[Reeses]

Smoked bees don't sting. From wiki on the 1931 book Brave New World:

Soma is an allusion to a ritualistic drink of the same name consumed by ancient Indo-Aryans. In the book, soma is a hallucinogen that takes users on enjoyable, hangover-free "holidays". It was developed by the World State to provide these inner-directed personal experiences within a socially managed context of State-run "religious" organisations; social clubs. The hypnopaedically inculcated affinity for the State-produced drug, as a self-medicating comfort mechanism in the face of stress or discomfort, thereby eliminates the need for religion or other personal allegiances outside or beyond the World State; the book describes it as having "all the advantages of Christianity and alcohol, none of their defects."

[ConservingFreedom]

I don't see how the defects of alcohol disqualify it as "a self-medicating comfort mechanism in the face of stress or discomfort."

[bert]

Actually smoked bees do sting.

They merely become docile. After the smoke the bees gorge themselves on honey in case they need to flee and reestablish a new home. The honey stored in their gut is like money sewed into the lining of clothing.

If the smoked bees are handled roughly, they will attack the clumsy bee keepre that riled them