Many drugs induce auditory hallucinations, which can induce musical creativity and literary creativity where there is a strong auditory or rhythmic component.  However, I think this is more than outweighed by other drug effects -- psychosis, disorganisation, apathy, mental illness, etc.   

Yes. It enhances creativity, but reduces productivity.

According to many studies ,,It is just an illusion lived by those who eat it, it hinders creativity and inhibits intellectual production, and disrupts memory, and harms the functions of the human body.

Cannabis and Creativity

Creativity is simply a brain operation that can be altered with the use of cannabis. The neurons in your brain process and pass along information in the form of neurotransmitters to the rest of the brain. Unlike other intoxicants like alcohol, cannabis possesses cannabinoids, which are naturally produced in the brain.  Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) also highly resembles Anandamide, which is natural transmitter to the neurons in your brain. After a neuron fires, there is a break in the transmission of thought to not overwhelm the mind and keep you calm and controlled. However, cannabis stops these breaks and allows the user to amplify their ideas and imagination. These new thought patterns lead to creative thinking and an escape from the ordinary.

The book “Creativity & Beyond” by Robert Weiner states that a cannabis-induced state of mind may lead to breaking free from everyday thinking and associations, which increases the chances of generating new ideas and associations.

Ref: https://herb.co/2015/08/31/does-marijuana-actually-make-you-more-creative/

Does Cannabis Increase Creativity?

Studies Suggest It Depends on Dose and Personality....

Low doses appear to be more effective at increasing elements of creativity.....High Doses Decrease Fluency, Flexibility, and Originality...

-Selvam....

It may also depend on how we define creativity. In the past, it has also been dealt with whether marijuana is an aphrodisiac or not. However, according to current knowledge, sexual arousal is diminishing after marihuana consumption. It is possible that the long-term use of marijuana, which has adverse cognitive effects, has also negative effects on creativity.

It depends of the type of "Cannabis Sativa" plant. There are two types, whose effects are:

-"Sativa": people feel more energetic, hallucinogenic (cerebral effects) and preffered for daily use.

-"Índica": it has a relaxing effects, you experience a "body buzz" and it's preferred for night use.

It you consume the "sativa" type, you will feel hallucinations, which can helps you to improve your creativity.

@ Leah Fawaz

Please see this useful RG link.

Article Cannabis and creativity: highly potent cannabis impairs dive...

Thanks!

Does mental illness in general enhance creativity and do we want all forms of so called creativity. Van Gogh wanted to cut the ear of Gaugin. "Gauguin stormed out the house. In a fit of madness, Van Gogh grabbed a straight razor and followed, intending his friend harm, but returned home instead. There, he used the weapon on himself, slicing off one ear". Was it a creative action, creativity has first to be defined. Creative people would be creative regardless if they use cannabis but all people do not have the means to express themselves. If van Gogh's brother would not have had colors and material to give Vincent v. G. while he was in care, he would not have been able to do what he did. The painter was very poor and often had simple everyday motives.

Does cannabis really promote creativity?

· On the contrary, it’s long been suggested that cannabis actually promotes creative thinking. Studies dating back to 1970 show that regular users report having more original thoughts while using marijuana, and more recent research also indicates that up to 50% of cannabis users think it heightens their creativity.

Does marijuana affect creative thinking?

· The results back up my friend’s suspicion but also shed some light on other influencing factors. According to these studies, regular use of cannabis strains high in THC may decrease creative thinking skills, but cannabis’ particular effects also may depend on your personality.

How does smoking cannabis affect creativity?

· The study showed that smoking cannabis increased divergent thinking acutely in the low creativity group but less so in the high creativity group—under the effect of cannabis, the low creativity group was “as creative” as the high creativity group (compared to sober, when they scored much lower on creativity assessments).

How does cannabis affect verbal fluency?

· The authors speculated that the increase in verbal fluency scores for the low trait group on the intoxicated day might be related to cannabis stimulating “ dopamine release in the mesolimbic pathway which includes the frontal cortex”

Cannabis is reportedly the most popular illicit substance in the world. Its estimated one-time use in 2009 ranged from125 million to 203 million people (aged 15-64) (UNODC, 2011). According to a report by WHO, cannabis use has increased since the 1960s in North America, Europe, and Australia particularly among young people and is commonly associated with youth culture. The report also summarizes the acute and chronic effects of cannabis use including various cognitive (learning and recalling information, integrating complex information, increased risk of psychotic disorders) and psychomotor impairments (higher risk of accidents when driving intoxicated).

In light of these effects, it was interesting to find a study on the effects of smoking cannabis on creativity. Schafer and colleagues (2011) reviewed literature suggesting that the effects of cannabis on creativity have not been extensively studied nor are the mechanisms by which it stimulates creativity well understood. However, they suggested that cannabis produces psychotomimetic symptoms, which in turn might lead to connecting seemingly unrelated concepts, an aspect of divergent thinking considered primary to creative thinking. A drug induced altered state of mind may indeed lead to breaking free from ordinary thinking and associations, thereby, increasing the likelihood of generating novel ideas or associations. Weiner (2000), for example, noted “From American Indian use of peyote to Chinese people using plum wine, to Coleridge’s opium use, and Hemingway’s alcohol consumption, individuals have found that the exaggerated emotions and altered perspectives they’ve gained from drugs stimulated their creativity” (p. 211).

