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Renowned British jazz Guitarist John McLaughlin Speaks out on the Place of Drugs in Modern Society

 Richard House and David Kalisch

The authors report on an exclusive interview held in 2016 with the virtuoso jazz-fusion guitarist John McLaughlin, in which McLaughlin speaks courageously and openly about his experience of drugs in relation to his own creative art – music – and about the views he has reached about the place that drugs should have in society stemming from his experiences. The interview ranges over issues that include society’s confused understanding of the nature and definition of “drugs”, and the differentiation of different kinds of drugs, including so-called “consciousness-raising drugs”. McLaughlin also shares his forthright views about the appropriate, nuanced attitude that society should take to drug-taking, including the frank view that “prohibition has never worked, and never will”.