Thinly disguised drug propaganda
This gamebook was in a word rubbish. It was poorly written and the character that you play is a moron and does not act or speak like the undercover detective that you are supposed to be playing. Granted, while offering some silly choices can put those foolish decisions in the hand on the player, simply having the character open his mouth to a potential source of information, and then saying something completely stupid, just simply did not seem to gel with me.
In this science-fiction book you play an intergalactic federal agent who travels to the planet of Kether to attempt to destroy a drug ring. Why is the drug bad? Well, you are not told, you are just told that it is, and the only time that you see it in action is when you use it to kill an alien. Okay, granted, drugs work differently on different people, and no doubt in a realm occupied by aliens the differing effects can be all too common, but seriously, peddling a drug that kills the user seems to be a little over the top. Granted, drug users that get too caught up in their actions usually end up dead, whether it be through an overdose or a bullet in the head, but in the end dealers have a motive in seeing their customers remain alive, and addicted.
The other thing that jumped out at me was it seemed that in the book you are playing the role of the imperial enforcer. No matter what you think of drugs (and I am not a big fan of them, having been down that road and seen the effects upon others lives, and to an extent my own), the feeling that I get from this book was that it was a part of Ronald Regan's war on drugs, namely a piece of propaganda. Granted, while I have little time or sympathy for those we call the drug barons, I do have a lot of empathy for the user and the street dealer. I have been there, and in many cases it is the result of a misjudgement and an experiment that ends up going wrong. Users and small time dealers (who are usually users themselves and have turned to dealing to maintain their habit) do not need to be incarcerated, but treated, just as an alcoholic requires treatment.
Drugs and sex are similar in many ways. I say that because both can give you the feeling of pleasure, and it is that desire for pleasure that keeps you coming back for more. However, those who promote them and those who attack them may have two different methods, but all end up with the same result, and that is to taste the forbidden fruit to find out what it is really like. In a way I would prefer somebody to approach it thinking the world of it and then being sorely disappointed as opposed to somebody who doesn't think much of it, gives it a try, and then becomes addicted.
When our media constantly bombards us with messages that 'drugs are bad' and the church bombards us with messages that say 'sex is beautiful but only in the confines of marriage' those of us who have never tried it are suddenly filled with the urge to give it a go. Drugs and sex are similar in that to experience them you need to get your hands on it, however where drugs are a commodity, with sex you need a willing participant (otherwise that would be rape). Finding the willing participant can be difficult at best, but then again so can finding somebody who is willing to sell you something that is illegal (and in many cases finding both can actually be quite easy).
