Drugs

Drugs are an important aspect in the GTA series. Drugs take place in every single Grand Theft Auto game, they are sold, bought (for others), and used by characters around the protagonist on many occasions.

Adrenaline in the GTA III era games were sometimes mentioned as drugs by GTA fans. There was also a deleted feature where in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Carl Johnson would be able to smoke weed which would make the camera wobble around making hard to control CJ.

In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, while driving the Cherry Popper Ice Cream Factory truck, Tommy Vercetti distributes drugs.

In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, the player make business empires for drug manufacturing and distribution.

In Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, the protagonist Huang Lee can control stocks of drugs and buy them and sell them to other drug dealers which is a good way to make money. There are six types of drugs the player can deal: cocaine, heroin, downers, acid, marijuana, and ecstasy. On three occasions, Huang has to get drugs as 'buy ins' before initiating a mission.

Protagonists

It should also be noted that all of Grand Theft Auto's protagonists excluding Trevor Philips, are against using hard drugs, though they frequently deal with them on a business level. Protagonists are never seen doing drugs until Grand Theft Auto V, and when offered, deny it.

• One of the main premises of GTA San Andreas is getting crack, crack heads, and crack dealers out of Los Santos to make it a better place.

• Claude has no problem dealing with drugs but is never seen using anything other than adrenaline.

• Tommy Vercetti has no problem dealing with drugs but is never seen using anything, nor is there any mention of past use.

• Carl Johnson denies an offer for a bong hit from Frank Tenpenny, in Body Harvest however it is revealed later in the game that he does smoke marijuana offscreen.

• Victor Vance despises drugs and is extremely uncomfortable even dealing with them.

• Toni Cipriani has no problem dealing drugs, but is never seen using anything, nor is there any mention of past use.

• Niko Bellic denies a toke of marijuana from Little Jacob on many occasions but on one occasion allows second-hand marijuana smoke to take effect on him in order to calm his nerves during a helicopter chase.

• Johnny Klebitz smokes marijuana, and by 2013 he and his friends are addicted to meth and a new drug called Toilet Cleaner.

• Luis Fernando Lopez has no problem dealing drugs, but seems to specifically dislike cocaine and abusing of prescription medication, this is likely because his mentor Gay Tony is addicted to both.

• Franklin Clinton can smoke a joint at his house on Forum Drive or a bong at his new place. He despises crack-cocaine since his mother overdosed from it, however at one point while drunk and slightly self-loathing with Lamar, Franklin states he should just let go of his life and smoke crack-rock like his mother. He never touches it in the game.

• Michael De Santa can smoke his son, Jimmy De Santa's bong in his room. Michael also states that he used to do cocaine in his younger years.

• Trevor Philips can huff gas outside his trailer, and is addicted to speed and crystal meth, which would make him the first protagonist to intentionally use hard drugs in a Grand Theft Auto game. He smokes marijuana on rare occasions but doesn't like downer drugs. At one point he even states cocaine isn't strong enough to take effect on him.

• GTA Online Protagonist can smoke marijuana in certain safe houses and can buy and take bull-shark testosterone delivered by Brucie Kibbutz.

Accidental Drug Use

Some protagonists on occasion feel the effects of drugs by accident.

• In GTA San Andreas, Carl Johnson is helping The Truth dispose of his marijuana fields by burning them before the cops arrive. This gets Carl high and disrupts his basic motor skills.
• In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Vic Vance is in a car accident with a van full of a cocaine known as Purple Haze. This causes Vic's sight to narrow and blur with purple. His motor skills are also highly effected.
• In GTA Vice City, Tommy Vercetti gets high off Boomshine by accident when his friend Phil Cassidy uses it as a makeshift bomb, which also blows Phil's arm off. Tommy is forced to drive Phil to the hospital while high.
• In GTA IV, Little Jacob, a friend of protagonist Niko Bellic, has a habit of toking up at the wrong times. One such time includes when the two of them are riding in a helicopter chasing a suspected terrorist. Jacob is smoking marijuana and Niko is slightly affected by it. The player doesn't see the effects but Niko's speech is slightly slurred. Afterwards, Niko allows him to continue smoking as the secondary smoke calms his nerves.
• In GTA V, Jimmy De Santa spikes his fathers with what is presumed to be mesculine in a Burger Shot drinking cup Michael goes on to have an intense trip, at first being surrounded by monkeys in an alley, before being beamed up into an alien spacecraft. The aliens don't seem pleased with Michael's physical condition and send him back falling to earth. As he falls towards the city he can fly and zoom around while bright colours flood the area and echoes of speech from close characters rings out as he falls. He awakens in his underwear in a field close to his home, and vomits before stumbling back.

