Drugs are bad, m'kay?

I know a drug dealer in EVE - finally.

I like the idea of drugs in EVE. In one way, drugs in EVE is an acknowledgment by CCP that drugs exist, they may be bad (and are, indeed, illegal in game), but you can't ignore them. I like the fact you have a game where, aside from callously murdering one another in highsec let alone other more "PVP" focused security zones, you can buy and use drugs that have benefits, and side effects. It is a nuanced take on the morality of pharmecutical recreation in a gaming and entertasinment world which is, by and large, OK with ultraviolence and gore, but very much not OK with moral crime and substance abuse.

I haven't used drugs in EVE, mostly because they generally benefit active tanks, and these days, active tank means dual MASB merlins or Harpy/Hawks + pill + Tengu + crystals, or go home. Active armour you need drugs + implants + faction or deadspace pimp + Legion.

That doesn't mean I am against people using drugs, they can provide an edge, but it isn't clear that there is much you really can do with drugs that you can't do more certainly with off-grid boosting, in the minimum, or Crystals. These are more permanent investments, and especially a good OGB alt, a power multiplier well beyond what even a strong pill can get you.

The drug market in EVE is, quiet handily, as opaque and secretive as the IRL drugs market. I have looked in to manufacturing drugs myself, after coming into possession of bulk gas in nullsec. I couldn't find the precursors, the blueprints, anything; the Lore is silent, the path obfuscated and secretive. No doubt it is also lucrative.

I have had other people in BUGRY express interests in the same vein. It is always amusing, now, to ask leading questions which the enthusiastic would-be Pablo Escobar must answer in order to find out exactly how little progress he can make towards cooking his own drugs. Inevitable disappointment causes schadenfreunde in Trinkets friend; after all misery loves company, and the best company to having your drug kingpin ambitions crushed is mirth.

That being said, there are only a handful of people actually making drugs in EVE. Knowing them is part of the solution. But part of me wonders what would happpen if the drug czars unsubbed their accounts? I certainly found dead-ends in knowledge about how to go about cooking the drugs, even though I looted some drug BPCs from a POS once, so I've got massive headstarts on a few things.

Perhaps drugs could become a lost art in EVE, if a few strategic players drop the game. Perhaps it actually isn't too hard to figure out - if you don't get interrupted by PVP and can devote enough time to actually tracking this info down.

Maybe I should interview the guy I know, get an idea of what it's like being a drug dealer.