chapter 12

I found this chapter particularly interesting because I wrote my paper on this same thing almost. I wrote about how grunge rockers; to be more direct Alice in Chains lead singer Layne Staley and his heroin and cocaine addictions. I really identified with this chapter because most artists are chemically dependent and I feel for my creativity and my writing I am dependent on a few things. The influences in music I have, what I have to be upset or depressed about, and alcohol. While not an alcoholic as of yet I have a beer or two while I'm upset and I can write some very good and very disturbing to some song lyrics for my metalcore/thrash metal band Death Mulisha. Its basically my friends and myself from back home in Pittsburgh. I write all the lyrics and I sing them. We are just starting out so me writing some original rock your face off songs is good. I have used stuff from what ex's have done to me to what has happened up to this point this year. Most musicians end up using drugs recreationaly and then becoming addicted and like most ultimately destroying themselves or the band. Yet for some such as Miles Davis who is arguably of the greatest or the greatest jazz musician thus far quite heroin cold turkey and went on to have a full and productive career.

Most of your writers, artist, and musicians are/were drug users. Be it alcohol, opiates, cannibus, cocaine, LSD, acid, X, or what have you. They ended up being chemically dependent. I have heard stories of artists using these drugs and becoming totally insane or even dying on an overdose. Now the Rastas in Jamaica use cannibus legally for its medicinal purposes and I think that really it should be allowed here. It would put an end to all the hassles people go through but that's neither here nor there.

If the medicinal purposes of cannibus are known to help with a fair number of problems why use it to see if it can be helpful instead of it being deemed harmful. Back in the 1920'and 1930's when people were addicted to morphine the government and hospitals used heroin to help them with their addictions. Look at what happened there. Look at the fact that Coke used to actually include cocaine. The drug culture is always and will always be around us. Its whether or not we choose to embrace like the Rastas and the Shamans or shun like Puritans.