Everybody has read numerous stories about musicians,artists,producers,directors,actors that took something to keep them sane and productive in their career.
Now,i personally dont even smoke,i try to live a healthy life,but i certainly dont judge....at least not any more.
Working 10-15 hours each day,its crazy.
I have heard stories of the majority of the industry taking pills,cocaine,whatever they could get their hands on to keep them active and sane.
I would never do it,i just take a break for a day or two and im ok.
What do you guys think of this topic also do you take anything,be it vitamins,herbal pills,pot,whiskey,pills,recreational drugs...

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 8, 2016

I never did cocaine,I was always very interested in all kind of drugs.
when I started making beats, I met a lot of artist that are/where cocaine users/dealers.

I've seen plain people, could've been your or my mom, uncle or cousin. which looked as sensible people. ( and probably where)
bring their car/jewelry/phone and anything they can get their hands on, as collateral for the money they borrowed.

everything for a quick fix

Now for the music part, I think it's for every person it's own how you deal with it.
I'm not here to judge, But guess people should question if they should look for another job
if this one requires you to use anything that damaging.

I also think it would have a negative influence for engineers, and artist...... well artists can do what they want.


I do smoke a lot of weed! not as before because I just can't keep smoking all day with the pace I'm working with.
Since some time I'm dealing with clients that do not have the same "cultural" background..

So 3 years ago I would not have believed if anyone told me this, but music is actually lowering the dose.

When work is piling up (which it always does when high),
it's time lay down the smokes and maybe revisit last week work (mixing under influence of weed is always off by 2 inches)

Peace

 

I miss the option "none of our goddamn business".

 

I wish they'd legalize cocaine. Personally it's not for me. On the basis that I prefer other thing things on the market. Or at least I did way back when.

Considering D Trump could well be the next president on the back of vilifying Mexicans I hope that cocaine users are aware of it's very destructive and lucrative production cycle.

 

For better or worse, Ive tried everything, luckily for me i do not have an addictive personality.
If you have emotional issues i HIGLY recommend staying away.
As far as drug in the music business, having toured for the last 25 years the one thing i have noticed is as productions become more and more professional, the less drugs are around at least for the crew guys.. the bands, not much as changed, Older bands not so much but the younger bands seem to like the excess.

as far as in the studio. it varies , studio time for a band can get boring when its not your time to shine and waiting for other band members to get there track down you spend a lot of time wandering and waiting,

One friend told me about when making a record with one artist, they would start at 8pm get blasted on coke and work until the sun came up then next da do it again. That still goes on today , although he has since moved out of Hollywood to a more friendly climate and has a studio there.

while i don't do drugs I have dabbled when it was free. I can't say don't try it because in all honesty I've had some amazing times while under the influence and made some great tunes as well. but i can do that without it as well. the problem comes when you "need" them.

 

Drugs are really nice when you can control the frequency, dosage, and time of usage. Also, for as long as it doesn't influence your work, whatever work that is, in a negative way, it is all good. My view on drugs is similar to my view on religion: for as long as it doesn't negatively influence other people around you, everything is fine and it is none of my concern. Kinda like everything is fine for as long as you keep your shit to yourself.

Having said that I sometimes do weed and I love drinking red wine. I can be stoned for days, but then I stop for days, too. I can be drunk, but then I don't drink for days, too. I have managed to keep it under control like that since my teens, so it seems like it's working for me. However, that is kinda rare as I've witnessed it many times in this business. People often can't control it. There are some people who can work better under the influence, but there are others who don't use anything and manage to get good results, too. There are no rules, except what I said about influencing others.

I have tried pretty much everything there is except those "exotic" mushrooms natives in S. America use in rituals. I would really like to see marijuana and MDMA legalised everywhere, same as beer and wine is, but I'm not sure about cocaine and heroine. These things are pretty much uncontrollable.

Cheers!

 

I forgot to say that I would condone legalising coca leaves, though. In its natural state coca leaves are as hard a drug as coffee. I would really like to be able to go to a store and buy a couple of leaves occasionally. But of course, many people would abuse that and make more potent drug from those leaves... ahh people.

 

Bide the Law ye must,
in perfect love and perfect trust.
Eight words to fulfil;
An’ ye harm none, do what ye will.

What ye send forth comes back to thee,
so ever mind the Rule of Three.
Follow this with mind and heart,
Merry ye meet and merry ye part.

 

Pardon me if I might be dense, but what, exactly, is the question being posed – a) Are drugs rampant in the music industry/among musicians and music professionals?, or b) Does the reader condone using drugs because they come with the territory in the music biz?

