I think the badlands creatures should be more useful. Dangerous as they may be. Say for instance you manage to kill yourself a dune dragon, wasted ammo on a violent beast in the badlands. And you just happen to know a bit about biology. That nuclear beast just might have some heavy duty adrenaline coursing through its veins, with just the right chemical compound to make one HELL of a badass drug.
Radscorpion poison could be boiled down and combined with known drugs to increase the potency (many drugs on the market do indeed start their lives as poisons).
Plants could spring up in roving colonies, maintaining a randomly generated growth spot until winter comes around. They die out, and when spring makes its way, another random growth spot. Giving the person who finds it, a trove of a particular substance that nobody else can produce or manufacture. Someone else finds your goodies and starts harvesting, its on mothafucka. Synthetics are NO substitute for the really good shit, that'd be worth killing over. Who wants oxy's when you can have morphine?
Fungus could grow on the dead, or around the dead when outside the city. The fungi could be used along with some other plant to produce a tasty, addictive treat. Perhaps a special variant of a drug that has twice the high but half the comedown.
Suggestions folks, suggestions. Bring em to the table.