# Outside the Box > Philosophy and Debate >  >  Lil' Wayne, and drug abuse among musicians

## WintersTale

Okay, so you all know I'm a big music nerd. 

Lil' Wayne is not my favorite, or even one of the musicians I listen to, but hear me out. What is it with all these celebrity musicians overdosing on drugs for fun? Grape soda and cough syrup...really?!

Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin...I mean, come on! All these super talented people, and they're wrecking their lives with drugs?

So, what is your opinion on musicians and drug abuse?

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## T-Bone

Wow i hadn't heard anything about that, although i'm not surprised. He doesn't strike me as a very intelligent individual. Isn't the codeine content of cough syrup rather low? He must have drank a [BEEP] load. Codeine is rather weak anyways but whatever. I think the homeboys have been drinking that drink for years. I always used to hear about it. Sounds nasty as hell.

Having talent (not true in lil waynes case) doesn't prevent addiction and the two aren't even related really. So asking things like "they had so much talent,why would they wreck their lives with drugs?" just doesn't make sense to me. I wouldn't imagine most musicians think as highly of their skills than an outsider would, or think of their skills as a bullet proof vest. These people aren't invincible and they're just as weak willed as the average Joe.

Pretty sure people don't overdose "for fun" either.

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## WintersTale

That makes sense, Tim.

And yeah, I wouldn't consider Wayne talented...but it's still sad that he's in a coma now with little brain activity.

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## T-Bone

> That makes sense, Tim.
> 
> And yeah, I wouldn't consider Wayne talented...but it's still sad that he's in a coma now with little brain activity.



Well...i think the brain activity was a little low to begin with. Which probably explains the overdose to a certain extent. Whats sad is the guy probably got no education and was raise around total morons, thus became one himself.

Oh and apparently lil wayne is recovering well, and even tweeting. ehh..i don't know how i feel about that to be honest.

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## Chopin12

i think they mix it with promethazine

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## whiteman

I'm not a musician, but I surf, and I think musicians are kind of like surfers in that they both have sensation seeking personalities. When a musician is on stage or making music, it's like their on a natural high, same with surfers when it's good, surfing is a natural high, however; when musicians aren't on stage or surfers aren't surfing their jonesing for the sensations they get from those activities so they use drugs to feel the sensations they get from those activities.

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## WintersTale

Yeah, I suppose that is true for some musicians...not so much for others.

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## Tinkerbell

I agree with whiteman but I think you should also add that being a successful musician is extremely grueling and a lot of things started with uppers to stay up and on top on stage then downers to sleep and the cycle continues.  And there are a lot of musicians that feel being high enhances their creativity - Charlie Parker 1946 - addicted to heroin, was an exceptional jazz musician and died at the age of 34.  Jim Morrison of the Doors - had a death wish.  Maybe James Dean encapsulated the culture when he said "live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse." We also don't know what demons these people were dealing with.

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## Coffee

When i abused alcohol and Xanax, my creativity flowed a lot more easily. Now I'm clean, I have trouble writing. It's still all in there and in my head, but I just can't get it out anymore. So being wasted helped to draw out a lot of emotions and magnified them. I rarely write songs/poetry now and when I do, it isn't good.

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## Lost Control Again

> Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin...I mean, come on! All these super talented people, and they're wrecking their lives with drugs?



Bob Marley, Nick Drake, Elliott Smith - the list is endless!

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## Lost Control Again

Ian Curtis

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## whiteman

Kurt Cobain

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## WintersTale

I suppose I _do_ drink a lot of coffee, and the creativity flows better when I'm manic. 

I've had talks with my friend over this. He is an ambient musician, who has six BRILLIANT albums, that he has created. And he's not trained in any sense...he wasn't taught guitar or piano, like me. He just sits down at the organs and keyboards, and creates this beautiful music.

He is an advocate of weed, and he can't record without it. And listening to the stuff that comes out of it...man, I wouldn't want him to. I also think of all those 70's rock bands, like Yes, The Doors, and Pink Floyd, who created all that beautiful music when shooting LSD or smoking weed, and I'm not so cynical over drug abuse and creativity.

But...I mean...grape soda and cough syrup?...that is just plain disgusting. Who would drink that?!

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## whiteman

I knew a guy who drank cough syrup because it had hallucigenic effects??? He called it robotripping???

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## T-Bone

> I knew a guy who drank cough syrup because it had hallucigenic effects??? He called it robotripping???



Yea dextromethorphan hydrobromide (DXM)...pretty killer stuff. It's a cough suppressant but also a dissociative hallucinogen in high doses. Totally different from what our little hoodrat buddy lil wayne was doing though. He was using a codeine (also a cough suppressant) syrup.

