Economy
STATE: Dark Mofo artist Leon Ewing suggests high school students use drugs to expand creativity
High school students should be given drugs to fuel their creativity, an artist appearing at Hobart’s Dark Mofo festival says.
Leon Ewing, a multimedia artist and education lecturer at Western Australia’s Murdoch University, is taking part in the festival’s Hothouse project in early June, a 72-hour talkfest aimed at generating ideas about how to improve educational attainment and retention in Tasmania.
“Basically what I’m proposing is the idea of using performance enhancing drugs in education,” Mr Ewing said.
“We already prescribe amphetamine-like medication for focus and docility. What if we medicated for creativity?”
His suggestions include giving secondary school-aged students drugs like marijuana or even LSD to “open the mind to greater creativity and lateral thought”.
“[Among] young Australians aged between 14 and 24, around 15 per cent have already used cannabis in their life,” he said.
“It’s not unprecedented. I mean young people are already using consciousness-changing chemicals.”
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