Trainspotting is a 1996 British black comedy-drama film directed by Danny Boyle and starring Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, and Kelly Macdonald in her film debut. Based on the 1993 novel of the same title by Irvine Welsh, the film was released in the United Kingdom on 23 February 1996.
Fentanyl, also spelled fentanil, is a highly potent synthetic piperidine opioid drug primarily used as an analgesic. Because fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, its primary clinical utility is in pain management for cancer patients and those recovering from painful surgical operations. Fentanyl is also used as a sedative. Depending on the method of delivery, fentanyl can be very fast acting and ingesting a relatively small quantity can cause overdose. Fentanyl works by activating mu-opioid receptors. Fentanyl is also commonly known as fentanyl citrate, and is sold under the brand name Sublimaze among others.
Prince of the City is a 1981 American neo-noir crime drama film directed and co-written by Sidney Lumet. The film follows Daniel Ciello, an officer of the New York Police Department who chooses, for idealistic reasons, to expose corruption in the force. Ciello, played by Treat Williams, was based on the NYPD narcotics detective Robert Leuci.
My Name Is Joe is a 1998 British romantic drama film directed by Ken Loach. The film stars Peter Mullan as Joe Kavanagh, an unemployed recovering alcoholic in Glasgow, Scotland who meets and falls in love with a health visitor, played by Louise Goodall. David McKay plays his troubled friend Liam. The film's title is a reference to the ritualised greeting performed in Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, as portrayed in the film's opening scene.
Pusher is a 1996 Danish crime thriller film co-written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, in his film debut. A commercial success considered to be influential in Danish film history, it marked Mads Mikkelsen's film debut.
Narc is a 2002 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed and written by Joe Carnahan and starring Jason Patric and Ray Liotta. The plot revolves around the efforts of two police detectives in search of the murderer of an undercover police officer. As they investigate, they engage in unethical behavior and uncover dark secrets that will challenge their fragile relationship.
Rush is a 1991 American crime drama film directed by Lili Fini Zanuck and based on a novel written by Kim Wozencraft. It stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jason Patric as two cops in the 1970s who go undercover on a case. They become drug addicts themselves and, under pressure from the chief of police, falsified evidence in some cases. The book and film are both based on a 1978-79 drug scandal involving the Tyler, Texas police department and Smith County, Texas Sheriff's Office. An FBI investigation led to the book's author and her partner pleading guilty to perjury, serving time in federal prison, and testifying in a federal civil rights case against Tyler, Texas police chief Willie Hardy, who was found not guilty by a jury of his peers in Smith County, Texas.
Hit! is a 1973 action film directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor. It is about a federal agent trying to destroy a drug zone after his daughter dies from a heroin overdose.
Catherine Evelyn Smith was a Canadian occasional backup singer, rock groupie, drug dealer, and legal secretary. Smith served 15 months in the California state prison system for injecting actor John Belushi with a fatal dose of heroin and cocaine in 1982.
Reginald "Bubbles" Cousins is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Andre Royo. Bubbles is a recovering heroin addict. His real name is not revealed until a fourth-season episode when he is called "Mr. Cousins" and in the fifth-season premiere when he is called "Reginald". Bubbles has a son named KeyShawn, who lives with his mother. He is nicknamed "Bubbles" because when he is in a heroin-induced stupor, he tends to make bubbles with his spit.
Joseph Stewart, better known as "Proposition Joe" or "Prop Joe", is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by Robert F. Chew. Joe is an Eastside drug lord who prefers a peaceful solution to business disputes when possible. He is responsible for creating the lucrative New Day Co-Op with Stringer Bell, supplying much of Baltimore with heroin brought into the city by "The Greeks". Displaying a cunning, business-oriented demeanor, Joe is often a match in stature for rival drug lords Avon Barksdale and Marlo Stanfield, and is able to manipulate most situations to his advantage.
Mark Renton is a fictional character who appears as the protagonist in the novels Trainspotting (1993) and Porno (2002) written by Irvine Welsh. He also appears in the 1996 film adaptation of Trainspotting and its sequel T2 Trainspotting (2017), in both of which he is portrayed by Ewan McGregor.
Christiane F. is a 1981 German biographical drama film directed by Uli Edel that portrays the descent of Christiane Felscherinow, a bored and depressed 13-year-old growing up in mid-1970s West Berlin, to a 14-year-old heroin addict. Based on the 1978 non-fiction book Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, transcribed and edited from tape recordings by Kai Hermann and Horst Rieck, the film immediately acquired cult status and features David Bowie as both composer and as himself. In 2013, Felscherinow published her autobiography Christiane F. – My Second Life.
The Connection is a 1961 found footage feature film directed by the American experimental filmmaker Shirley Clarke. The film was Clarke's first feature; she had made several short films over the previous decade. Jack Gelber wrote the screenplay, adapting his play of the same name. The film was the subject of significant court cases regarding censorship. It is the first known movie shot in the found footage format and beginning with a found footage title card.
Sweet Jane is a 1998 drama about an unlikely friendship that develops between an HIV positive prostitute addicted to heroin and a terminally-ill fifteen-year-old boy. Sweet Jane was directed by Joe Gayton and stars Samantha Mathis as Jane and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tony. The film opened at the AFI Los Angeles Film Festival.
Banged Up Abroad is a British documentary/docudrama television series created by Bart Layton that was produced for Channel 5 and that premiered in March 2006. Most episodes feature stories of people who have been arrested while travelling abroad, usually for trying to smuggle illegal drugs, although some episodes feature people who were either kidnapped or captured while they were either travelling or living in other countries. Some episodes have featured real-life stories that first became well known when they were made the subject of a film: films that have been 're-made' in this way include Midnight Express, Goodfellas, The Devil's Double, Argo, Mr Nice and, to a lesser extent, Casino.
Snow on tha Bluff is a 2012 American found footage-style drama film directed by Damon Russell. It stars Curtis Snow, a real-life Atlanta "robbery boy" and drug dealer, playing a fictionalized version of himself, as he gets into various dangerous and criminal situations. The film's title refers to protagonist Snow and to Atlanta's neighborhood The Bluff, which is infamous for crime and drug dealing.
Rustin Spencer "Rust" Cohle is a fictional character portrayed by Matthew McConaughey in the first season of the HBO's anthology television series True Detective. He works as a homicide detective for the Louisiana State Police (LSP) alongside his partner Martin "Marty" Hart, portrayed by Woody Harrelson. The season follows Cohle and Hart's hunt for a serial killer in Louisiana across 17 years.
Narcopolis is a 2015 British science fiction thriller film written and directed by Justin Trefgarne. The film is set in 2024 after all drugs have been legalised in the United Kingdom. Elliot Cowan stars as a police officer who becomes obsessed with solving a case that involves an experimental new drug developed by the largest pharmaceutical company. Narcopolis premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on 19 June 2015 and was released in the UK on 25 September 2015.
Target Number One is a 2020 Canadian crime drama film directed by Daniel Roby. Based on the true story of Alain Olivier, a Canadian drug addict from Quebec who spent eight years in prison in Thailand in the 1980s after having been set up as an unwitting pawn in an espionage plot by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the film stars Josh Hartnett as Canadian investigative journalist Victor Malarek, investigating the arrest of drug addict Daniel Léger. The film's cast also includes Jim Gaffigan, Stephen McHattie, Don McKellar, J.C. MacKenzie, and Amanda Crew.
