It seems Skin spies consider it none to healthy.
(Even though it seems to be the norm)
It seems to me that either the skin-spy didn't partake, didn't have time to get addicted, or was unable to become addicted. If the skin-spy couldn't get addicted, it could be for a number of reason, both physical and mundane or metaphysical. i.e. The consult made the spies immune, or the spies have no souls so they aren't affected.
Perhaps my impression of 'magical' comes more from qirri's ability to provide actual energy and sustenance. With mundane drugs, only the illusion of these things can be provided.
Borric's and the bolded is what I'm riffing off. The skin-spy Bios and the creatures of the Tekne are limited. They are don't have the complex nervous systems we do. They may simply not have the receptors necessary to interact with Qirri or Chanv and so the drugs would be inert. Apparently, Chepherammuni was given the freedom to not do Chanv and they never grilled him on it.
Also, Curethan, real drugs can cause subtle changes in receptor activity in the brain, which do allow beyond an illusion energy and sustenance. But they do so by using up the mortal form faster, neh?
In two simple examples, this involves changing the brain to expect more or less of a certain kind of neurotransmitter at different locations in the brain. In one case, neuronal firing (or inhibition) can move well beyond baseline activity, following which, when you stop introducing regular doses of the exogenous drug (produced outside of the body), comes a crash from the receptor expectation (up/down regulation), when the brain can't meet the demand with its natural production of the same or similar neurotransmitters of the drug. Or drugs can inhibit certain post-synaptic receptor activity, which in so many words would normally communicate to the pre-synaptic terminal to stop sending the neurotransmitter over, and so the brain is tricked into simply using up its surplus of certain neurotransmitters. In both cases, this can also be why it takes more and more of a dosage to the same effect.
Side note: Akka's POV bangs on about how it makes you 'feel' like a nonman (not that he makes that conscious connection), but only Mimara puts that 'empathy' to use.
Notation please
. I'd like to read the passages that instill these thoughts.
Here's an idea: Let's assume that qirri is indeed powerful due to the fact that it came from a Nonman, and not a sorceror (though I still lean more towards the latter). Perhaps the only reason the ashes of Nonmen are powerful, and have life-extending properties, is because of whatever the Inchoroi did to the Nonmen to make them immortal in the first place? Perhaps there's some residue of that in their ashes (whatever the hell that is...I suppose we don't know if the Nonmen's immortality was composed purely from the Tekne? I suppose it was early enough in history that the Inchoroi might not have yet unlocked any secrets of the arcane).
Lol - or is it because of something already in the Nonman Bios? This is what I've been asking all along.
Which again, brings up the question of if the practice of burning Nonmen and eating Qirri precedes the Fall. From my aforementioned quote, a number of posts back, I'd argue because Nil'giccas says they "burn their greatest" that it precedes the Fall... but again, been hoping for answers for awhile.