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: 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.

In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories you could make business empires for drug manufacturing and distribution.

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

Protagonists

It should also be noted that all of Grand Theft Auto's protagonists excluding Trevor Phillips, are against using 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.

• 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.

• Franklin Clinton can smoke a joint at his house on Forum Drive or a bong at his new place.

• Michael De Santa can smoke his son, Jimmy De Santa's bong in his room.

• Trevor Phillips 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.

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 is father Michael De Santa 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.

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 cut of by police, 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.
• 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.

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 from The Jewelery Store Robbery, he states he's going to be doing a lot of rails that night.
• Tonya and JB are addicted to crack cocaine.

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 secondhandedly.

The Lost and Damned

• Johnny Klebitz reveals while at a strip club that he smokes marijuana.

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 hallucinagetic trips involving aliens and clowns respectivley, 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 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 Zaibatsu.

GTA IV

• Brucie Kibbutz is an avid steroid user.

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.

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

• 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 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

GTA V

• Trevor Phillips can huff gas outside of his trailer, he instantly passes out and wakes up somewhere else, similar to how Luis 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.

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.