The two Ornarans, T'Jon and Romas (Richard Lineback), say that the shipment of Felicium is theirs, a medicine for a plague on Ornara. The two Brekkians, Sobi (Kimberly Farr) and Langor (Judson Scott), claim they can't just give it away without being paid for it.
Then Beverley makes a discovery: Felicium used to be a medicine, but it cured the plague 200 years ago - now it is merely a very addictive narcotic. But because the Brekkian economy has been based on the drug for so long, nothing can be done without breaking the Prime Directive...
Special Agent Matti
While Symbiosis presents the major arguments about drugs (if they are addictive they are bad) it should be kept in mind that some drugs are not only condoned by society (both contemporary Earth and the UFP) by positively encouraged, such as alcohol. The what this episode doesn't mention is that the "badness" of any particular drug is relative. There are more alcohol users than there are smack users, and correspondingly more addicts. There are also some people who do not get addicted to drugs, either because they have the wrong physiology (their body doesn't respond to the drug in an addictive fashion) or the wrong psychology (they don't need the drug as a crutch or they don't like the effect of the drug). There are also people who don't like drugs because they don't like the possiblity of people enjoying themselves (wowsers). Then there're the people who object on philosophical grounds (addiction leads to criminal behaviour to pay for the habit and/or reduced quality of life).
All of which is a long-winded way of saying that drug use is a matter of choice, for which a poor education can only lead to ill-informed decisions.
Out now