Cocaine Use

GTA 2

• According to his police file, Johnny Zoo abuses cocaine.

GTA Vice City

• Sonny Forelli sets up a deal with the Vance Crime Family in 1986 for 2 million dollars worth of cocaine, only to have the deal ambushed by Ricardo Diaz's men.
• Ken Rosenberg (the laywer for Tommy Vercetti) is addicted to cocaine.
• Ricardo Diaz is usually high on cocaine, or using cocaine while meeting with Tommy Vercetti.

GTA San Andreas

• Big Bear is addicted to crack cocaine.
• Ken Rosenberg is rehabilitated, but starts abusing cocaine again.

GTA Vice City Stories

• Lance Vance is a frequent user of cocaine, and possibly addicted.
• Louise Cassidy-Williams is a cocaine user and possibly addicted.
• Gonzales hires Vic Vance to sell a specific cocaine type called Purple Haze, although the deal is attacked, and Vic has to get the stuff back while accidentally under its influence.

Grand Theft Auto IV

• Elizabeta Torres is a frequent cocaine user.
• Elizabeta also had cocaine stolen off of her, she had Niko Bellic retrieve it, although he was intercepted by the International Affairs Agency, and Elizabeta Torres ended up in jail on 30 charges of cocaine distribution, 10 years each leading to her 300 year sentence.
• Patrick McReary also is a cocaine addict.
• Michael Keane is seen snorting coke in the mission Three Leaf Clover.
• Derrick McReary is seen snorting coke in the mission Three Leaf Clover.
• Gerry McReary is seen snorting coke in the mission Three Leaf Clover.
• Niko and Phil Bell steal a cocaine shipment meant for the Ancelotti Family from some Russian coke dealers for Jimmy Pegorino.
• Jon Gravelli and Niko's contact at United Liberty Paper want him to destroy vans lined with coke in the frames in the mission Liquidize the Assets.
• Mikhail Faustin has a cocaine addiction.

The Lost and Damned

• Members of the Lost Brotherhood, including Billy Grey, Jim Fitzgerald, Brian Jeremy, Clay Simons, and Angus Martin are seen doing coke at the Lost MC Clubhouse.
• Marta smuggles a swallowed condom full of cocaine into Liberty City from Puerto Rico.

The Ballad of Gay Tony

• Several characters abuse cocaine, including Gay Tony, Chloe Parker, Gracie Ancelotti, Evan Moss, and Rocco Pelosi.

GTA Chinatown Wars

• Huang Lee can buy and sell cocaine.

GTA V

• Patrick McReary is still addicted to coke as evidanced after escaping during The Jewelery Store Job, he states he's going to be doing a lot of rails that night.
• Tonya Wiggins and JB Bradshaw are addicted to crack cocaine.
• Cocaine Wine goes on sale in France in 1870.
• eCola contains cocaine until 1903.
• British explorer Captain Scott sets off on his Antarctic Expedition in 1910 with a big bag of cocaine, sled dogs, and a team of coke whores.
• Cocaine is banned in 1914 as an illegal substance in the United States.
• President Lawton admits to snorting cocaine in 2007.
• Proposition 208 is a proposition to legalize cocaine.
• Michael De Santa states he used to do coke in his younger years.
• Trevor Phillips states he doesn't do coke anymore because it doesn't effect him.

Marijuana Use

GTA San Andreas

• Ryder is almost always seen with a blunt
• Many of the Grove Street Families smoke marijuana.
• The Truth is a frequent marijuana user.
• The Truth also has his own fields of marijuana, which is later burned down by Carl Johnson to save Truth from jail time.

GTA Vice City Stories

• Jerry Martinez has Vic Vance buy some pot off of an unnamed man, and stash it in his army bunker.
• Vic Vance is kicked out of the army for having Jerry's pot hidden under his cot.

GTA IV

• Little Jacob is almost always seen smoking marijuana.
• Real Badman also smokes marijuana with Little Jacob.
• Niko sells weed for Little Jacob as a side mission.
• Niko allows Little Jacob to smoke marijuana in a helicopter during a mission for the U.L. Paper, as to calm his nerves second-handedly.

The Lost and Damned

• Johnny Klebitz reveals while at a strip club that he smokes marijuana.
• Billy Grey offers club prospect Dave Grossman a bong hit which was laced with mescaline.

GTA Chinatown Wars

• Huang Lee can buy and sell marijuana.

