Ex Government Advisor Speaks To Vice About Drugs

Psychedelic Wolf art print
by lioncrusher

​The link between psychedelics and art is well known, in fact some believe that it was ingestion of particular fungi or moulds that led to the original idea of abstract thought within humans. The depiction of symbols of representation that carried universal meaning through-out entire communities was the origin of the written language, which in turn led to the mass development of the human culture as a whole.


Mind bending substances are ways of allowing us to perceive the world from a completely new perspective. Forcefully adjusted, our new narcotised mindset will give us possible new insights into the world around u and more importantly, ourselves. Linking art to well-being is also a tradition that goes back for many generations. Today, art therapy is a core branch of any respectable mental health routine or service. Because art allows us to glimpse into the inner workings of our mind, by what we relate particular images, feelings, and colours with, we gain particular insights into the sub-conscious under thinking that outlines what we consciously perceive.


Controversial neuropsychopharmachologist and ex UK government advisor on drugs policy, David Nutt has recently been interviewed by Vice magazine about his work with psychedelics on health. The brain is the main source for all human experience, outside of the external world, and so by altering the way it interacts with the input gained from the world, the benefits to the person on the whole are possibly very promising. A lot of work has been done on treating addiction by using psychedelics, and work is underway to study their effects on chronic pain.


As the author of “Drugs, without the hot air”, David Nutt states, “ I think in five years, psilocybin will be used to treat people in the United States.” which has already taken ground-breaking leaps with the permission of medical cannabis in some states. Psilocybin is the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, and it is famous for its psychedelic properties around the world. The medical industry could possibly begin using it within the decade, according to this expert.


Art has been drawing on the benefits of psychedelics for much longer, however, and for a brief period after its invention, LSD was legal and inspiring all sorts of new modes of expression. It's known that psychedelics enhance the subconscious mind, and magnify the conscious output of it, meaning we get a much more holographic representation of the world around us, sourcing from all sorts of usually non-related imagery and concepts to make sense of it. The expression of art therefore will allow a person to take a form of snap-shop from their imaginative mind during these times and shed light on what is happening on a human level but beyond the scope of the human experience.