Shatter is the street term used by those who ingest Shatter Zaffre for its hallucinogenic qualities. Shatter Zaffre is an invasive lichen found on Cabina, the result of a failed attempt at biosphere restoration. Shatter is a twice dangerous drug. Firstly because it is straight up poisonous to humans even in purified forms, and excessive use is often fatal. Secondly, because the original lichen itself is able to grow on most common TL4 construction materials, eating its way through anything from concrete pillars to starship bulkheads. Materials thus affected by Shatter Zaffre become brittle as a result of the lichen digging its way into the material, till eventually it shatters at the lightest touch (thus giving its name to the lichen and its eponymous drug).
Ingestion[]
Shatter Zaffre can be literally scraped off the walls or floors as a powdery grainy substance and ingested raw. Even raw, it has a sweet taste. However consuming raw Shatter is the most dangerous way to get high on it, as it is very hard to calculate the actual dosage of active substance based upon the raw grains. Users who partake in such a less than ideal environments, having to guesstimate their dosages, are continually at risk of overdosing, with traumatic or even fatal consequences.
In more ideal environments, Shatter is often mixed with food or drink, or dissolved into liquid to inject with some kind of medical device. A common street myth, spread by Shatter traffickers, is that such mixing counteracts the drug's poisonous potency. This is a lie, and the only benefit of processing Shatter is that it helps regulate the dosage. Though, on the other hand, in some situations mixing Shatter with food can also mask the amount of Shatter present and only make it more likely for the user to ingest lethal amounts.
Shatter Tea[]
In Lux Gravare, in the Hong Lu Houses of the local Cabinan crime boss Xun Hui Man, people can order Shatter Tea. A mix of Shatter with Hong Lu-style tea, Shatter Tea is only mildly less dangerous than other forms of Shatter ingestion.
Effects[]
The effects of the drug are not fully known, and any accounts given are purely anecdotal, however it is generally accepted that Shatter gives users mild-to-vivid hallucinations (dependent on the dosage). Some claim the drug allows the user to see time, experiencing the passage of seconds and minutes through sight, but due to the ethical considerations concerning any proper research into this, no such claims have been verified under clinical conditions.
Traffickers and users might say something like: "this stuff will shatter your mind!"
Shatter is not a chemically addictive drug, those with a dependence on it are addicted to the effects of the drug, not the drug itself. Research has so far concluded that the hallucinogenic substances of Shatter are the same as the poisonous ones, thus all forms of the drug are dangerous and potentially lethal no matter how refined or processed.
Cultivation[]
Though highly illegal, there are criminal organizations which actively cultivate Shatter Zaffre to harvest it as a drug. Often this is done in underground basements, filled with concrete vats infected with Shatter Zaffre. Because of the lichen's ability to eat through most commonly used building material, such cultivation sites are often short-term, as stray infections inevitably makes their way to the building's structural foundations and compromise them.
What's left of a concrete slab following a Zaffre infection
Legality[]
The use of Shatter on Cabina is highly illegal, in addition to the risks to public health, the Shatter Zaffre lichen from which it is derived is capable of metabolizing many common building materials used in structures and spacecraft, thus the harvesting, spreading, or, even worse, cultivation of Shatter could lead to an increase in outbreaks of the lichen resulting in untold amounts of property damage.
Shatter is very difficult to obtain, as specialist cleaner crews are stationed around Cabina with the sole purpose of destroying new growths of Shatter Zaffre so that the lichen can’t cause any damage to key infrastructure or spread onto spaceships. The cleaner crews' are considerably less active and responsive on the Cabina Frontier, as a result most Shatter collected, or even cultivated, illegally comes from there.
As part of their standard paperwork, ships leaving the planet are required to check for traces of the lichen to prevent off-world contamination.