SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Wed Dec 22, 2021 6:10 pm Some of the world's best literary genius, and arguably the best "real life" real-impact journalism in SEA has sprung from the pens of over-imbibers - of pot, booze, opium, heroin, red pills...

Disclaimer: This is in support of your post, while not supported the drug use itself. This keeps everyone's happy (or a junkie).

Intelligent people are evolutionists, and they engage in innovatory, experimental activities, hence they tend to be heavier drug users than those numerically lower on the IQ scale. Old news, so reference not required, but feel free to do your own research.

Lesser support would be with Nobel Prize winner, E. Hemmingway. Drug of choice (DoC): Alcohol. Outcome(O): Suicide.

Philip Dick, Novelist whose books were made into the movies, Total Recall, Blade Runner and a few other mind-provoking movies. Due to his predilection for amphetamines, his writings were based on his own out-there thoughts. Outcome: Stroke killed him at 53.

Sam Colleridge. Poet. DoC: Opium. O:Anxiety, bipolar. "I rely on drugs for my inspiration" is a loose quote.

Charles Dickens. Fictioneer. DoC: Opium. O: Stroke. Without his works, nobody would have realised that Christmases were white.

Conan Doyle. Creator of Sherlock Holmes. Ok, so Conan, himself, never had a publicly-known addiction, however, his highly intelligent sleuth injected cocaine daily, while in bed. O: Never materialised; immortal.

Stephen King, aka Richard Bachman, aka "King of Horror." DoC: Cocaine. Oh, and Valium, weed, Xanax, alcohol, but it's the cigarettes that'll kill him. His famous quote is "I don't even remember writing some of the books; I was that much off my face." O: Born in 1947, and still rockin' (mind you, the chair could do with some oil).

Aleister Crowley. English Poet, Victorian times. DoC: Cocaine. Heroine to come down. Mescaline, to head back up. Weed as a leveller, then cocaine to sharpen up again. All the while drinking booze, and often indulging in solvents. This was daily, and yet he was also a famous magician and mountaineer... and a rebel. O: He lost it, and let everyone know he was an anarchist, insulted elite, Royalty and anyone well-mannered. He went on to opine that Jews were one rung up from cannibals. Rumours abound of a descendant taking up his baking fondness, and selling pies, bar-to-bar.

Ken Kesey. One Flew Over A Cuckoos Nest, and Sometimes A Great Notion author. DoC: LSD. Outcome: Dunno, but the Income was good. The "pre-come" was his own drug ring pushing LSD while at Uni, and to cover his ass he set up tests on his "subjects" where he would induce them with LSD and make them listen to Grateful Dead, while recording his findings. He wrote his best-sellers while in "LaLa Land."

I could go on all day YOU DO!

So, I will... Hunter Thompson, Author, Political critic thingy guy. DoC: Drugs, generally the "Up" ones.
Aldous Huxley mescaline and hallucinogenics. Ed Poe. Piss-head. O: As he would like it, noone knows, but beforehand he was a very depressed individual in a time when it wasn't a disease. Sigmund Freud. DoC: Cocaine O: It worked; he formed his psychoanalysis theories, among other pscho words, while high, and they now are the basis of modern-day mental health treatment. Oh yeah, he wrote his findings down. Jack Kerouac. Amphetamines.

There are loads, and apart from it being unofficially mandatory from actors and band members, there are also other geniuses who partook: Winston Churchill, amphetamines O: While he won the war, he did it bearing no expense to human life. Howard Hughes. Opiates. Hermitised (sic; literary licence).
John Lilly. Scientist. LSD, ketamine. O: Thought dolphins were talking to him. Tchaikovsky. Alcohol. O: Manic Depressant (although it hadn't been invented yet), and went "Nutcrackers." Vincent van Gogh Absinthe. O: After he removed his superfluous ear, he was fatally shot in the chest, by himself.
A Corsican inventor received a medal from the Pope, for his cocaine wine, where the Bordeaux wine activated coca leaves to overpower any effects from alcohol. Not only was the Pope addicted to the cocaine, but so to was President McKinley and Thomas Edison. Steve Jobs.

The list is so long, it would be quicker to announce the clean Genies?