Yes I am this guy!! I once booked a show, played the show and set up/broke down the PA and ran sound and I am a regular smoker.
It really comes down to the person.
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Drug usage among musicians
- Thread starter stratovani
- Start date
Yes I am this guy!! I once booked a show, played the show and set up/broke down the PA and ran sound and I am a regular smoker.
It really comes down to the person.
If pot were truly no big deal then it would be decriminalized in all 50 states and nobody would be arrested for its possession.
+1 ON WEED. If you need to get high and music aint cutting it change what you play but for gods sake never dance with a drug that can kill you.
Its not that weed is the most important thing in their lives. If you tell a musician who smokes pot that you 'want nothing to do with pot' then why would they bother with another response, they'd be knowingly wasting their time. They may be stoners, but theyre not too dumb to understand that. I wouldnt write you back either.
For one, you make a generalization,
which isnt true of all potheads. Im a pothead, and Im not lazy, unmotivated, or forgetful. I run my band, ALL of it, on my own. Im constantly trying to find better opportunities for us to advance as an original band. It really is no wonder to me that you cant find bandmates.
You're going way back now, to the Reagan/Bush administration of the 80s. That was only one of the objectives - filling prisons with non-violent drug offenders, and privatization of the prison industry for Bush's contractor cronies to rake in immense profits. The REAL objective was the same as any other organized crime "family" - knock off the competition so the US Govt could become the #1 drug dealer in the nation. A frind of mine actually made bumper stickers back then that read "BUSH NORIEGA 88".
Valid point.
More.
Now we're getting somewhere. Posters on this thread seem to be ignoring the impact of prescription drugs on musicians and young people in general. We have an epidemic of licensed therapists prescribing antidepressants to teenagers. These kids frequently drink with their meds, just like people used to do with reds or ludes or whatever. The difference now is, these kids are "hooked" for life, because when they go off their meds they get suicidal.
And just like the rise of hip-hop was made possible by the prevalence of crack cocaine (thanks Mr. Bush), now we have emo, fake punk, and other assorted garbage that only sounds good to kids on antidepressants.
+1. People have been smoking and eating it for thousands of years and they're not gonna stop.
when i was young the pot heads were all identifiable by their youth,hair,music, and clothes......these days it's not uncommon for people who have responsible jobs and families to smoke regularly.....if i could smoke pot and stay awake i definitely would......
I once read a Readers Digest article about working female professionals (no, not those kind, like attorneys and businesswomen) who prefer to smoke marijuana over the normal 'having a glass of red wine'. It certainly is becoming more common and acceptable for people to be smoking bud.
Ummm wow.
To the conspiracy theorist a few posts up. Nixon started the War on Drugs, Not Bush, Bush SR. or Ronny... Ron and Nancy started the "Just say No" campaign because they saw an epidemic of young people dying/oding because of the Massive Coke/Crack problem in the 80's. Also Turf wars etc.
I ask you this. If Drugs were legal in the US, don't you think the Major drug cartels, who have to smuggle the crap in currently, wouldn't just move their operations here, and bring with it all the violence and corruption, ensuring they were the only producer of said product anyway? Muscling out the competition. Pretty much like what happens in places like Mexico/South America.
The reasons for the illegality of marijuana are political, not medical. If health were the issue, alcohol and tobacco would be illegal and MJ would be legal. Simple possession busts for pot are relatively rare these days.
You're preaching to the choir on that my friend. I am pro legalization and also a substance abuse counselor and we see eye to eye as to why it's illegal.
I still stand by what I said about it still being a problem. Being arrested and having to go to jail, probation, substance abuse counseling, and all the legal issues that comes with it, is a problem, perhaps, I should actually say "is the problem."
I think there is as much, if not more, drug use among musicians. The drug abuse was likely the catalyst to picking up an instrument. A lot of musicians are depressed and use drugs as a remedy to the depression.
There have been numerous musicians who have died from drugs, most recently Michael Jackson.
There have been numerous musicians who have died from drugs, most recently Michael Jackson.
Conspiracy theorist? Ok, if you want to call the US govt a conspiracy I'll go along with that. But it's history, not theory.
Nixon was the first to use the slogan. But it is most widely associated with Reagan/Bush. That would be ex-Director of the CIA, Bush Sr. And what was the CIA doing while Bush Sr. was VP? Start here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_and_Contras_cocaine_trafficking_in_the_US
A little review of history is clear that Pres. Nixon started the War on Drugs and he has tapes and tapes in the Library of Congress where he is saying derogatory statements toward black people. The government was sending crack, heroin and coke into the hoods. It's in the Library of Congress.
Most of that is because of the legal issues surrounding it, not the substance itself. As a Child of the 60's, I have known many, many marijuana smokers, and by far the worst thing associated with pot that happened to any of them was getting busted.
Because it is easy to decriminalize a product that is in direct market competition with tobacco when you have tobacco lobyists, isn't it.
Pot was made illegal here in the UK in 1974 thanks to a lot of pressure from the US Health department. Said health department basically made pot illegal thanks to pressure from the tobacco and oil industry (you can make amazing biofuel from hemp). The name 'marijuana' was given to pot to give it a dangerous edgy mexican vibe, so that straightlaced white folks would oppose it. They said pot made you listen to jazz music for christ's sake!
There is scant evidence that pot does any harm, and it certainly does not ruin lives the way alcohol does (you never hear "my Dad was a stoner, he used to beat us every Friday").
The problem is too many generations are used to pot being the dirty thing, which proves that people are gullible when faced with "evidence" from the government regarding the impact of pot.
it ruins lives in different ways to Alcohol, I'm not against Pot, but I do Believe that it does cause problems, People can't see that, fair enough it causes Problems in a percentage that People just view as, Over used it with other substances, But Pot is a Hazardous Substance In it's own right.
Pot makes folks lazy. And musicians who say "I play better stoned" make me laugh. I could care less who smokes it. But if it makes a practice bad, I usually just move on to a new band. I'm done with the stuff, all of it.
