>>51759337Fun question. I'm of the opinion that most of the medicines we see depicted in-game can only really be considered "drugs" in the same way you can talk about basic over-the-counter medications (painkillers, cough syrup, etc) as drugs.
Things like the X Attack are slightly more vague, especially considering the shift in the series' tone from RBY and the more defined style guidelines that exist now. They've never really spoken about the "X" items in much depth, but my personal impression is that they were indeed designed to be like performance-enhancing drugs when they were first conceptualised, but if you were to ask Game Freak nowadays they'd deny it. In the current continuity, they'd probably prefer to explain them as if they were similar to energy drinks like Red Bull - something that provides a quick temporary boost upon consumption, in contrast to the so-called Vitamin items (e.g Iron, Carbos) that are used to fuel the user's body for long-term growth: to compare them to real-life products, they'd be used similarly to pre-workout energy drinks and post-workout protein shakes respectively.
I don't think we're likely to see recreational drugs depicted in mainline Pokemon media - even a reference to Shuckle fermenting berries into alcohol in its shell was removed during development of Gold and Silver. If anywhere I guess you'd be most likely to see them in the manga given how different its tone is to the rest of the media in the series, but I've never read it.
Finally, about Sprigatito: it's pretty clearly inspired by catnip, so it depends on whether you consider that a drug or not. Like we've definitely all heard "catnip is just like weed for cats lol" at some point, but that's usually in a humorous context - I've never heard it said completely seriously. (By the way. Sprigatito's aroma is supposed to make opponents calm down, but real catnip just makes my own cat hyperactive and full of claws)
