Serpickle Berry Vs Pills - the Health Debate

[Penny Lane]

So today there was a protest in Paleto Bay for the legalization of weed/serpickle berry joints in that area. It was organised by Bake and Penny leapt at the opportunity to join - given she was planning to do the same! The mission of the protest was to raise awareness and start a discussion. It was peaceful and offered everyone a great experience - special mention to the Red Sickle reporters who came down to cover the news story.

This "plot" comes after a few weeks of the addiction features being added and many of us suddenly being confronted with a new and alarming reaction to the pills many rely on to regain  HP.  It also confirmed that the pills are actually opiates and that is why they are highly addictive. This mirrors an existing real world issue with opiate medication, and i think is a clever addition to Badlands to create great RP situations. Penny for eg is allergic to opiates. 

However... it does leave a rather juicy catch 22. Because there are only three things that improve your HP in this city... And the laws set by the Govt mean that it is illegal to produce, have or distribute one of them (serpickle berry), Pills can give you VERY serious addiction issues even after taking just ONE, and visiting the hospital is expensive and time consuming (even the police force admit its a pain). This policy from the government doesnt really stand well when you look at it like that. A government encouraging its citizens to use substances it knows are addictive and can cause blackouts...!? which they then need to visit the EMS to cure themselves of... which is costing the government money... because they pay wages to EMS... 

So, back to the protest - the main objective put forward by Bake was to make Serpickle Berry Joints legal in Paleto. You cant sell them to locals there anyway, you can only use them medicinally yourself. It does seem like the perfect location for a hippy community to grow and seems easy enough as a suggestion. This is what I would term a State Government approach - LSPD update their training and recognise that citizens within the area of Paleto are legally permitted to use or obtain serpickle berry buds or joints. So what do you all think of that idea?

Another approach mentioned at the protest, by the media, was the legal distribution of serpickle berry joints by EMS via prescription. This idea seemed good but I dont really know much of the details of it. Can anyone add? Based on what i gather, it may be difficult to create prescriptions that stay with the joints... but i dunno.

Lastly, Penny is quite keen to use her laboratory experience for good and I wonder if this might be an opportunity to have some really great RP in the hospital lab. If the government were in the process of looking for a new drug altogether... perhaps one that doesnt have addictive properties, doesnt produce hallucinations or vision distortion and does provide citizens with HP... then perhaps some research could be done on the Serpickle Berry to see what compounds could be extracted to create an over the counter alternative to joints? At the protest, Penny called for government 'funded' research into serpickle berries to find legal medication alternatives - and really that means I will RP it out (no wages needed, im just having fun) and Penny can either succeed with her research or fail to develop the new drugs - depending on whether the (federal) government is able to or wants to add a new drug to the city. But again... what say you all?

Lets get the discussion going and hopefully reach a clear common goal to put forward to the federal government for review. The point of this is to come up with new ideas, pick holes in the ones put forward and generally find the one we think might work best for our community. I dont want to bug the admins with 10 tickets when we can just put forward one.

[Connor O'Shea]

I think this is a really great RP opportunity. It will give you a chance to come up with a research team, I know Bella Yates has experience in sciency things and would more than likely be a lovely addition to the team if that was something she wanted for her character. 
 In addition, if there was a more powerful drug, I think it could be something that is yes, extremely expensive and hard to get ahold of. IE, 5k at govt stores, and only EMS can get them cheaply but through difficulty with the lab and attempting to produce it there similar to how coke is made. Furthermore, Each EMS rank can make a certain amount per storm cycle, 1 for EMT, 2 for AEMT, and increases by one per rank stopping at no more than 5 which would be at Assistant Fire Chief and Fire Chief.  So with it being difficult to make, it will still be available and prevent the over spamming of it like pills originally were. another Idea is to put them on a cooldown for say 3-5 minutes. If the pill making idea is something people will accept, perhaps having a tier system to the pills made could be added. Or have it really difficult to produce good quality meds and have different quality ones produced w/o a perfect result? I am just throwing darts in the dark here. What are some other Ideas?

 

Penny, I fully support you in this and love the time and thought you have put into this, I personally know you have been wanting to do something like this for a long time and I feel that through good RP, and IF the dev team (who work really hard at many things) can make this happen, it will be an excellent addition to badlands!

[Bubba]

thanks for the elaboration on the suggestion @Penny Lane.

My idea behind this was making it legal in Paleto to add some "stoner RP" up there, and add some other medical solution that wouldnt be illegal or addictive and harmfull for the rest of the city. So basically yeah, what Penny explained!

Edited December 18, 2018 by Bubba

[CedKost]

16 hours ago, Bubba said:

thanks for the elaboration on the suggestion @Penny Lane.

My idea behind this was making it legal in Paleto to add some "stoner RP" up there, and add some other medical solution that wouldnt be illegal or addictive and harmfull for the rest of the city. So basically yeah, what Penny explained!

Could also have player run dispensaries too

[Penny Lane]

Penny is enjoying her night classes in Chemistry and Anatomy & Physiology...