"Whoa, dude, my hands are so big, they can touch everything but themselves..."

You saw it here first! My magnificent assignment 3, masochists; enjoy!

Out of my Mind on Dope and Speed

“It’s starting to take effect.” Benny jumped up out of his beanbag chair and kissed Pete.
“Would you piss off, you’re stoned, alright, leave it alone mate, you’re lucky we didn’t give you a sugar pill and watch you make a prat out of yourself, like last time.” Benny slouched back into the chair and picked up his guitar.
“It’s starting to take effect” he sang tunelessly as he played, singing the same words over and over. After a short while Benny stopped and stared at the wall, as though he was listening out for something in the distance.
“Pete? When is this stuff supposed to really kick in, I mean, I feel a little bit heavy, sure, but I’m not seeing giants and gnomes, just Roots over there in the corner. Wake up Roots!” Benny picked up a drumstick lying around and flicked it at Roots.
“Yeah guys, what do you need?”
“What we need is a little bit of effort from you, if we’re gonna get this track sorted”
“You know what Pete, it’s the same with everything, if you want output, you gotta input. Here you go mate, this is where you’re gonna find your words”
“What the fuck is that? Do you even know what’s in that? Forget that stuff, just give me what I was on for the last album”
Pete, man, are you, like, an alien from another galaxy? Well, maybe, but if you’re not then this stuff is all good for you man, it’s from Mother Earth, everything on this rock is designed to nurture us.”

Benny lay around for hours listlessly picking at his guitar as Pete sat with a pen in his hand. Pete was bigger now, his eyes had turned red and his hair wasn’t quite covering his horns. Benny’s was swirling around inside his own head.
“Mercury music prize, one of Rolling Stones top 10 albums of the decade, and now you’re on your arse, forgotten how to write. Easy come...” Roots’ words came oozing out of his mouth like squid ink which crawled up the walls, it read: “easy go.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Pete belched fire as he rose up onto his hooves and clamped his hands around Roots’ neck. “You’ve taken this whole thing to Hell!” His voice shook the room as Benny watched, terrified. Benny lifted himself out of his chair and tottered over towards a table, he picked up a bottle and crashed it against Pete’s head. All of the colours of Pete’s mind came trickling out and Roots closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
Rationale

The creative piece is set in a recording studio type environment and attempts to deal with some issues surrounding drug use and abuse. In the short story the three characters; Benny, Pete and Roots all display one or more elements of drug taking. The story does not, however, question the morality of taking drugs, as my own view is worryingly similar to that of the character ‘Roots’. I believe that as an individual act, taking drugs is not immoral. One of the most easily identifiable arguments for this is the fact that drugs have been used throughout history and in the modern day in a number of different contexts. It is well known that drugs were used in some tribal cultures as part of spiritual ceremonies and experiences, while medicine relies on certain drugs as a form of pain relief. The most well known examples include morphine, which is used on those who have been badly wounded, while cannabis is prescribed to sufferers of arthritis. From a scientific standpoint it is obvious that, in essence, everything that we consume contains some kind of drug or chemical; our food contains naturally occurring chemicals which are needed for sustenance and growth, while prescribed medicines contain chemicals which are used for pain relief and good health. In the context of ‘a person consumes a naturally occurring chemical which affects their behaviour’, drug use does not seem at all immoral.

The issues which are addressed in the story include the use of drugs to enhance creativity or ‘expand the mind’, dependence on drugs, negative experiences with drugs and the overall effect on a persons wellbeing. The story was inspired by examples of authors and artists given in lecture who had relied on drugs to create. Personally, I feel slightly disappointed to hear that an artist or author has used drugs to create, as it is a passive experience where the ideas do not come from the persons own personality, but instead from a chemical reaction in the brain. It was my intention to explore a scenario which I fear would be similar to any experience I might have with drug use, that is too take ‘mind expanding’ drugs and find that there’s not a lot in my mind. The issue of dependence on drugs is shown briefly through ‘Pete’ who requires drugs to make music, while the other two characters ‘Benny’ and ‘Roots’ are examples of a negative experience, and the negative long term effects which drug abuse may have on a person. The more serious issue of death by drug abuse is also briefly alluded to; “What the fuck is that? Do you even know what’s in that?”, It is my opinion that in at least some well publicized cases, that it is mixing and contamination of drugs which leads to death, a possibility which is largely ignored by the media.
In conclusion I believe that my short story explores some of the more irresponsible and dangerous elements of something which, on its own, is not totally immoral.