BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » Drugs: Do you believe Sherlock?

Sherlock Holmes · January 13, 2014 1:21 am

So...Sherlock was taking drugs. He argues it was for the case? What do you think? Was there a legitimate reason for him to be in that drug den? Because...in the end, it didn't actually have anything to do with Magnussen, did it? I feel like he just used that as an excuse...I don't know. I can't think of any actual connection between the drug den and Magnussen. Unless I'm just not remembering something from the episode.

Ozma · January 13, 2014 1:23 am

He said he involved himself with the drud den in the hope that it went to the papers and Magnussen got interested in him because he had dirt on him.

A pretty lousy excuse if you ask me.

Sherlock Holmes · January 13, 2014 1:27 am

Yeah, and it didn't work in the end anyway. Magnussen saw through it.

Punch me in the face · January 13, 2014 1:30 am

Yeah, I think so too. Even if his explanation does make sense, I like to believe (how sadistic I am!) that Moftiss followed the canon (at the end of TOSF: "For me, said sherlock, there still remains the cocaine bottle. And he stretched his long white hand up for it"), that Sherlock is really affected by John's wedding (and even John said it wouldn't change anything, I think that at the beginning of the episode, they hadn't seen each other for a month or something, or maybe i did get that wrong?), there's a "slight" difference between living with a person and spend all your time with them and seeing them only once a month!!! So maybe Sherlock got depressed and got back to his old habits, and used it as an excuse for the case...

asylum69 · January 13, 2014 2:29 am

Sherlock Holmes wrote:
So...Sherlock was taking drugs. He argues it was for the case? What do you think? Was there a legitimate reason for him to be in that drug den? Because...in the end, it didn't actually have anything to do with Magnussen, did it? I feel like he just used that as an excuse...I don't know. I can't think of any actual connection between the drug den and Magnussen. Unless I'm just not remembering something from the episode.

the scene in the drug den and the wife going to John saying about Isaac on the drugs is actually an interpreted part of another canon story, 'The Man With The Twisted Lip'. Watson goes to the opium den to find the guy and finds Sherlock there undercover, just like in the episode.

Wholocked · January 13, 2014 2:39 am

^ This

It's straight out of canon. He went to the drug den in the hope that Magnussen would see drug use as a pressure point for him and it would provoke contact from Magnussen. It worked; Magnussen came to the house that afternoon. However, he clearly did actually take drugs as Molly found and as he commented to Mycroft "don't appall me when I'm high"

So who knows? Maybe it was both.

Sherli Bakerst · January 13, 2014 2:52 am

As I said elsewhere, I believed Sherlock when he said it was for a case. Thanks, asylum69, for reminding me about The Case of the Twisted Lip; that's one of the stories in the canon I've actually read.

But after reading some other comments, maybe Sherlock was indeed taking drugs and getting a high off it, but I don't think he did it as a reaction to something in his personal life. When he was in the hospital at one point, he ups the dose of morphine but then almost immediately he lowers it. That to me indicates that Sherlock feels he can control his ingestion of whatever he was taking in the drug den and that he isn't addicted in the same way he might have been at an earlier time in his life.

sj4iy · January 13, 2014 3:28 am

He was trying to make drugs his 'pressure point', make Magnussen think that drugs were his weakness...not the people around him. Hence him staying away from John for a month. I really, really don't think he just decided to go back to the drug den on a whim like that.

Ozma · January 13, 2014 8:51 am

I am finding it hard to understand how they did not see each other for a month? I mean I understand Sherlock avoided John on purpose because of the case, but wouldn't John get suspicious and at least try to drop by Baker Street, knowing him?

beekeeper · January 13, 2014 9:12 am

Sherli Bakerst wrote:
When he was in the hospital at one point, he ups the dose of morphine but then almost immediately he lowers it. That to me indicates that Sherlock feels he can control his ingestion of whatever he was taking in the drug den and that he isn't addicted in the same way he might have been at an earlier time in his life.

Or, now he has John back, he doesn't need morphine.

