The implication to be thwarted was of "mineral" vs "hormone"; the distinction was moot, as there is no such real thing as a "drug" - all things are chemicals, and can be psychoactive to humans in either their presence or absence.

Most notably (in the context of un-intuitiveness), is Xenon - it is't even a chemical, but an element - a noble one, which is almost nonsensical given most's flawed intuition.

  > fluorine is not a noble gas

Correct, although ironically it wasn't much use in direct chemical-warfare, it was used more as a pre-cursor to enrich Uranium.