Bukowski?Drugs (1 Viewer)

I had always heard that he smoked a little bit of pot, but that alcohol was certainly preferred. I also bemember a story about LSD. Maybe I imagined this?

Bill
 
I thought he mentioned taking a pill or two at a party in "Women", but I will have to look tonight to see if my memory is correct. I have never read anything referring to him having a sustained period of drug experimentation. I think anytime drugs do come up, it's usually in the context of BUK being offered something at a party. It never really comes across as intentional or deliberate. In fact I think he even takes a few digs at pot smokers in the "Bukowski Tapes".
 
I'm by no means an expert but I do recall reading about Buk and his use of drugs in various poems, stories, and letters. I apologize for not being able to cite specific sources.

He took some pills and smoked some pot during the Cupcake period (she being quite the druggie back then). Tried coke a few times in the 70s (no doubt during the Cupcake period).

Also had a friend or visitor during the late 60s who was a pillhead and would encourage Buk to take a few.

Overall it seems he was never what you'd call a stoner. Just a drinker who would occassionally take some pills or smoke some pot or toot some blow to be sociable back in the 60s & early to mid 70s.

Cupcake may have been plural? Cupcakes?
 
bospress.net said:
I had always heard that he smoked a little bit of pot, but that alcohol was certainly preferred. I also bemember a story about LSD. Maybe I imagined this?
I read this anecdote in either the Sounes biog or the Cherkovski biog. I read both in the last couple of months and it has to be one of them. I forget exactly who the name Thomas refers to. I'm also pretty sure it occurs during his time writing for Open City when he had to interact with hippy drug-takers.

"What is this stuff?" asked Bukowski after taking the acid.
"What's the matter?" asked Thomas.
"I've got a lump of ice in my stomach the size of a bowling ball, and it's sort of jiggling around down there," Bukowski replied. "But the man who can rule his stomach can rule the world!"
 
according to Big John, B was open to try different drugs -not to take them regularly- in his place. Remember Thomas was one of the few men B truly admired, so I guess that if Thomas told him: "Hey, Hank, try this pill. You'll freak out", B probably tried that pill once or twice.
 
This is in the wrong place i think

I guess this shouldnt really be in all things not bukowski.I reckon he would have partaken in FREE whatever came his way if it was at the right time.
I know some major hellraising alcoholic types,being a former one myself.Some of these guys if drunk enough will take ANYTHING going if its free.
 
I know he wrote at least one poem apiece regarding cocaine, LSD, and pot.
Not very enthusiastic, much less romanticizing depictions as I recall. Very frank and unsparing in their view.

I'll quote them soon ( as I can look them up )................
 
'The Big Pot Game' - Short Story in 'Tales of Ordinary Madness'

He basically derides dope smokers as stupid herd like animals. And he basically characterises 'two stoner guys' as useless psychophantic idiots.

He goes on a little rant about all sorts of drugs and drugs in literature. Drugs where so popular in Buks time *and they still are* he probably thought it would be a good idea to take an opposite view. Cynical of a mindless drug culture that had no centre.

I am pretty confident Bukowski would have dabbled here and there with drugs. But his real drug was the sweet nectar of alcohol, Lady nature's wine!
 
Bukowski was on coke for two months too or maybe it was two weeks?. two something, i know that! he says so in a story or interview I believe.

he also takes mescaline before painting a picture in the novel Women
 
Mescaline! No shit. "Fear and loathing in Las Vegas" is amazing. Still have to read the book; gonna borrow it from a buddy; seen the movie twice, still amazes me.
 
I always say that I've tried everything
(and enjoyed some of it way too much),
Everything but Opium.
(I've always had this fantasy of 'visiting'
A den in Marrakesh...
the whole Being a cool ex-Pat thing).

But Mescaline....
Isn't that the let's-go-the-desert-and-hallucinate thing?!
I can't remember if I've ever done it :) .
Really though, how do you take it?
I can't see Buk doing more than fumbling with a cork screw or can opener....
 
Opium is a nice, mellow smoke; and you can see how the addicts could get a trifle caught up in the stuff. Don't recommend it as a steady diet, but it does take one to dreamland.