I agree with those who say that the behaviour entirely mirrors the canon. ACD tells us that after John tells him he is engaged, Sherlock's first action is to reach for the cocaine. I think the Twisted Lip story is conflated here with that so that, tbh, he could be there on a case (Twisted Lip) or he could be taking drugs again (Sign of Four). We don't know.

One point about the Twisted Lip was that Holmes was clean. He wasn't here.

Wholocked · January 13, 2014 9:35 am

Yes, I rather liked that nod ;)

Mattlocked · January 13, 2014 9:37 am

I liked the thing with John's "vanished" chair. It blocked his sight to the kitchen. Yep!

kazza474 · January 13, 2014 9:41 am

Sherli Bakerst wrote:
As I said elsewhere, I believed Sherlock when he said it was for a case. Thanks, asylum69, for reminding me about The Case of the Twisted Lip; that's one of the stories in the canon I've actually read.

But after reading some other comments, maybe Sherlock was indeed taking drugs and getting a high off it, but I don't think he did it as a reaction to something in his personal life. When he was in the hospital at one point, he ups the dose of morphine but then almost immediately he lowers it. That to me indicates that Sherlock feels he can control his ingestion of whatever he was taking in the drug den and that he isn't addicted in the same way he might have been at an earlier time in his life.

You will find that the canon Holmes did indeed use drugs wholly & solely for the purpose of sharpening his mind. This is a natural phenomenon of the substance. Unfortunately in today's world, people associate drug taking with 'a need to get high'. Like so many other things nowadays, nothing is worth doing unless it's in excess it seems.
But going back to its original use, it can be very addictive to most people, however those with the mindset needed to resist addiction as Holmes (canon) has, even Sherlock (BBC) has (which many refuse to see) were quite able to use it when needed and leave it as well.
There have been no actual references to Sherlock being a drug addict, the references that you are all screaming at me as you read this have NOT been shown to be related to a drug addiction, just an addiction. And as these fora pages show, addictions can come in many shapes & sizes.

Yes, certainly the morphine adjustment that Sherlock made was a obvious attempt to show the viewers that he CAN control himself, again however this will be overlooked by many who do not know the canon well and hence the assumptions come thick & fast that he's a junkie or a recovering one.

So his excuse for being there (to gain CAM's attention) was in fact true, he gained it in a different way than he thought he would, but the result was satisfactory for his needs.

Mattlocked · January 13, 2014 9:53 am

kazza474 wrote:
...
Yes, certainly the morphine adjustment that Sherlock made was a obvious attempt to show the viewers that he CAN control himself, again however this will be overlooked by many who do not know the canon well and hence the assumptions come thick & fast that he's a junkie or a recovering one.

....

Oh, I noticed! Even without (STILL) knowing all about the canon.
And I'm pretty sure "some" others did so, too.

SusiGo · January 13, 2014 9:55 am

Yes, I got that, too.

beekeeper · January 13, 2014 4:38 pm

Swanpride wrote:
The "not seeing each other for a month" is canon, too. After Watson married, he sometimes barely saw Holmes.
Well, the good thing is that retirement is out of the cards for now...it is Janine who goes to Suxess and in her case, gets rid of the bees....

yes I did like that line.

besleybean · January 13, 2014 5:11 pm

Well she said she was going to, but I wonder if she does?
Maybe Sherlock will rent the place from her!

Last edited by besleybean (January 13, 2014 5:11 pm)

Ozma · January 13, 2014 6:34 pm

besleybean wrote:
Well she said she was going to, but I wonder if she does?
Maybe Sherlock will rent the place from her!

haha, stop trying to make Jeanine come back!!!

besleybean · January 13, 2014 7:34 pm

Well, has she gone?!
I don't want her back at all.
But I certainly don't fear her like I did Irene.

Ozma · January 13, 2014 7:37 pm

besleybean wrote:
Well, has she gone?!
I don't want her back at all.
But I certainly don't fear her like I did Irene.

Sherlock did.not.give.a.rat.s.arse. about Jeanine. She was lying unconscious on the floor and he didn't even so much as looked at her twice for crying out loud

Some characters are only there as corollaries and don't need to be back.