10. Dune by Frank Herbert: Spice
Like the threatening spice (synthetic cannabis) making the news recently, Dune‘s spice of “melange” can induce visions, prophetic ones.
But unlike synthetic cannabis which can cause severe and sometimes fatal internal bleeding, it can bend spacetime to allow for interstellar travel. In the novel, spice is at the center of the universe, a true cash crop.
The Matrix Red/Blue pills aren’t drugs. Tired of reading that.
Blue is placebo and Red is the tracking device. Waking you up from battery sleep, and helping the “real” humans find you in the human energy harvesting complex. There’s no drug effect.