I myself don't use drugs (I even resent having to take allergy medicine), though I had when I was young and stupid. Now that I'm old and stupid, I'd rather spend the money on food. As for drugs among musicians, in one way or another, it's "go along to get along," particularly in order to maintain a certain level of energy for performance or endurance, and/or to "come down" from a live performance – though it's also as simple as needing to be accepted by the "cool kids." Druggies are suspicious of or tend to rejct non-druggies. One form of drugs-for-acceptance that's not commonly identified is ego. The entertainment industry runs on it. Drugs (esp. cocaine) are ego-boosting; when one is high, one has the reckless self-confidence to convince others of one's eminence and competence in an environment of inflated self-importance and snobbery.

 

Vitamins, vitamins and more vitamins. Superfoods and juices for me.
I party'ed real hard when I was in my twenties but been sober for sixteen years now. I do see a lot of it around the studios and clubs though. In LA more than in Europe though. Seems to come with the territory. I don't mind it when it doesn't interfere with the quality of my work or the artists that I'm working on/with. As far as I'm concerned everybody is free to do whatever he or she likes and I think that music and drugculture have always shared beds.

 

I voted: Im NOT ok with it.
Drugs can destroy entire families and even societies. Why?
The (ab)use of drugs & hallucinogens has become perverted, obsessed. In ancient cultures, societies drugs
were mainly used only by shamans or bush doctors to *communicate with spirits staying in other spheres,
or to put themselves and their patients in connection with the spirits of nature, in order to re-balance their
lives, including their consciousness, psychic state and way of thinking & acting.

Nowadays people in the show business and the man on the street have much easier access to drugs, this
makes them highly vulnerable because lots of them are in many cases culturally & socially uprooted.
The social isolation and imposed solitude of certain roles in society pushes them to use drugs to beat
down their feelings of emptiness, loneliness. Sometimes even more when Artists get pushed to make
exclusively only positive, happy, mainstream products for the masses. Clever Artists don't follow that way.
Some manage to express their negative feelings & emotions in their works too and that is a good approach.
They use cultural work as a catharsis to liberate themselves and trash real negative impacts.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

I was taking a lot of things years ago (alcool, weed/sh*t, tried opium and more).
I stopped almost all at once, apart alcool and cigarettes. And now, plain nothing.
I've seen too many ppl thinking drugs where doing positive things...and they ended their life in a bad way.

This morning, i had to rush to my neighbors's door, because the guy was in withdrawal. He didn't got his dose at night.
And he awake this morning being agressive, he was throwing different things on the children...and this time, he didn't hurt his wife because THIS time (not the previous one), i was there.

I'm anti-drugs. Because i was a kind of (not-so excessive) junky years ago. Now i'm clear, i don't want to be a production machine. Nor being high and missing things in my life.

This is not a lesson. This is just my life and experience. And i say it with love for the human kind.
Take care.

 

"only by shamans or bush doctors"
@Kookaboo

Maybe we are missing the point and everyone is into shamanism today

 

Alcohol seems to be the acceptable drug, but it's probably the most harmful.

 

The biggest problems with drugs is not educating yourself about them first.

 

In general drugs are related to context. Same applies to parties, sex, eating contests etc..

Often related contexts are very bad in long term, especially by using drugs and/or alcohol.

I did not drink alcohol since 2 and a half year now. And I'm proud of it. But I will do it again, if the context is right for it.

Just quited tobacco, turned over to vaporizers.

I saw some interviews with 'old stars' like Stevie Nicks
(formally heavily addicted to Cocaine and loved by Prince)- doing the same (e-cigarettes).

By the way...does someone knows a good e-liquid?...I mean a very good one.

 

Last edited: Jun 8, 2016

Satanism can occur

 

Drugs can help, and drugs they can hinder. The nicotine that powers the tobacco plant kills bugs that want to eat my zucchini plants and also render a billion helpless within its grip to break from a horrid, stinking addiction that saps their life force. It is legal. It kills and it is legal.

Marijuana has a 1,000 positive uses and nurtures. It adds to quality of life and is illegal.

Cocaine sucks. It sucks away at your endorphins until all you have left of yourself is a half empty brown bucket of swill. It only seems as it is all fun and manic games until it all stops being fun. It is illegal.

I am of the mind that adults can do anything that they want to do as sovereign citizens of the universe, but as long as it doesn't directly hurt another being. Drugs, brutal sadistic sex, religion, bad EDM, whatever, but do not cross the line and inflict your pain and sorrows on others unless they ask for it.