7 Key Tips for Writing Realistically Perilous Drug Scenes
Putting characters in mortal danger can be a great way to increase the tension of a story (not to mention your fun as a writer). But if your peril of choice involves a drug overdose or a nefarious character knocking out the protagonist with a drugged drink, it’ll be important to get certain facts right to avoid losing credibility with readers.
A character instantly dropping dead from an insulin overdose sounds dramatic, but it’s also very wrong. And many readers today are savvier about drugs than ever before. They may be recovering from addiction, struggling with diabetes, or a healthcare worker. Or they may have been personally impacted by the growing fentanyl overdose epidemic.
For these readers, a blatantly inaccurate drug-related scene can ruin an otherwise great story, leading to negative reviews. It also robs them of an emotional-roller coaster while the character struggles, as the drug slowly begins to create trouble.
So, how can you avoid these pitfalls? By simply using the power of real drug facts. These facts not only offer authentic scenes, but enough peril to draw readers from page to page. Prefer a light-hearted scene? A few real facts can have your readers laughing, as they watch a mom hallucinating in the fruit aisle of the grocery store, after taking far too much cough syrup. Real drug facts can also help writers develop characters with complex backstories: the parent whose teen overdosed on left-over pain pills or the recovering heroin addict.
Thankfully, writers don’t need in-depth drug knowledge to successfully develop these realistic scenes. Following these simple, but key, tips will help assure accuracy:
1. Check the Historical Timeline
While it may seem obvious, it’s important to check that the drug or medical device used in your plot had been discovered by the historical time period of your story. Paying attention to details, such as which kind of drugs were available and in what form (pills, injection, etc.) is important.
A 1630s pilgrim shouldn’t be using a modern-day drug patch for his pain. Instead, swapping that patch for a mustard poultice would suit the historical context. Likewise, a midwife shouldn’t give a shot to ease the labor pain of that pilgrim’s wife. A tea infused with herbal pain remedies would be more realistic.
This doesn’t mean an historical story can’t lend itself to peril for your character. That mustard plaster may sound boring, but, as a writer, you can take your readers through the emotions of hope, as the healer applies it to the moaning townsman, relief as the man begins to rest, and finally plunging into worry, as the bandages are pulled back to reveal angry, blistering skin from a plaster left on too long. And what about that midwife? She’s young and inexperienced. What if she mixes too strong of a tea, sending the laboring mom into an overdose, even as the baby is born. Now what?
Historical accuracy is also impacted by a number of other variables, including changes in prescribing trends, as new treatments are discovered. These trends impact the products diverted to street drug supplies or available in home medicine cabinets. In addition, drug abuse trends are impacted by the influx of illegal drugs across borders. The recent upsurge of overdose deaths from fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills, such as oxycodone, is a prime example. A scene set in the mid-1990s could realistically involve stolen oxycodone from a medicine cabinet, whereas in a modern scene that oxycodone is more likely illicit and laced with deadly fentanyl. These sad realities readily lend themselves to believable trouble for your character.
2. Learn the Language
Many of us are familiar with the drug-related terminology we heard from friends or in movies while growing up: terms like weed or bong or phrases like chasing the dragon. But like all colloquial phrases, the slang associated with illicit and recreational drug use has greatly changed over the decades.
For example, getting stoned has morphed into being baked or faded. Having a contemporary character ask a friend for a doobie would be outdated, while asking for a blunt or vape would be more modern.
Even the language associated with obtaining drugs has evolved. Instead of a whispered exchange on a street corner, your contemporary character could simply send coded emojis via a social media app to order illicit drugs and schedule their delivery. When your character gets a text of a school bus and a chocolate bar, he’ll understand his ecstasy will be delivered to him at the school playground.
3. Verify the Legal Accuracy
Drug-related laws are rapidly changing, offering a wide array of creative scene options. Laws can vary from state to state and even between individual states and the federal level, creating confusion for people, not to mention the risk of potentially inaccurate stories for writers.
