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Just had a thought: How would the inquisition look at drug and alcohol addicts? Would it be heresy to over consume on either? and would over consumption make one more vulnerable to the effects of the warp? I've not read any of the books so I have no clue about this topic.

Cheers

It's referenced a few times in Black Library novels. A popular addition is obscura, which is usually smoked. Alcoholism is mentioned a lot as well. The book Sabbat Martyr from the Gaunts Ghosts series is pretty much about Gaunt becoming an alcoholic.

The addicted are weak links.
Easy to steer and thus under scrutiny if they are in any important position. Normal laws will do, accusation of heresy is reserved for later when the addiction mislead the person to become a puppet of xenos or traitors.

The all-seeing inquisition knows your addiction and may act upon it.

Druggies? not a problem!

Take drugs in the name of the emperor! in rather generous amount too!
Just look how happy he is, im sure his 2 arm flails wags like a dog's tail

I think the Inquisition view drug addicts as easy prey. The Arbites, however, are probably of a less generous opinion...

Drug addicts are known to be more likely to indulge in more risky behaviour, so it could all end in daemons if you're not careful. A Slaaneshi cult would be a particularly obvious example.

CappyBen wrote:Just had a thought: How would the inquisition look at drug and alcohol addicts? Would it be heresy to over consume on either? and would over consumption make one more vulnerable to the effects of the warp? I've not read any of the books so I have no clue about this topic.

Cheers

Isnt a few drunkards a problem for the local Police.. not the Inquistion, not even the Imperial Arbites..

Dont both organizations have bigger things to worry about?

ehx wrote:...not even the Imperial Arbites..

The Arbites are the local police force, on each and every Imperial planet.

As for Chems & the like? Generally they're outlawed but there is still a thriving trade in them. Obscura is one that is oft mentioned but theres also others which have other, more interesting effects and are referred to as 'Combat Stimms'; 'Slaught, Psychon, Reflex, Spur & Spook are used, on Hive worlds generally, much in the same way drugs are used on our world, although each has a different effect. Barrage is rarely taken voluntarily because the side effects are horrendous. Other drugs do exist, such as the venerable Stimm, essentially a super powerful paracetamol, and there are others that induce hallucinogenic effects (the 'Hallucinogen effects' table in Inquisitor & Dark Heresy, it hasn't changed in 10 years, is brilliant).
On the whole these drugs & stimms are not endorsed by the Arbites or Imperial Law, but when you're policing a Hive world with billions of inhabitants, there is no way you're going to be able to stop their use, especially when the lower you go in the Hives, the more likely Arbites patrols are to be attacked by gangs making progress difficult. For every dealer & chemist they arrest, another one will spring up - where there is demand, as they say...

Of note is that Combat Stimms are often used by Imperial forces & the Inquisition in their lines of work, especially with Arco-flagellants whose injectors, as soon as the trigger word is uttered, automatically pump vast quanitities of various stimms into the flagellant. This is one of the things that makes them so scary and deadly.


Alcohol use is as widespread, proportionally, as it is on our world. It's available in various forms, from Amasec (essentially distilled from wine) to Rotgut Booze. Amasec varies from the kind of alcohol you'd use for a 'molotov cocktail' to the finest drinks imbibed by the most senior officials of the Imperium. Rotgut booze is as the name suggests - fermented drinks that vary from planet to planet and range vastly in quality and ingredients.

On the whole both are available wherever you go. If there is one thing you can not take away from humanity is its capacity for 'escapism', to leave the miserable drudgery of their lives behind for just a few hours and in 40k the drugs, stimms & alcohol offer a cheap & readily available means of that.

ehx wrote:

CappyBen wrote:Just had a thought: How would the inquisition look at drug and alcohol addicts? Would it be heresy to over consume on either? and would over consumption make one more vulnerable to the effects of the warp? I've not read any of the books so I have no clue about this topic.

