How are scenes in movies with drug use made?
Scene from the movie The Wolf of Wall Street
Most drinks are substituted according to their color. Water replaces cachaça and vodka. Non-carbonated tea or guarana replace whiskey, drinks are made with water and dyes, and beer is replaced by non-alcoholic beer.
When actors need to smoke, regular cigarettes are the ones without nicotine. At the time of marijuana, regular tobacco, herbal cigarettes (herbs) or marijuana without the active ingredient THC can be used - so no one gets drugged.
In scenes where you only need to show cocaine, wheat flour or icing sugar is used. But if the actor has to inhale the "drug", the most used is saline powder. It looks identical to cocaine and can be inhaled without harm to the actor.
Another tactic is to apply Vaseline to the roller where the drug is pulled: when the actor sniffs it, much of the powder will stick to it and won't reach the nose. In Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street," actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill snorted vitamin B while filming.