Schafer et al. identified two groups of participants, one high (average age 21.37) and the other low (average age = 21.62) on trait creativity and tested them in two counterbalanced conditions: non-intoxicated (day 1) and intoxicated (day 7). Creativity was measured using three tasks: (a) verbal fluency (give as many responses linked to a given alphabet in 60 seconds); (b) category fluency (give as many verbal responses linked to a given concept category in 60 seconds); and (c) Mednick’s Remote Associates Test (give one word that links three given words; 4 minutes given for each of the 16 word triads on the test). They found that while both trait creative groups scored higher on state schizotypy as assessed by a self-report questionnaire on the intoxicated day, there were no significant differences between the two groups on the Remote Associates Test, thus ruling out the possibility that increased schizotypy played any role. However, verbal fluency scores for the low trait creativity group increased to the level of the high trait creative group on the intoxicated day, but the latter group’s scores did not differ on the two days. Also, the category fluency scores did not differ on the two days, but the high trait group performed better than the low trait group on both days.

The authors speculated that the increase in verbal fluency scores for the low trait group on the intoxicated day might be related to cannabis stimulating “dopamine release in the mesolimbic pathway which includes the frontal cortex” (p. 297). They further speculated that the high trait group might already have “some sort of disinhibition of frontal cortex functions” (p. 297) that facilitated their verbal fluency on the non-intoxicated day. Thus, cannabis intoxication had no further disinhibition effects for the high creativity group. Regarding category fluency, Schafer et al. explained that the advantage for the high trait group might be due to the already enhanced functioning of their temporal cortex, an area possibly not influenced by cannabis use.

Although Schafer et al.’s results are intriguing one might ask: What do we do with such findings? Obviously, we cannot recommend smoking cannabis as a way of stimulating creativity. Understandably, speculations on the involvement of particular brain regions in the creative process are of scientific interest, but the question remains: Should we consider designing drugs to unlock our creative potential?

There is much concern ours is an over medicated society. The medical model dominates the treatment of psychopathology with DSM IV as our Bible for diagnosis and treatment. Cummings (2012) notes that psychiatry utilizes the “brain disease” model to treat psychopathology. Likewise, the results of studies that suggest creative processes can be facilitated by drugs might be construed to imply that an inability to be creative is a “brain deficit” issue to be remedied by drugs, just as the use of Ritalin to treat attention deficit disorder.

Happiness is yet another state presumably attainable by using drugs. The Austrian born graphic designer Stefan Seigmaster concluded from his “extensive reading” that using psychotropic drugs is one of the three “most widely agreed upon routes” to happiness, the other two being meditation and cognitive behavioral therapy (Kennedy, 2012, p. c5). If this were so, which route would you choose?

Will lack of creativity become a treatable condition? Cummings observed that individuals who seek relief from anxiety, depression, or emotional distress tend to see their primary care doctor first—“Referral for psychotherapy has become a distant second choice” (p. 55). Imagine eager parents who want their child to stand first in an upcoming creativity competition approaching their family doctors to prescribe a cannabis derivative to boost their child’s creativity. If this scenario does occur, at the very least we can blame our biology for our lack of creativity. We can put aside most of the research on understanding the complexity of creative processes to become creative—instead, all we would need to do is take a pill and become instantly creative and, hopefully, instantly happy. A word of caution: you can be happily intoxicated brimming with creative thoughts after consuming a cannabis derivative, but don’t drive or operate machinery.

Research has revealed that creativity is associated with the brain’s frontal lobe, and that cannabis consumption increases cerebral blood flow (CBF) to this area, which makes it more active. As reported by Jasen Talise in the Berkeley Medical Journal, experiments done in 1992 found that CBF increased after cannabis consumption. (These findings were confirmed by further research done in 2002.)

Talise spoke with Alice Flaherty from the Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, who said of CBF, “When subjects with high and low creativity are compared, the former have both higher baseline frontal lobe activity and greater frontal increase while performing creative tasks.”

Such activity stimulates creative output in two ways. First, it activates the area near the brain’s nucleus accumbens, which Flaherty found correlates to increased creativity. Secondly, the frontal lobe serves as the headquarters for something called “creative divergent thinking.”

Divergent thinking vs. creativity

Divergent thinking is a common scientific measure of creativity. It is a type of thinking that explores many possible solutions and typically occurs in a spontaneous, free-flowing, non-linear manner. Put in other words, divergent thinking employs methods like brainstorming, creative thinking, and free writing to come up with outside-the-box ideas.

For an example of why scientists connect this kind of thinking to cannabis use, we’ll quickly travel back to 2001. In high school, a friend of mine’s room was a 420 oasis, home to many people’s early cannabis experiences—and the walls were covered with evidence of this exposure, thoughts scribbled in marker, so creative I can still remember a few nearly two decades later:

“I feel like I’m running through Jell-O.”

