Does a drug like this exist?

[amitywall]

My current project is set in a slightly advanced Victorian era with steampunk technology. One of the main characters was a drug addict who had recently escaped from an asylum, and for that I needed a new drug. So I created lethe

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[anonymous]

As far as effects, I would also suggest ketamine or something similar. You can get it in liquid and powder form, and it can be snorted, injected, or ingested. It will definitely produce a cam forgetful feeling at lower doses, but sedation or serious side effects (e.g K hole) if too much is taken. It's a dissociative so it can also cause weird effects in different people. Loss of inhibition (confidence?) would fit there. It can also cause hallucinations, and I'm not entirely sure on this part, but I think the hallucinations are usually visual and much more common at higher doses or in a dark room. It's used medicinally in humans and animals as a sedative, analgesic, and anesthetic.

The problem you will run into with the drugs that exist in the real world is that most of them were not around in the Victorian era. Ketamine wasn't available until the 20th century. This blog http://victoriantruth.blogspot.com/2008/07/substance-abuse-in-victorian-era.html?m=1 mentions chloral, which Wikipedia tells me is a hypnotic sedative (like ketamine). Chloral hydrate might be worth looking into.

Opium was well-known and common, of course. It has a lot of the effects you want, but you'll be bumping up against a great deal of well-established history with opium. That's a good thing because you'll have lots of material to draw from, but it's a bad thing because opium carries tons of baggage and implications about empire and pre-established images about its use in opium dens and etc...