GTA V

• Franklin Clinton can smoke weed in both of his safehouses. A joint in one and bong in the other.
• Michael can smoke his son's bong in his bedroom.
• Michael, Franklin, and Trevor, all smoke weed when they encounter Barry and are offered it. Michael and Trevor go on hallucinogenic trips involving aliens and clowns respectively, while the joint has no effect on Franklin.

Heroin Use

GTA 2

• Uno Carb sells high-tech weaponry to pay for his heroin addiction.
• Jerkov was arrested for possession in 1997, but was aquitted. Both he, his wife and one of his fellow Russian mobsters are heavy addicts.

GTA IV

• Elizabeta sets up a deal for heroin between Niko Bellic, Playboy X, and Johnny Klebitz and a buyer named Charlie, although the deal ends up being a undercover LCPD sting set up.
• Niko Bellic steals a truck load of heroin off of some Triads in the mission Truck Hustle.
• Derrick McReary is addicted to heroin.

The Lost and Damned

• Billy Grey was addicted to heroin, and sent to rehab for it.
• The Angels of Death biker gang stole a large shipment of heroin off of some Triads and their boss.
• Billy Grey stole a large amount of heroin off of the Angels of Death biker gang.
• The Triads steal a large shipment of heroin off of the Lost Biker gang.
• Elizabeta Torres sets up a deal for Johnny Klebitz to sell some heroin to a buyer named Charlie, she sends two associates (Niko Bellic and Playboy X) to assist. The deal ends up being an undercover drug bust by the LCPD.

GTA The Ballad of Gay Tony

• Luis Fernando Lopez destroys several heroin packages belonging to Ray Bulgarin.

GTA Chinatown Wars

• Huang Lee can sell and buy heroin.

GTA V

• According to Patrick McReary, regardless of Niko Bellic's choice to kill Derrick McReary or Francis McReary, Derrick is dead by 2013. If Niko didn't canically kill him, then it is assumed he died of a heroin overdose between 2008 and 2013.

Steroid Use

GTA 2

• According to his police file, Sunbeam uses steroids manufactured by The Zaibatsu Corporation.

GTA IV

• Brucie Kibbutz is an avid steroid user.
• Liberty City Swingers pitcher Ernesto Asaltacunas is caught with steroids in 2006.

The Lost and Damned

• It is revealed that Billy Grey was a steroid user.

The Ballad of Gay Tony

• Brucie Kibbutz continues to use steroids.
• Evan Moss uses steroids as referenced by Luis Lopez in the mission Frosting on the Cake

GTA V

• By 2013 Brucie Kibbutz is still using steriods and promoting his Bullshark Testosterone on his website.

GTA Online

• The GTA Online Protagonist can buy bull-shark testosterone from Brucie Kibbutz for $500.

Crystal Meth Use

GTA IV

• Ashley Butler is high on crystal meth while Niko Bellic and Ray Boccino are having a meeting.

The Lost and Damned

• Harper is killed in a meth lab explosion in 2006.
• Ashley Butler is addicted to crystal meth.
• Terry Thorpe, the Sergant at Arms for The Lost Motorcycle club is under suspicion of the LCPD to have a meth lab.

GTA V

• Trevor Phillips uses and sells crystal meth.
• Ron Jakowski uses crystal meth.
• Wade Hebert uses crystal meth.
• Chef and Trevor cook crystal meth.
• The surviving members of the Alderney Chapter of The Lost Brotherhood, including Johnny Klebitz, Terry Thorpe, Clay Simons, and Ashley butler, and the Los Santos Chapter of the Lost all became meth heads between 2008 and 2013.

Other Drugs

The Ballad of Gay Tony

• Anthony "Gay Tony" Prince is addicted to prescription medication.

GTA V

• Trevor Phillips can huff gas outside of his trailer, he instantly passes out and wakes up somewhere else, similar to how Luis Fernando Lopez can pass out and wake up elsewhere from drinking too much at one of his clubs.
• Trevor is also addicted to speed as stated by himself and members of The Lost.
• Jimmy De Santa drugs his father Michael De Santa with mesculine.
• Ron Jakowski can be seen drinking gasoline outside of Trevor's trailer on occasion, stating out loud that he hopes it doesn't make him blind again.

Fictional Drugs

GTA 2

• Numerous fictional drugs of varying levels of legality are manufactured by The Zaibatsu Corporation.

GTA III

• Catalina is a big time drug dealer, selling and probably using a drug called SPANK.

GTA Liberty City Stories

• Maria Latore is addicted to a fictional drug called Zap.

GTA V

• Toilet Cleaner is mentioned in the in-game media as the latest designer drug craze.