Cheers

Isnt a few drunkards a problem for the local Police.. not the Inquistion, not even the Imperial Arbites..

Dont both organizations have bigger things to worry about?

The Arbites IS the Police, and having a "few" drunks running around on lets say a Forgeworld would be bad

Sparks_Havelock wrote:

ehx wrote:...not even the Imperial Arbites..

The Arbites are the local police force, on each and every Imperial planet.

Not quite. Arbites enforce Imperial law and aren't supplied to most planets in force(some having a total of 1 Arbite). Most planets still have local law enforcement forces that enforce local/planetary laws that aren't covered by Imperial Law. Arbites tend to deal with planetary matters that affect Imperial rule, a little thing like rape or murder wouldn't be worth bothering them about.

Trondheim wrote:

ehx wrote:

CappyBen wrote:Just had a thought: How would the inquisition look at drug and alcohol addicts? Would it be heresy to over consume on either? and would over consumption make one more vulnerable to the effects of the warp? I've not read any of the books so I have no clue about this topic.

Cheers

Isnt a few drunkards a problem for the local Police.. not the Inquistion, not even the Imperial Arbites..

Dont both organizations have bigger things to worry about?

The Arbites IS the Police, and having a "few" drunks running around on lets say a Forgeworld would be bad

The Arbites aren't the regular police force of a planet, not as we know it. They enforce Imperial Law, local crime is not of their concern.

Platuan4th wrote:Not quite. Arbites enforce Imperial law and aren't supplied to most planets in force(some having a total of 1 Arbite). Most planets still have local law enforcement forces that enforce local/planetary laws that aren't covered by Imperial Law. Arbites tend to deal with planetary matters that affect Imperial rule, a little thing like rape or murder wouldn't be worth bothering them about.

I should have known that I used to have Arbites for Necromunda and have a Judge for Inquisitor. Oh well, you (re)learn something new every day!

The way i see it is:

Planitary police: local police force
Arbites: FBI/gendarmerie
Inquisitors: CIA/Stasi/MI5

Sparks_Havelock wrote:

ehx wrote:...not even the Imperial Arbites..

The Arbites are the local police force, on each and every Imperial planet.

You're mixing up the arbites with local enforcers. They are not the same.

The adeptus Arbites are sort of a cross between the CIA, the FBI, and SWAT-- a galactic organization generally unconcerned with the laws of planets, it is concerned with the laws of the Imperium as a whole. Local enforcers are concerned with the laws of planets.

As far as I can tell, they've legalized cannabis in the year 40k in the form of Iho sticks. It's the least they could do to counter the grimdark.

BrainDeleted wrote:As far as I can tell, they've legalized cannabis in the year 40k in the form of Iho sticks. It's the least they could do to counter the grimdark.

It's actually spelled Lho, not Iho. It's a lowercase L.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Lho-stick#.Tqxb67JCzHg

Not sure it's Cannabis, though, as the books refer to it as a Narcotic, and Cannabis isn't generally classified as one(it's a Depressant).

"narcotic" is a prejorative word, used to associate cannabis with heroin. It basically means anything that makes you sleepy, from cough medicine to a dirty syringe full of smack.

Joey wrote:"narcotic" is a prejorative word, used to associate cannabis with heroin. It basically means anything that makes you sleepy, from cough medicine to a dirty syringe full of smack.

Actually, Narcotic has a specific Medical definition. It's a Psycho-active compound with sleep-inducing properties. It's been used that way since ancient Greek.

I do understand that to the majority of the US citizenry and law enforcement it means any prohibited substance, but that's a very imprecise definition originally recorded in American English around 1926.

One thing to remember is that anyone who is too perfect is very suspicious... If you have some little acceptable vice it shows you're just a regular flawed human in case an Inquisitor actually bothers to find out.

And some, such as Inquisitor Draco (Inquisition War trilogy) actually believe that men can't stay strong against temptations unless they allow themself something nice once in a while. He himself chose to have a high-class chef on his staff so he and his closest assistants could dine well.

