Ain't that a trip?

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Each drug that I have used, and that would be most of them, with the exception of ecstacy and opiates, has one thing in common. It provides a unique perspective, a different way of looking at things. As someone who has creative tendencies, I see new perspectives as a welcome thing and there are certain drugs that caused me to create things that I would not have without their use. This is the appeal that drugs have on creative types.

As an example, you can look at a prolific group like The Beatles and literally hear in their music when they started to smoke pot and how that drug changed their perspective. Likewise, when they started experimenting with hallucinagens, which had a much different effect than the marijuana. And these drugs literally transformed what was a boy band (albeit, a very talented one) into a group of groundbreaking visionaries. One needn't even be a fan to be able to see the difference in depth between "She Loves You" and "Eleanor Rigby".

Another example would be the works of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and so many other bebop artists who used heroin. While this drug has done a lot of damage to the lives of so many artists and is quite dangerous, it has still made its mark in music by providing its own unique perspective to a number of musicians who made some incredible music under its influence. I would be so bold as to say that we would be missing a lot of our best musical works had drugs not been a part of the picture.

From my own perspective, I went through a wide variety of experiences, both good and bad before finding what did and didn't work for me. The nice thing is that once you have experienced a drug a few times, it seems to alter your perception forever, in the sense that you can tap into the creative areas that the drug opened up, even if you aren't under the influence anymore.

I guess this is all what I would consider a non-medical benefit of drugs, although benefit might not be the best word. All drugs carry various dangers along with them. Still, it is a tradeoff I was willing to make. There is really only one drug that I still have any interest in doing. I'm well aware of the ones that have the potential to cause problems in my life. I stay away from those like the plague. Well, with the exception of cigarettes, which in my opinion is the most dangerous and addictive drug that there is, legal or illegal.