I think only an idiot would take scavenged stimulants as power-ups in a survival situation, and a game shouldn't reward idiocy. There are enough things that the player legitimately needs for survival that you don't need to introduce fantasy drugs.

Of course, if the player has an actual medical need, then that's different. Maybe the player need to take psychoactive drugs to stop from hallucinating. Maybe the player can go into diabetic shock on eating if they don't have a supply of insulin.

IMO… I have never really seen what I would call an interesting drug use mechanic. Pretty consistently in games drug use amounts to some stat boost which for the most part isn't really necessary. And the prospect of having a penalty to stats later that will be annoying to deal with just further discourages their use or otherwise roll play out the addiction. If there isn't any addiction penalty then I suppose the “drug” would amount to being the same thing as a potion in a fantasy setting.

I just don't ever want to feel like I made a bad decision in a game or otherwise made the game more difficult for myself than I needed to. I can respect the need for a key kind of item to be able to get a task done and maybe say that key is like the equivalent of a strength potion that allows me to remove a rock in my path but there's a price to pay. I know that there's no other way to do it and I want to progress in the game. so I know I made the right decision and I trust that the developer will have balanced future challenges for me from then on.

If I'm facing a matter where random behind the scene dice rolls determine success over me interacting with something and a boost drug gives me a boost of say 10% then I just don't care. I'd sooner wait for my stat to rise through leveling up or just retry the task over and over until I get a favorable dice roll. I'm either facing the pain of re-rolling the attempt over and over or the pain of whatever withdrawal penalty. And I know I'd more likely face the pain of re-rolling over and over because the in game penalty later on otherwise is likely to be more annoying.

You would have to give me a reason to want to roll play the whole thing out. Like maybe the addiction and withdrawal is the main focus of the story. But when I think about a survival game, I'm not inclined to do something that would make my survival more difficult.

Mr. Translator translates well :)

The use of drugs within the mechanics of a game should not be something light (because it should only level up a little more), rather they should be used in extreme cases and of course with their respective severe punishment.

On the subject of punishments, an extreme reduction of statistics is fine, but the time factor is a huge annoyance for many, so I would propose a system where time passes faster and you can rest.

As time passes, you could lose the opportunity to complete some missions and a sharp reduction in your savings for having been resting in a survivor's shelter without having done anything productive.

The punishment would be a choice between continuing to play with low statistics or skipping the penalty time in a refugee village but wasting time in the game and part of your money.