Melissia wrote:

Sparks_Havelock wrote:

ehx wrote:...not even the Imperial Arbites..

The Arbites are the local police force, on each and every Imperial planet.

You're mixing up the arbites with local enforcers. They are not the same.

The adeptus Arbites are sort of a cross between the CIA, the FBI, and SWAT-- a galactic organization generally unconcerned with the laws of planets, it is concerned with the laws of the Imperium as a whole. Local enforcers are concerned with the laws of planets.

Aye, check my post 2 above yours. I accepted my mistake & learnt from it, don't worry. Think my mistake came from the latest DH campaign we've been playing where our characters were undercover alongside the Arbites and we got a little drunk and ended up back at the Arbites HQ somehow...

At least it's better than one unfortunate character in one of our DH rps.

He was sent to investigate a throw-away underground hedonist movement called the Pink Panthers or somesuch. He came back to the group half-drunk, covered in glitter ,and wearing an overly tight pink shirt and skin-tight assless leather pants.

Suffice it to say, he failed his investigation... miserably.

Unless i misunderstood the entire book, the beginning of ravenor is about the inquisition tracking rooting out "flect" dealers.
If my understanding is correct, flects are like glass that you look into and get super high... Or something. Havent finished the book though, so i could be wrong.

Wow. Living the in the 40k universe doesn't as bad with beer.

Jollydevil wrote:Unless i misunderstood the entire book, the beginning of ravenor is about the inquisition tracking rooting out "flect" dealers.
If my understanding is correct, flects are like glass that you look into and get super high... Or something. Havent finished the book though, so i could be wrong.

There's also chaos-infected card games, too.

CappyBen wrote:Just had a thought: How would the inquisition look at drug and alcohol addicts? Would it be heresy to over consume on either? and would over consumption make one more vulnerable to the effects of the warp? I've not read any of the books so I have no clue about this topic.

Cheers

Over-indulgence is Slaanesh. They don't like slaanesh.

HERESY!

Sparks_Havelock wrote:

ehx wrote:...not even the Imperial Arbites..

The Arbites are the local police force, on each and every Imperial planet.

Arbites enforce Imperial Law.. not local law.. They are there to see that the Laws of the Imperium are followed.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Sparks_Havelock wrote:

Platuan4th wrote:Not quite. Arbites enforce Imperial law and aren't supplied to most planets in force(some having a total of 1 Arbite). Most planets still have local law enforcement forces that enforce local/planetary laws that aren't covered by Imperial Law. Arbites tend to deal with planetary matters that affect Imperial rule, a little thing like rape or murder wouldn't be worth bothering them about.

I should have known that I used to have Arbites for Necromunda and have a Judge for Inquisitor. Oh well, you (re)learn something new every day!

Ah, I see a few other people already got there and pointed this out to the poster already.

Aye. Read the thread before posting is my advice

I call Fungus beer.

Jollydevil wrote:Unless i misunderstood the entire book, the beginning of ravenor is about the inquisition tracking rooting out "flect" dealers.
If my understanding is correct, flects are like glass that you look into and get super high... Or something. Havent finished the book though, so i could be wrong.

They are glass pieces that makes you super high because they are empowered with the warp. I won't go closer into this as it will spoil the whole book

Obscura seems to be illegal in most areas, but there is a thriving black market trade as always.

Flect's are bits of glass tainted by the warp which cause a high, as well as warp exposure.


The Inquisition goes after Flects for obvious reasons, specifically the Ordo Malleus. The Ordo Xenos goes after any drugs of alien origin.

Naturally, drugs can lead to chaos cults(Slannesh) and so the Inquisition moniters drug trafficking.

Wasnt the Ravenor series all about drugs. I think they were called flecks, and were actually broken pieces of glass from planets that fell to chaos? When the users looked into the little "flecks" they saw all kinds of different things. Been a long time since I read that series but I think that's right.


Edit: Just read the above posts.