Elementary. Episode 4: "The Rat Race"

CBS via DCT

As Sherlock Holmes investigates a corporate murder where we have a company COO overdosed on heroin (or so it seems), we begin to ask the question: just how deep does Sherlock Holmes's drug use go?

CBS

Is the truth as horrifying as this image?

Consulting the canon, we discover that Sherlock Holmes did indeed have a vice that fell under the realm of narcotics, and that is the drug cocaine. But was he really that deep into it? According to J. Thomas Dalby, Ph. D., Holmes's cocaine use is "directly observed in only two stories: "The Sign of Four" (1890) and "A Scandal in Bohemia" (1891) with vague or historical references in seven other tales." Remember, however, that Sherlock Holmes was said to use cocaine to stimulate his brain, which is the same reason he once drank two large pots of coffee in a day in The Hound of the Baskervilles. So Sherlock's use of stimulants was to aid him in his work.

CBS

As is Sherlock's use of text shorthand.

Enter now Elementary, where we have Sherlock Holmes the recovering addict. And his drug of choice: heroin. And how does his heroin addiction help him in any way with his work? It doesn't. In fact, his drug addiction is so embarrassing that he has to keep it from Captain Gregson.

CBS

No one keeps secrets from Aidan Quinn.

How I wish they made Sherlock Holmes a pothead instead, who solves cases while high.





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