Law Level and Drugs

[flyingsandwich]

Simple question, I hope.
At Law Level 8, the banned drugs are:
- All narcotics
- Combat drugs
- Anagathics
- Fast and Slow drugs
- Medicinal drugs
At Law Level 9, "All drugs" are banned.
Implication being that there are drugs which don't fit into any of the categories banned at Level 8. Depending on your definition of 'narcotic', there could be a lot of recreational drugs that are legal. But if that's the case, then we have societies where MDMA is legal but penicillin isn't.

Is there some sort of consensus on these classifications, or is it up to Referee interpretation?

 

[CosmicGamer]

Looking at the drugs list from the core rules there is Stim drugs. Coffee and soda are outlawed!

There are diet pills and sleeping pills.
How about Rogaine?
Fluoride?

 

[Infojunky]

I can see High law level worlds where some drugs are required.... a'la A Brave New World.... Modern America....

 

[locarno24]

I can see High law level worlds where some drugs are required.... a'la A Brave New World.... Modern America....

Yes, well - law level will vary from category to category; a world may be massively strict on AI software but fairly openminded about gun ownership, for example.

 

[CosmicGamer]

You're not just enjoying that fireplace because it's cozy and warm...

No burning of fuels, including wood because of carbon monoxide narcotics!


hmmm, how about carbon dioxide. Have you heard of kids putting bags over their heads until they pass out for the high? Outlaw breathing too!

EDIT: I hope y'all know I'm being silly but there is a Traveller point here. A high law level could represent extreme "green" anti pollution laws. Perhaps you can't bring your high tech devices on a world because of the batteries or other materials they are made of.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Or some worlds require huge long lists of necessary (read unpleasantly "compulsory") inoculations before anyone can land.

"You haven't been dosed-up? Well, traveller, you're not welcome on our world!"

 

[Condottiere]

Welcome to Stikbutt. I see by your medical passport that you haven't been inoculated against acne: I'm afraid we'll have to place your entire crew into quarantine and fumigate your ship. In the meantime, please drop your pants while Specialist Haynerse, our combat medic, prepares the vaccine injection.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Of course, with sufficiently advanced malicious technology, worlds and cultures may have previously encountered engineered plagues and diseases... so such precautions might be somewhat more understandable.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

With RAW, it is implied in the Core Rules that some governments consider items "Contraband" (p173) and thus the law levels on p 176 apply to those types only. On that basis only certain governments ban drugs, these being
1 Company/Corporate
2 Participating Democracy
4 Representative Democracy
7 Balkanization (since it Varies)
8 Civil Service Bureaucracy
9 Impersonal Bureaucracy
D Religious Dictatorships (since it Varies)

or at least that what I do in my games...

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Also remember that "outlawed" doesn't mean you can't get them.

Prescription Drugs are perfectly legal, just not "over the counter". We see variations in what is considered "legal" and "illegal" all the time, the differences between the US and Canada have even generated a healthy drug trafficking market.

So, stimulants may be "banned" but it really might mean that you have to have a prescription to buy that "JOLT" cola. Decaf colas are all the rage.

Also, it is not a scientific but a political definition that applies. So, JOLT may not be defined as a "stimulant" because it has less than 4% caffiene in it...

 

[Jame Rowe]

Also remember that "outlawed" doesn't mean you can't get them.

Prescription Drugs are perfectly legal, just not "over the counter". We see variations in what is considered "legal" and "illegal" all the time, the differences between the US and Canada have even generated a healthy drug trafficking market.

So, stimulants may be "banned" but it really might mean that you have to have a prescription to buy that "JOLT" cola. Decaf colas are all the rage.

Also, it is not a scientific but a political definition that applies. So, JOLT may not be defined as a "stimulant" because it has less than 4% caffiene in it...

If you had a LL-9 world where medicine and soda/coffee is "outlawed" you might just need a prescription and/or an ID for it.