[nikblack]

It is a shame that so many of these drugs are illegal and have been demonized, because they do have benefits for people at smaller doses as discussed. Some of the greatest work and innovation in the world has been created by people under the influence of one substance or another (from Picasso and his wormwood/absinthe to Steve Jobs and LSD).

In my own experience, I have used small doses of either amphetamines (both prescription and not), cocaine or various other narcotics (usually just dropped into a coffee) to take me through some big, demanding and complex projects. I know that this is not the 'correct' thing to say, but with self-control and knowledge about dosage, I can't think of a single downside to them being used in such a manner.

I can imagine that daily small doses would add up to a dependency which has its own ill effects.

Obligatory Bill Hicks quote:

“See I think drugs have done some good things for us, I really do, and if you don't believe drugs have done good things for us, do me a favor: go home tonight and take all your albums, all your tapes, and all your cds and burn 'em. 'cause you know the musicians who made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years.... rrrrrrrrreal fkin high on drugs.”

[ComputerGuru]

Don't understand this to be showing off or upvote as karma baiting, but I really need to say this:

I've written some marvelous code and completed gargantuan projects on my lonesome, battling thousands of lines of assembly and debugging hardware circuits and stuff.... and never used.

It's stupid to think your brain needs an external stimulus to be creative. You can be creative and withstand by just willing it - it's just not the easiest way out. When you take drugs you're either lying to yourself and pretending there is no harm in fucking up your brain - losing sense of priorities, time, yourself, and the world around you - or afraid of how it would feel without them.

Anyone can do anything without these drugs, and I'm speaking from experience. Staying up for 65 hours straight? Been there, done that with nothing more than coffee and cold showers. Write some brilliant hacks that do something genius in little lines of code? Check. Debug memory leaks and crashes across over 100k lines of C code going to and from different dynamically-linked libraries? Check. Writing your own OS Kernel? Check.

I pity those that feel you need drugs to accomplish, because that's just not true.

[nikblack]

I don't really care about upvotes, I just voice my opinion based on my own experience.

The other replies to your post have already covered what I would have said, I would just add that having a fixed belief that if something is illegal, that it must be bad for you, is ignorant at best.

Almost all of the illegal drugs are also prescribed in some form of the other. There is the massive painkiller industry built on opiates, ADHD and amphetamine salts, Air Force pilots in the USA are given 'go pills' as were SS troops during WW2. There is a terrible double-standard in our society when it comes to drugs, where for some reason we are expected to believe that these use cases are somehow fine, or are somehow safer, than an individuals own experimentation with using the same substances for their own performance gains.

The human body was designed thousands of years ago, and evolved its capabilities based on having enough energy to gather enough food to survive that day. With no additional substances to give us an extra push, we simply weren't designed to be able to concentrate on complex tasks for 16-18 hours in day.

If you are able to with just coffee and cold showers, then good for you - there are some of us who, like the Air Force pilots, seek a bit more of a push. I don't distinguish between coffee, vitamin supplements or any other drugs, they all have a purpose and we all should be free to use or not use each as we choose.

[cracki]

just wondering... exactly how many thousands of years ago? designed?

[mojuba]

> It's stupid to think your brain needs an external stimulus to be creative.

Your brain as well as your entire organism needs external stimulus to function. Food, coffee, oxygen, water. Many of these things affect your brain in obvious and noticable ways: coffee, oxygen. So what's the fundamental difference between substances that are legal and those that governments decided would be too luxury for the people to have freely available?

> I pity those that feel you need drugs to accomplish, because that's just not true.

I pity those who are not questioning the established propagandistic axioms. If you lived in the 15th century you'd never question the theory that the world is flat.

(Minor edits)

[kragen]

"Anyone can do anything without these drugs, and I'm speaking from experience."

No, you're not. You haven't been everyone, you haven't done everything, not everyone has done everything, and even if they had you wouldn't have been able to observe them closely.

[brl]

> I pity those that feel you need drugs to accomplish, because that's just not true.

How would you know? As somebody who has never used drugs you are unqualified to argue from experience about how they affect creativity and performance.

[biaxident]

Coffee is still a drug.

[APLonDrugs]

So when will the gov. ban it like the rest? I'd hate to lose coffee too:-( seems like prison for everything these days.

[GHFigs]

fucking up your brain

Do you have data to back this up?

I pity those that feel you need drugs to accomplish

People who feel you need drugs are in the extreme minority if they exist at all. As far as I can tell, people tend to regard the use of (some) drugs as simply an enriching experience, as they would with seeing a great film, listening to certain music, or visiting a certain place.

[gamache]

As a non-user, you would be genuinely surprised at what strategic use of certain psychedelic drugs can do, even -- especially -- if your brain works great just the way it is.

Reliance on drugs is unfortunate, and in the case of psychedelics, it's ineffective as well. But don't think that e.g. LSD couldn't show you something new.

[byrneseyeview]

You're not thinking on the margin. He isn't claiming he would achieve nothing without drugs -- just that drugs help him to achieve.

[rrhyne]

EH. Come back and tell us that when you have experience with both sides of the subject matter.

[varjag]

Amen to that, although it sure does not sound as exciting as taking some magic potion.