I did a little Googling on this one....very interesting.. 'Soma is like a wonder drug for the citizens for the Brave New World. As mentioned in the quote above, Mustapha Mond concisely describes the drug and its supposed benefits. They intend to take Soma anytime they feel depressed in order to feel happier or even to celebrate an event where again, Soma serves the purpose to get them to a tranquilized dream-like state. The government also uses it on the citizens to get them to calm down. Soma basically is the only pharmaceutical product available on such a wide scale to the people and is by far the most used drug in the World State."  

Indeed, there are those who might draw some interesting parallels between "Soma" and marijuana.......Community1st will be angry w/me, but may I suggest perhaps some of those claims might have merit.  I think it's an interesting topic for discussion, thanks for mentioning it...........Gary Crum