“Levametation.”

“I’m a butterflyyyyyyyyyy.” (Drawn in the shape of butterfly. Author may have been involved.)

When it comes to cannabis and creativity, dosage is key.

“Levametation,” the word in the second example, was created for a decidedly outside-the-box game show proposed by its author. It combines “levitate” and “elevation” to describe a process in which cannabis smoke would hang in the air after rising from the floor below, subtly smoking out the contestants. (Cleverest whilst unwittingly stoned wins!) So in this case, divergent thinking came in the form of brainstorming various names to describe an invented process that’s as dubious as it is imaginative.

In day-to-day life, divergent thinking is commonly employed whenever you list numerous possibilities to come up with innovative options; from how to raise Q2 fiscal earnings, to how best use that Costco supply of albacore tuna. Or more broadly, you use divergent thinking whenever you’re working to open your mind in various directions and to new potential solutions. We’ll go over a few widely-referenced studies that measure this kind of thinking to discern how cannabis use affects creativity.

Low doses help, big doses hinder

Leafly covered one such study in 2014; it concluded that when it comes to cannabis and creativity, dosage is key. The study found that in low doses (5.5 mg THC), cannabis slightly improved two aspects of divergent thinking: fluency, or the number of responses provided, and flexibility, or the variation in answers.

And, not surprisingly, scores were significantly raised for originality, or the uniqueness of responses. However, when the dose was increased to 22 mg of THC, scores were markedly lower in most categories. (Elaboration, or the amount of detail provided in explaining a response, was low all around—but was slightly higher in the placebo group.)

Getting low creatives high

Another study done in 2012 divided participants into high creativity and low creativity groups, then tested them both sober as well as under the effect of cannabis. The researchers had participants bring their own cannabis, so keep in mind that some variation in potency and chemical composition is to be expected here. Cannabis had little effect on the high creativity group, but after partaking, the scores of the low creativity group were actually boosted compared to those of the high creatives.

Basically, this study found that if you’re not already creatively skilled, then cannabis might help you to get creating. And if you’re already creative, this study says cannabis isn’t going to affect your creativity very much.

A chicken-and-egg situation

The results from this final 2017 study suggest that the people hanging out in my friend’s marker-covered bedroom may have been more creative to begin with. It found that cannabis users both self-reported being more creative as well as veritably scoring higher when their creativity was tested.

Creativity and Cannabis With Collage Artist Dewey Saunders

However, the study also tested personality types. It used a popular measure called the Big 5, and found that cannabis users scored higher on “openness to experience.” Because this measure reflects high creativity and imagination traits, these findings lead the study to conclude, “While cannabis users appear to demonstrate enhanced creativity, these effects are an artifact of their heightened levels of openness to experience.”

These results pose a bit of a chicken-egg dilemma: does cannabis use improve creativity or do creative people just tend to like cannabis?

In the end, see what works for you

As with other areas of cannabis research, there’s a lot of work to be done in regard to studying the link between cannabis and creativity. But, in summary, research suggests:

· Cannabis increases cerebral blood flow, which points to stimulated creative output.

· However, too much THC can actually hinder creativity, while a smaller dose has been found to help a little.

· Cannabis can make less creative people more so, but has little effect on those who are already creatively advanced.

· There are more creatively advanced people within the population of cannabis consumers.

In the end, scientists don’t have a hard conclusion on this very abstract matter. So if you’re already creative and attest that cannabis does further increase your ability, or if you do your best work after 20 mg of THC, then how scientists predict you’ll score on a specific verbal fluency test isn’t particularly relevant.

Do what works for you. And if you’re still figuring out how cannabis affects you creatively, try playing with different dosages, creative activities, strains, and environments to see if cannabis can help you tap into your inner artist.

References

Cummings, N. A. (2012). How it was and how it was disrupted. In Cummings, N. A. & O’Donohue (Eds.). Restoring Psychotherapy as the first line intervention in behavioral care (pp.36-62). NY: Ithaca Press.

Kennedy, R. (2012, April 4). How that sausage of happiness is made. The New York Times, The Arts, pp. c1, c5.

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Schafer, G., Feilding, A., Morgan, C.J. A., Agathangelou, M., Freeman, T., & Curran, H. V. (2012). Investigating the interaction between schizotypy, divergent thinking and cannabis use. Consciousness and Cognition, 21, 292-298. doi10.1016/j.concog.2011.11.009

Weiner, R. P. (2000). Creativity & beyond: Culture, values, and change. Albany, NY: State University of New York (SUNY) Press.

https://www.leafly.com/news/science-tech/cannabis-and-creativity-science

https://www.medmen.com/blog/lifestyle/how-weed-enhances-creativity

https://examine.com/nutrition/does-marijuana-actually-boost-creativity/

https://www.ganjapreneur.com/how-does-cannabis-affect-focus-and-creativity/

https://archives.drugabuse.gov/blog/post/does-marijuana-make-you-more-creative

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4336648/

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