> The fact that almost none of the drugs in the artistic milieu are used to get inspiration is interesting - you'd think those, especially LSD, would have been prime candidates, given their "legendary" reputation in Leary's advocacy work.

It's not that they don't contribute to inspiration for some, or that some don't deliberately take them, at some point at least, to expand their artistic perspective: they just aren't useful as a work aid to mitigate a lack of inspiration like drinking coffee to mitigate tiredness. Hallucinogens are a leisure drug, not a work aid, and like many other kinds of intense leisure experiences, they can have significant impact on someone's work. Surely people make art while taking acid but it's just not used like you imagine it is.

>And just for the record:

>> Ah-- that you're basing at least some of your conclusions on fiction certainly fills in some holes.

> "A Scanner Darkly"'s coda is not fiction. Here it is:

It was a novel and he was trying to sell books. If you want to know what drug addiction is really like, start with some reputable, published, entirely non-fiction literature written to educate people, not entertain them.

I have not struggled with drug addiction, though being involved in several subcultures in my younger years, many people in my life have, and my list probably rivals his. In my adult life, maybe ten people ranging from fairly close friends, to family, and even an ex long-term live-in girlfriend have died from their heroin (which mostly started with something they were prescribed for pain,) alcohol, and in one case of meth usage. Many more permanently damaged. Their actual stories don't make snappy book codas: they're emotionally exhausting because the sadness of their existence is mundane, boring, and oppressive. Even my best friend in elementary school who after not seeing him for quite some time, I found out was shot by police soon after getting out of jail for robbing a pharmacy to get Oxycontin, seemingly, had an incredibly boring life. He lived with his mother in his late 30s, worked as a grocery store bagger, and didn't really go anywhere besides work, the liquor store, and home, (which is where he was killed.) Also, having worked in nightclubs for many years, I knew many people addicted to cocaine, but I don't know anyone that's died from it or gone to rehab for it (though some for their more severe alcohol abuse... they're very commonly used together.)

Those people that died of alcohol and heroin usage had some similarities in usage patterns. You know what that has to do with artists use of hallucinogens? Absolutely. Fucking. Nothing. Not one single thing. LSD not chemically addictive and it's nearly impossible to fatally overdose on. You will never find it listed in an article about "diseases of despair." People interface with it completely differently than heroin users, drinkers, marijuana users, and coke heads interface with their substances of choice. Consistently drinking coffee in the morning has closer usage patterns to the opioid people than hallucinogen users. Even with all of the artists I've known, only two of those dead people were artists: one was a drummer in a metal band I was briefly in, and another friend picked up painting in an art therapy program in rehab before that one last fateful relapse.

I get it, we all want to feel confident in our understanding of important topics. Being well-read is a good thing, but I think someone you trust needs to give you some version of the Good Will Hunting "You're just a kid" speech. You need to understand the limits of your knowledge. You are trying to pontificate about things you've read about in novels that were written decades ago about drugs that couldn't possibly be less relevant to the ones discussed here. Trying to reason about artists that sometimes use hallucinogens based on the experience of an artist who-- like millions of non-artists-- was addicted to heroin, betrays foundational gaps in your understanding of this topic. If you're honestly interested in this topic, you should read some good, entirely non-fiction, published literature on it.