Maybe to balance that out you could cap the amount of stress that drugs could reduce you too to something around 5-10% that way if they want to keep gaining the extra health they have to budget their plays and make sure they don't get out of the green.
Another thought for you Delos:
I know heath regen is pretty touchy, but I think that if you are able to constantly keep your stress in the green for a full day (24 hours) (outside of the hospital) you should be able to regenerate 1 extra HP for that day.
@VinersDraftsman The items you have on when you play an ability are the ones that apply the bonus. Only when the bill gets passed is the clout calculated off of how you contributed to the bill + Cha + Att. So your idea of swapping items when acting works only at the end to give yourself more Clout.
I am hoping to get a little clarification on our 4 main stats. What happens if your bonus from items drops your score to below 0? Does it effectively count as 0 and cannot go lower or does it count down below 0 and only show your stat as 0, if so does the negative count against you? For example if your Speaking Ability is 0 I would guess you have no added effect from Speaking Ability but if your Speaking Ability is -1 does it actually work as a +1 in the opposite favor?
 "Watch Paint Dry"){kind=icon}
 "Clout: The Game"){kind=icon}
http://megaswf.com/serve/1160476/ arrow keys to move, I for inventory. scrapped project.