Heroin and Cocaine

Drugs and art have been intertwined throughout history but do drugs facilitate art or they simply an parasite to the creative mind. Herion and Cocaine are two drugs that have intertwined their tendrils into the arts and created a mythology about their benefits. Opium and later Heroin have been present in western culture for eons, finding willing users in all branches of art. In the last couple centuries cocaine became available and for most of that time was praised as a cure for mental ailments and tool for the inquisitive artist. I believe that neither drug is a benefit to the artist. Highly creative people are unusual, their thinking is unusual, and often times that unusual mind is plagued with problems as a result. The use of drugs is usually an attempt to escapee pain or unhappiness. So many artist have used drugs not because it benefits them but because they are troubled to start with.

Heroin usage during the last half of the 20th century plagued the arts community - William Burroughs in literature, Kurt Cobain and Janis Joplin in music , and  Jean-Michael Basquiat in visual arts, just a small sampling of artists that have had a run-ins with Heroin. There has developed a mythology that Heroin was responsible for their art. I contend that this is nonsense. Their usage of heroin was because their creative mind tormented them and they turned to Heroin to calm their demons. Heroin is insidious, while it initialy calms, once the addiction takes hold it causes great angst, requiring even more heroin. These artists made great art despite their Heroin addiction, not because of it. During the strongest clutch of Heroin the art produced is usually muted and drab. An example of this is Kurt Cobain's last album with Nirvana, In Utero. it lacks the edge and vibrancy of his early works and foretells his ultimate downfall and death.

It is clear that Heroin can coexist with great art creation though. Many renowned artist have put out some of their best works during periods of heavy Heroin usage. It's not until it completely consumes does it destroy the artist's abilities. Cocaine on the other hand has a detrimental effect on art at all stages of its usage. Initially Cocaine was praised as a wonder drug that would lift the wworn-down and conflicted mind. Sigmund Freud used cocaine heavily and urged his patients to experiment with it. It was often the main ingredient in elixirs that spread throughout the western world.

Cocaine has a distinct problem of artificially boosting the users ego and inflating perception of talents. This artificial boost is actually detrimental when it comes to art. Great
art usually requires contemplation and doubt followed by refinements. If an artist believes at first pass they have created something brilliant their work ultimately suffers. Cocaine had a strangle hold on the music industry in the late 70's and throughout the 80's. I believe the explosion of musical ideas during the 60's was stifled in the following two decades by cocaine. As an example many of the hard rock groups of the 80's look at their cocaine addled works with disdain. Instead of refining their work they would do a first pass in the studio and immediately fall in love with it.  One example is the Gallagher brothers of Oasis who  in retrospect despise their cocaine effected work. Referring to the Oasis album Be Here Now Irish Times journalist Brian Boyd wrote: "Bloated and over-heated (much like the band themselves at the time), the album has all that dreadful braggadocio that is so characteristic of a cocaine user. Reflecting in 2007, Garry Mulholland admitted, "the fact that nothing could have lived up to the fevered expectations that surrounded its release doesn't change the facts. The third Oasis album is a loud, lumbering noise signifying nothing.

Even though I believe that Cocaine and Heroin have not helped art, that doesn't mean that all drugs are detrimental. Marijuana is frequently been used to open up new angles of thought, usually in silly ways, but sometimes the result is brilliant. Jazz musician of the past and present have opened up new horizons in music by using Pot. Visual artists also often report that marijuana has spurred new directions for their work. It is possible that stronger psychedelics may aid in creativity but I can't by any means say I'm certain of that.