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## whiteman

> Yea dextromethorphan hydrobromide (DXM)...pretty killer stuff. It's a cough suppressant but also a dissociative hallucinogen in high doses. Totally different from what our little hoodrat buddy lil wayne was doing though. He was using a codeine (also a cough suppressant) syrup.



How much do you take? What's it called(the namebrand)?

Thanks,

Whiteman

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## T-Bone

> How much do you take? What's it called(the namebrand)?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Whiteman



You can find all the information you want here http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dxm/dxm.shtml  ::):

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## Chopin12

robotrippin is pretty cool. it can actually slow down time for you. when people talk you hear the deep slomo voice instead of their regular voice. its pretty trippy, and cool. goes to show you how much power the mind really has.

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## WintersTale

I've never experimented with drugs. Even weed. I hate side effects from prescription drugs I have to take, so I don't think I would enjoy tripping.

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## WineKitty

Everyone has a drug they could get into if they tried it.  People get hooked on drugs or alcohol because it makes them FEEL GOOD.  Grape juice and cough syrup sounds awful to me but I have done things other people wouldn't have dreamed of doing.  Of course, being drug free is the healthiest thing one can possibly do.  Artificial ways of feeling good never last.  But then again, nothing does.

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## whiteman

I'm a fan of hallucigens. I've never tried acid, but I will someday...

I actually like ambian When I had a bunch of it I would take it during the day and relax

Seroquel made life fly by unfortunately I gained 70 pounds and developed fatty liver disease from it

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## Chopin12

mushies are the best. if you wanna lose your entire ego and self concept for awhile.

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## WintersTale

Don't get me wrong. I'm not negatively judging people that do drugs.

I suppose, if you get hooked on anything, it can be bad. Anything can be a negative thing.

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## whiteman

> mushies are the best. if you wanna lose your entire ego and self concept for awhile.



I tried them twice, and I had a good experience with them one time and a bad experience with them the other time. The good experience was really good though. I would like to try opiates someday, but I don't want to inject anything. 


I have no problem with drugs as long as you're not hurting anyone else. If I overdose and die who cares if I want to die anyway? That's just what I think. Death isn't that bad of an outcome IMO.

Codeine is one of the lamest drugs there is IMO it doesn't even work for what it's meant to work for, the same with the other pain medications I've been given after surgeries.

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## Chopin12

yea bad trips suck. my first trip ever i couldnt stop laughing for like the first hour. i honestly couldnt stop, and i wasnt aware of anything. wasnt aware of me laughing, the time that was passing, or even when i began to start tripping. 

so it felt like this. i eat them. and then two seconds later ive been laughing my [BEEP] off for an hour and annoying everyone around me and had no idea what the hell was going on. i was really young at the time and the fact that i was annoying everyone put me in a super bad trip until later that night. i was surprised it hit me that hard as i only ate a few.

but back to the topic, i dont think theres anything wrong with drugs either. you can say they kill you, or ruin your life or whatever. but we're all going the same way any way. theres not one of us that can escape death  and no matter how you live your life the result will be the same. its not like you go on to a better place if you lived your life better. 

even  then, its not like drugs will automatically [BEEP] up your life, either. some drugs can make you come to realizations that enhance your life and make you a better person.

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## whiteman

> yea bad trips suck. my first trip ever i couldnt stop laughing for like the first hour. i honestly couldnt stop, and i wasnt aware of anything. wasnt aware of me laughing, the time that was passing, or even when i began to start tripping. 
> 
> so it felt like this. i eat them. and then two seconds later ive been laughing my [BEEP] off for an hour and annoying everyone around me and had no idea what the hell was going on. i was really young at the time and the fact that i was annoying everyone put me in a super bad trip until later that night. i was surprised it hit me that hard as i only ate a few.
> 
> *but back to the topic, i dont think theres anything wrong with drugs either. you can say they kill you, or ruin your life or whatever. but we're all going the same way any way. theres not one of us that can escape death  and no matter how you live your life the result will be the same. its not like you go on to a better place if you lived your life better.* 
> 
> even  then, its not like drugs will automatically [BEEP] up your life, either. some drugs can make you come to realizations that enhance your life and make you a better person.



That's what I think. Drugs are one of the few things that makes life worthwhile.

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## Equinox

I think it's as whiteman said, some people have a lower natural capacity for reward and tend to seek out activities, acts or substances to give them these feelings of reward, motivation, euphoria or at-least relief from depression and so on.

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## WintersTale

Music also makes life worthwhile.

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## whiteman

> Music also makes life worthwhile.



Music and Drugs at the sametime really makes life worthwhile  ::D:

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