Creativity
Does
marijuana enhance creativity? The debate on this point is strikingly similar to
the one on the question of marijuana-related insights The American Medical
Association, for example, maintains that "while some persons assert that
marijuana improves artistic and other creative endeavors, there is no evidence
that this is so."[18] Sidney Cohen, a
respected drug researcher at UCLA, is equally skeptical. Marijuana, he writes,
doesn't make you more creative. It only makes you feel that way.
"Actually," he argues, "your drive to create may be considerably
reduced, and drive is as important as any other factor in the creative
process."[19]
Part of what Cohen says is undoubtedly true: marijuana does make
some people feel more creative, even when in actual fact they aren't. It has
also been known to reduce the drive of users, although it often does just the
reverse. But drive is not the issue here, nor do smokers claim that marijuana
is a magic substance that produces instant creativity. The question is whether
marijuana can facilitate creativity, and the answer is a qualified
yes—sometimes, and for some people. A Manhattan painter elaborates:
I find it odd that if a writer or an artist points to a good marriage, a sunny day, an active imagination, disciplined work habits, or even the moderate use of alcohol as facilitators of creativity, the public will nod understandingly. But let that same individual make a similar claim for pot, and he is usually thought to be deceiving himself. It is apparently attractive and perhaps even necessary for many observers to believe that marijuana has no effect whatever on creative endeavors, despite the testimony of those artists and writers who say that it does.
Marijuana's effect on the creative process takes place mostly in
the mind, where art begins. Over and over, smokers assert that it is the idea
for art, the plan rather than the execution, that is most influenced by
marijuana. The drug does not provide creativity, but it does appear to help
some creative people in thinking and imagining, and above all in their ability
to see. Several artists said that they like to look at art—both their own and
that of other artists—while stoned, because in that state they felt they could
see it better and understand it more clearly.
Harriet is a painter in New York who uses marijuana
extensively, but only in the preliminary stages of her work, as an aid to
seeing and thinking:
I've
got a heavy sense of scruples about marijuana when it comes to the production
of art. But art appreciation is another matter. The weed is definitely
an enhancer there, and spurs ideas like crazy. What I will allow myself
to do—and succeed quite well in doing—is to paint mentally while I'm
stoned. An image comes into my head, and I refine it, rearrange it any number
of times, and then let it float.
The final state of the image often comes back to me, in a flash,
later, when I'm straight. I can then use the mental painting as a series of
shortcut steps. I have recently used this method of conceiving an idea when,
straight, I simply don't have time for the first numbers of sketches and
painting on paper in a series. Marijuana enables me to begin my work at a more
advanced point in the process.
Harriet's friend Elaine, a potter, has had similar experiences
and contends that "there's a lot of connection between my pottery and my
pot." She prefers to do only hand-formed pottery while stoned, rather than
the more physically demanding work at the wheel. Like Harriet, Elaine finds
marijuana most useful at the early stages, when she is thinking about and
planning what she will do. Other artists report similar experiences, and
several add that marijuana gives them the confidence to try new things, whether
it be new art forms or, more modestly, new combinations of color and design.