get Wrong About Drugs
Don't do drugs, kids, particularly not up your butt.
Drug movies can range from the entertaining comedy of Pineapple Express, to the life-ruining hellscape of Requiem for a Dream, but wherever they fit on the spectrum, you can't deny that they're popular.
Weirdly, considering that most of Hollywood are apparently always on one cocktail of chemicals or another, there are a couple of key things that film and TV makers tend to always get wrong about drugs. This could well be artistic licence for dramatic effect because, let's face it, watching someone wigging out, hallucinating German speaking unicorns and stripping down to their undies is probably more entertaining than three hours of chewing through their cheek and jabbering on about how soft the walls are.
The reality is that taking drugs feels very different to watching someone take drugs, and the former is much more compelling than the latter. Anyone who has ever been the designated driver will know that there's nothing worse than being sober around people who are getting f*cked up, so the movie makers have to use a bit of imagination to make it palatable.
As well as this, there's also just a fair bit of lazy writing, shoddy research, myth perpetuation and straight up misinformation. Here are some of the things they tend to get wrong...