Riverdale’s Jingle Jangle & 9 Other Fictional Drugs In TV & Movies

A lot of movies and TV series have plots that center around drug use. And while some include mentions of real-life drugs, mostly involving the usual suspects, some movies and series get clever and create their own fictional drug. In some cases, there is a viable reason: it does something that no other drug currently available in real life can do.

In other situations, it’s a twist on an existing drug that makes it unique to the show or movie. In any case, the funniest drug names definitely come from Riverdale with fictional drugs Jingle Jangle and Fizzle Rocks. But there have been plenty of others through the years.

10 Jingle Jangle (And Fizzle Rocks): Riverdale

As if the name wasn’t silly enough, Jingle Jangle is ingested orally in powdered form from long, cylindrical straws that resemble pixie sticks candies. This might be partly to suggest why it’s so appealing to high school kids while also serving as a commentary on how young people might view serious drugs as if they aren’t really serious at all.

The show also features another drug designed to mimic childhood candy: Fizzle Rocks are a mix of drugs with carbonated candies that pop on your tongue when you take them. It’s a spin on the real-life Pop Rocks candies (which thankfully don’t actually contain any drugs).

9 Blue Sky: Breaking Bad

Named as such because of its signature blue hue, Blue Sky was supposed to be almost 100% chemically pure crystal methamphetamine, making it the most potent, and thus most sought after, drug on the streets.

The drug was referred to in many ways throughout the series’ run, including as Big Blue, Blue Magic, Fring’s Blue (when Gus Fring tried to take over the operation), and simply Blue. But what made Blue Sky so special was that only Walt (and eventually Jesse) knew how to get the near-perfect purity every time. Though while Walt made the drug, it was his alter-ego Heisenberg who knew how to push it through the criminal underworld.

8 Spice Melange: Dune

Also called “the spice,” this fictional drug was naturally produced and considered to be an “awareness spectrum narcotic” that could provide users with just about anything they could ever want in life. That includes a longer lifespan, greater vitality, and heightened awareness. In other words, in the sci-fi series and novels in which it exists, it’s a pretty sought-after commodity.

Most interestingly, however, is that for some people, taking spice can actually unlock psychic abilities, and the ability to see the future. However, as a drug, it’s highly addictive, which means should a user try to stop, the resulting withdrawal symptoms could prove fatal.

7 Nuke: RoboCop 2

Cain, the leader of the Nuke Cult, created this very addictive drug designed solely from the use of chemicals and for nothing but pleasurable effect. Available in different varieties, including Red Ramrod, White Noise, Blue Velvet, and Black Thunder, it could be made on the cheap and was widely distributed on the streets.

To take it, someone would inject the red liquid into the neck. In the second RoboCop film, the cyborg is actually Cain himself, whose brain was inserted into the machine following his death. Both the cyborg and Cain were addicted to the narcotic.

6 NZT-48: Limitless

Building on the myth that humans typically only use 10% of their brains, the film, TV series, and Alan Glynn novel The Dark Fields on which they’re based, examines what would happen if you could utilize and unlock almost all of your brain’s capabilities.

This fictional nootropic drug could do just that, enhancing your intelligence and memory to superhuman levels, so you could learn new things in an instant, recall facts flawlessly, and possess incredible dexterity. It also serves as an antidepressant and anxiolytic. However, as quickly as users come up, they can also crash down just as hard, which is what makes the drug so addicting and dangerous. Is it worth the risks in order to take it? That’s at the crux of the story.

5 Slo-Mo: Dredd

This fictional drug from the beloved 2012 film, is ingested through a white inhaler that houses the caramel-colored liquid inside a clear capsule. On the inhaler is a heart with the name Ma-Ma Clan, referencing the group that manufactured the drug in the movie.

As the name suggests, it’s a psychedelic that not only has a euphoric effect but also slows down one’s perception of time to 1% of its normal speed, letting people see colors more vividly as well. Ingesting it through the mouth also results in freezer burn. A side effect of the drug is that feelings of pleasure and pain are intensified and prolonged.

4 Neuroin: Minority Report

Very likely a fictional and enhanced version of heroin, the great Tom Cruise flick portrays this drug as having a relaxing, euphoric feeling, dulling your senses. Except it is breathed in, thus affecting users in a different way, more so neurologically.

The name itself is even a play on heroin, combining the words “neuro” and “heroin.” So, it may just be a new, futuristic way to ingest the same opioid that has existed for centuries.

3 Dropper: Looper

Dropper is another drug designed to create a sense of euphoria and rush of energy. In the great time travel thriller Looper, it was taken mostly by people known as loopers to help them deal with the stresses of their jobs. Time travel is outlawed in the future, but the mob sends people they want to eliminate back to the past where contract killers – loopers – can eliminate them, effectively erasing them from existence.

These loopers deal with the trauma of what they have done by escaping reality with some dropper. Similar to MDMA or ecstasy, they manage to get their hands on this futuristic drug that is taken just like eyedrops. Withdrawal involves severe dehydration, fever, and even intense physical pain, so like many real life drugs, it’s not easy to stop taking once a user starts.

2 Redpills: The Matrix

Arguably one of the first fictional drugs to really become the subject of pop culture conversation, what’s most interesting is that the concept of the “redpill” is not about drugs at all, but rather the freeing of the human mind from any type of altered or fake reality that you might otherwise experience from drugs.

Redpills refers to people who have reached a heightened level of awareness, and thus remain connected to the Matrix while also being acutely aware of its existence. Thus, Redpill isn’t the mental state one might feel when high on drugs, it’s actually the opposite. Even though Redpill doesn’t refer to a drug, per se, it is represented as a virtual red colored pill. The blue pill, meanwhile, represents the idea of choosing to remain blissfully ignorant about the world around you. In this sense, then, the blue pill might better represent taking a “drug” to remain distant from reality.

1 Genre: Westworld

In the third season of this futuristic HBO series, Aaron Paul’s character Caleb witnesses several people in a state of euphoria after taking a new drug called Genre. In one episode, he actually takes the drug himself, and viewers are given an idea of what the world looks like to him once he’s under the influence.

The party drug makes users see the world through various popular movie and musical genres, complete with musical accompaniment as the “scenes” change. In Caleb’s case, for example, he begins seeing things in black and white as if he’s living in the film noir genre, followed by war, romance, and crime. It’s as if users are living in an actual movie, listening to the soundtrack of their own life.

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