For example, recent changes in some states have led to the legalization of hallucinogenic mushrooms. These mushrooms are under tight control, however, so your character shouldn’t just walk into a drug store to buy them off of the shelves (well, not yet, anyway). In most other states, hallucinogenic mushrooms remain illegal.
If you want to have some legal fun, your character can buy a large supply of hallucinogenic mushrooms while on vacation, only to be arrested when she flies to her home state, where they are illegal. It’s much like the trouble Brittany Griner found herself in, when cannabis vape cartridges were confiscated from her luggage in Russia, sending her to prison and creating an international drama.
4. Rewrite Instant Death Scenes
This is a Hollywood favorite: A drug is swallowed, followed by the character instantly dropping to the ground in a seizure, foam dripping from his mouth. And while the foam part may be accurate, the instant effect is not. Nor is having his distraught co-character immediately announce his death. Yes, it’s visually entertaining. And completely wrong.
Most of your readers know it takes a bit of time for drugs to work. After all, most of us have suffered headaches, while waiting for a pain pill to work. At the very least, a drug first must be absorbed. Then, it takes a little time for an effect, good or bad. Why risk alienating audiences, when you can take advantage of this knowledge, allowing your screenplay to take readers on a rewarding journey, tensing as their favorite character begins to slur, then stumble, then… fade to black?
Now, that’s a page-turner.
5. Choose the Right Symptoms
Giving your character the wrong drug symptoms (or making up your own) can hurt your credibility. A melatonin overdose won’t cause an adult character to stop breathing. A few extra vitamin capsules won’t cause hallucinations. But there are plenty of interesting real symptoms that will fit your plot, provided you choose the right drug.
If you really want those vitamins to cause hallucinations, instead of creating fake symptoms, a pill mix-up can be your answer. If you’ve sprinkled the bread crumbs well, your character, who stores bottles of vitamins and hallucinogenic mushroom capsules next to each other, can end up in an adventure she wasn’t planning.
As she makes her coffee, blurry-eyed, and grabs the wrong bottle—downing a few mushroom capsules instead of her vitamins—your readers will be anticipating what will happen during her upcoming morning interview.
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6. Verify Overdose Potential
A drug overdose can be woven into your story. With some drugs, your character can even be brought back from the brink of death. Opioids, such as fentanyl, can shut down the ability to breathe, leading to rapid death. The antidote naloxone, if given in time, can undo that breathing effect, allowing your character to survive.
Some drugs, though, have little or no ability to cause an overdose death. A desperately depressed character that swallows too many melatonin tablets is likely to get very drowsy, but it’s not realistic to open the next scene with the family weeping by her coffin. Melatonin overdoses in children, however, is another story entirely.
If your character’s child mistakes Mom’s melatonin gummies for candy, the next scene could believably open with the family holding hands bedside, the child on a ventilator in the hospital, the doctor looking somber.
7. Use Reliable Resources
Online resources have made researching drug effects simpler over the decades, although not all information is factual. From newspaper articles to websites, wrong drug information abounds.
For example, gross inaccuracies were perpetuated online regarding the risk of death from merely touching fentanyl pills. The increased use of artificial intelligence for information searches can amplify this kind of inaccurate information. However, there are numerous reputable drug information sources.
Drug Package Inserts (also called Prescribing Information) reliably offer insight into possible symptoms and can be searched online by the drug name. Poison Control Centers and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are great resources for overdose trends. And the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) periodically posts comprehensive updates that detail illicit drug abuse and trafficking trends.
As writers, we’re accustomed to researching pertinent facts and information. Accurately portraying real drug facts should be no different. Applying these seven key tips can help you avoid blatantly unrealistic scenes, while offering a better reader journey. But synthesizing these ideas into authentic scenarios can be a little more difficult.
Once your scene is complete, consider including beta readers with backgrounds in drug-related fields, such as pharmacy, emergency medicine, addiction, or even forensics, as a valuable step to validate your interpretation, assuring your readers will love every page.