Whether it’s a pill that allows you to access the (entirely fictional and troperiffic) untapped 90% of your brain’s potential, or a soporific hallucinogen designed to maintain the blissful equilibrium of an imagined utopia, fictional drugs have long allowed sci-fi writers to tap into freaky times and far out powers while exploring themes such as the power of perception, the limits of societal control, and the cycle of addiction. The following are five such stories I’ve been both addicted to and inspired by.

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