Drug of Choice: Speed, amphetamines, hallucinogens Speed and hallucinogens inspired many of Philip K Dick's sci-fi novels, including Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which went on to be adapted into Blade Runner. At his peak, his frenetic, drug-fuelled production of literary works included 11 novels, a collection of essays and short stories, all produced in the year between 1963 and 1964. Drug use, which he used for religious and recreational means were a theme in his works, such as A Scanner Darkly and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Dick was such a regular user of drugs, he said in a Rolling Stone interview in 1975 that all his books published before 1970 had been written while he was on amphetamines. He said 'A Scanner Darkly was the first complete novel I had written without speed'. However despite his heavy use of amphetamines, the author said physicians told him they had never affected him, having been processed by his liver before ever reaching his brain.
