[CanRay]

Can a vampire get drunk?

What if they drink off of an addict?  "Go drain that guy hopped up on K-12.  ...  Great, now our Vampire is on K-12!"

If they sparkle, can we kill them with Willy-Pete?

[Loki]

Vampires have Immunity to toxins/pathogens (Rating = 2xMagic), so unless you have a very generous GM that defines combat drugs as something other than a toxin, in my experience combat drugs fail to affect vampires

Drugs aren't in anyway toxins, nor are they pathogens.

Yeah, that's why people can OD from them, their non-toxicity. 

[Charybdis]

Can a vampire get drunk?

Vampires become sick within the hour if they consume anything but blood, and they have particularly bad reactions to alcohol (treat as Nausea, p. 254).

ergo, no drunk Vampires.

Drugs aren't in anyway toxins, nor are they pathogens.

Jury's still out on that one, omae. Seen what Meth does to a person's body?

Definition of POISON
1 a : a substance that through its chemical action usually kills, injures, or impairs an organism
   b (1) : something destructive or harmful (2) : an object of aversion or abhorrence
2: a substance that inhibits the activity of another substance or the course of a reaction or process <a catalyst poison>

[James McMurray]

There is an SR definition for toxins. Drugs in SR are not toxins in SR.

[Mäx]

There is an SR definition for toxins. Drugs in SR are not toxins in SR.

THIS

[Charybdis]

There is an SR definition for toxins. Drugs in SR are not toxins in SR.

THIS

+1 to both of you for having an in-Game quote for this...however there are grey areas in here, as for a definition it's hardly definitive (pun intended).

Detox
Type: M • Range: T • Duration: P • DV: (Toxin DV) – 4
Detox relieves the side effects of a drug or poison. The Force of the spell must equal or exceed the toxin’s base DV. A single net hit is sufficient to eliminate all symptoms. Detox does not heal or prevent damage done by toxins, but it eliminates any side effects they may have on the victim (dizziness, hallucinations, nausea, pain, and so forth). Detox is the hangover cure of choice among those who can afford it.

Please note both the drain test requirement, the first line advising it works on Drugs or Poisons, and the final line that it works on Alcohol.

[quote author =SR4A p.257]
Overdosing
Extreme amounts of anything can kill a metahuman. The exact point at which “a lot” becomes “too much” and causes toxicity varies, depending on the substance in question. It is the gamemaster’s call to decide when this point is reached and when to start applying additional damage to the character. As a general guideline, inflict an extra box of damage every (Body) doses.[/quote]
Emphasis mine.
So, we now have drugs acting as toxins, and doing boxes of damage?
If it sounds like a toxin, and acts like a toxin...? It's a duck? 

[Makki]

AR p 73 But I wanna get high
Drug=Toxin with a power of 6. Especially mentions magically resistant characters

[The_Gun_Nut]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but alcohol is a toxin.  That's a real life poison that people voluntarily drink every day.  The fact that it is very mild and can have, uh, enjoyable side effects causes this fact to be overlooked.

[Kontact]

- Allergy Sun (moderate) is not something that can be averted with Sunscreen They need a full head-to-toe lightproof suit (or Security armour), neither of which are subtle enough to walk around day-to-day.

Mage character can just get alleviate allergy spell and a sustaining focus to get around this problem.

A mage can only have a number of foci equal to his/her logic attribute.  Sure vamps and nosferatu get a big bump to logic,  but it's still a limited resource.

Gene treatments and Karma buy-offs are another matter.  Find yourself a mad scientist and a sample of your old DNA, and a Nosferatu can pass as human and get his lost essence restored through Augmented Healing gene treatments.

At least according to the FAQ

Can cellular repair (p.88, Augmentation) regain Essence lost due to infection with HMHVV?

Yes.

Short and surly.

[monkeyfeet228]

Thanks guys for the responses. To throw my hand into the drugs vs. toxins debate: I think McMurray has it right. The first sentence of the passage that Makki quotes is "The Shadowrun rules treat drugs differently from toxins and
other chemicals." The situation where a drug counts as a power 6 toxin is when the drug is either taken against their will or they have some special resistance to it.

[Sid]

No magical spell, genetic treatment, retroviral cocktail, or combination of the above has managed to halt or reverse the transformation once it has begun, and once complete it is impossible to alter the subject’s genetic code without the death of the subject.

Runner's Companion, p62 "The Cure for HMHVV"

The theory is that scientists realign qi from astral shadows by genetically remodeling DNA ...

Augmentation, p88 "Revitalisation"

How trustworthy is the FAQ?

[Kontact]

It's not alteration, it's restoration.

[Sid]

It's not that you're genetically deficient or degraded after getting a shiny new cyberlimb / essence drain / addiction and can have that original DNA restored - it's your soul, mana balance or whatever you call it that has been corrupted.

This is being corrected by altering your chi flow. How are they doing that? They're reorganising your DNA structure according to feng shui. (or whatever realigning your chi involves)

[Charybdis]

Thanks guys for the responses. To throw my hand into the drugs vs. toxins debate: I think McMurray has it right. The first sentence of the passage that Makki quotes is "The Shadowrun rules treat drugs differently from toxins and
other chemicals." The situation where a drug counts as a power 6 toxin is when the drug is either taken against their will or they have some special resistance to it.

I'm pretty sure this would apply for ye olde vampires. Special Resistance being an immunity to toxins.... Drugs being identified as a toxin in most instances, would lead me to believe that unless you give a Vampire a concentrated drug dose (ie enough to take the power from 6 to 11 (which would beat the normal Immunity to toxin @(2x Magic), the vampire isn't going to notice...

It's kind of like drugging an elephant... you need to hit it with enough dosage to kill a normal human, but after that point it gets affected normally.

[Mäx]

How trustworthy is the FAQ?

Not very, there are multiple entries that platantly contradict the actual rule books.