SD
 
SamDusky said:
Opium is a nice, mellow smoke
Oh man,
I can almost taste it....
I love dreamland,
(Jesus, especially know a days-> george w et al)

It's not tasting spicy like hash.....,
Thanks Sam for the toke!
 
I have a few FAT vices...I have smoked weed for almost a decade....since about 14 15 years of age...I drink quite a lot...I have popped a fair few pills over the passed two years...I was on ketamine last week on wednesday - now that was intense...never again. I have sniffed cocaine and became a totally prick. I have shat myself in public. I have pissed my pants while I was fast asleep. The sad thing is - haha - none of it was ever meant...but I am responsible for it.

Don't do drugs! They won't make you anything...
 
SamDusky said:
Opium is a nice, mellow smoke; and you can see how the addicts could get a trifle caught up in the stuff. Don't recommend it as a steady diet, but it does take one to dreamland.
It's been alot of years but yeah... it was delicious. I also remember the original Thai sticks... about three inches long and a half inch thick (not like those huge things that were sold as Thai sticks that came around later) and so sticky with opium that if you lightly touched one it would stick to your finger. Three of us hardened potheads couldn't get through one inch in a sitting.

Makes me kind of nostalgic really.

Goddammit... I wanna be young again!
 
opium and worse

I managed to get busted in my first ever opium den in Laos.a place called Vang Vien.Machine guns to the head etc.I was so chilled i wasnt too concerned at first.In the end i had a major let off by bribery.it takes a while to get to dreamland however.A bit of weed is essential i reckon.But anything harder is askin for trouble.I had a blast on heroin and didnt stop 4 10yrs!
I went back to the den again.a bit of a risk but worth it
 
Oh Yeah

But Mescaline....
Isn't that the let's-go-the-desert-and-hallucinate thing?!
I can't remember if I've ever done it :) .
Really though, how do you take it?....

Memories. Mescaline is a naturally occurring psychedelic found in several cactus species, such as the Peyote and San Pedro. You ingest it and wait for its effects to hit. I had the good fortune of coming across some many years ago and sharing it with a friend"”or was it the other way around? I was too stoned to remember. What I do remember is my friend and myself driving down to Laguna Beach, CA, in his Triumph convertible on a picture-perfect day. I sat hallucinating in overwhelming bliss on a rock overlooking the infinite ocean, with the picture-perfect sky, land and sea swirling happily together in an unforgettable mix like something Van Gogh might have conjured up on one of his better days before going mad. In fact, the swirling beauty of nature was so overwhelming... was so thoroughly revealed in the totality of its divine splendor... that I never wanted to do drugs, pot or pills again"”and I haven't. I wanted to experience the same aliveness of undeniable beauty naturally, and I found that in woman and other benign forays into nature. The problem is getting the real peyote buttons so you end up hallucinating on nature instead of the devil or rabid bats from hell"”a crap-shoot if you don't know the seller. Of course purchasing a fine Merlot or Pinot Noir is another matter, still good but minus the swirlings and visions of those nature spirits dancing upon the glittering surface of the waters, and the beatific cloud of angels floating like apparitions over an endless sea of blue-green love.

Poptop
 
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"Fear and Loathing" is one of those movies that is great if you haven't read the book first. Another good example is "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." The book is so well written and the characterizations are so strong that if you see the movie after reading it, the movie is bound to be disappointing.
 
The problem is getting the real peyote buttons so you end up hallucinating on nature instead of the devil or rabid bats from hell"”a crap-shoot if you don't know the seller.

Peyote is pretty easy to identify actually, but a pain in the ass to prepare. If you miss just one or two of the fibers when you clean it, you're likely to start puking it back out within a few minutes. It also tastes like dirt that has been shat upon by a thousand dogs, AND it is neccesary to chew it well... you can't just swallow chunks and chase them down with a cold one. I tried it a couple of times long ago (before it became an endangered species), and while the high was nice, it was hardly worth the effort of preparing and then choking down such a vile tasting fruit.

I have a San Pedro cactus growing outside of my door in a pot. Beautiful to look at, but I wouldn't want to eat it.
 
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