Comment by moshmosh

Background: in the Star Trek series Deep Space 9, some of the bad guys are an expansionist empire led by shapeshifters who've bred a race of perfectly loyal super-soldiers whose loyalty is ensured, in part, by an inborn need for a substance called Ketracel-white, which substance is very difficult to synthesize, so they're dependent on their overlords for a consistent supply, else they get sick and die. It's basically the lysine deficiency from Jurassic Park, but for humanoids.

There's also an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which one alien planet has hooked a second alien planet's entire population on addictive drugs, having convinced the addicts that withdrawal symptoms are a terrible, incurable disease that the drugs are treating.