Thinking About Drugs

I've often ignored drugs in Traveller, and I don't know why: drugs & Psionics both. I'm going to give a good shot at integrating them both MTU and finally get a handle on them.

For one, I want to look at my subsectors and see where Anagathics can come from; then I want to figure from there where the can/will be used; then I want to figure out how they'd affect various worlds.

There's one world I've got my eye on which would be a garden planet if its government were not the charismatic dictatorship it is - also, the TL of 1 tells me something weird is going on to prevent the world from developing. Minimal tech is being imported: a large population using roman-era tech is fanatically devoted to a single ruler. Why the stagnation?

I don't use IISS interdiction lightly; and the world doesn't seem to be the sort of place the Festrian Navy would blockade.

What I am leaning towards is this: The world is a source of VALUABLE RESOURCE X which occurs on the world in abundance. A merchant combine has negotiated an exclusive trade agreement with the dictator: no other merchants can cut in, and indeed, the combine's fleet has become the world's de facto navy. Competing merchant vessels, even if they somehow thread the blockade, cannot gain embassy with the dictator. The secret? The combine provides a steady, reliable supply of anagathics for the dictator in return for a monopoly on trade.