Yes, I realized, shortly after posting, that it would just reverse the problem, now being that you can't remove addiction from most mercenaries.Really? AND instead of OR (how boring)?
How about << if (_npc.allow + _npc.salary) lte 24>>
or how about << if not (_npc.allow lte 24 or _npc.salary lte 24)>>
or <<if not ((_npc.allow + _npc.salary) gt 25)>>
or <<if (_npc.allow + _npc.salary - 25) lt 0>>
or <<if (_npc.allow gt _npc.salary and _npc.allow lte 24) or (_npc.salary gte _npc.allow and _npc.salary lte 24)>>
or <<if (_npc.allow + _npc.salary) lte 49>> (if we want another bound on daily cash at hand of the npc)
or how about (my personal favorit):
<<if not (((_npc.status is 9 or _npc.status is 10) and $credit gt 10000) or _npc.warfame gte 600 or (_npc.allow + _npc.salary) lte 25)>>
after all wives and familiy of a very influential mc/pc should be able to get drugs (even if they cannot pay for it with their own money) and also famous npcs should be able to get drugs (if they are not able to pay for them with money) - eventhough I guess that highly corrupted and beautiful npcs (with some certain skills) should also be able to pay for drugs with something else then money (at least if they are not currently strung up on a rack or loiter around in a holding cell with closed cell door for more than 24 h - here for once it should not matter, if the npc has been given a day off, eventhough it might be easier for a npc, with a day off, to pay for drugs in some other way). But then I guess, at least Ansel should also be able to appropiate cash in some other way (if he somehow gets addicted to a drug), at least if the mc/pc has enough cash to begin with.
There basically needs to be a different method all together for them. The small rooms in the basement would seem like a good fit.