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| SURVIVOR: Doors key board
player Ray Manzarek, pictured with guitarist Robbie Krieger at Jim
Morrison's grave, is bringing his band to Brisbane |
http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,11657988%255E903,00.html
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Old rocker lights a
fire on drug use
12dec04
ANTI-DRUG campaigners have blasted Doors rocker Ray
Manzarek for advocating the use of ecstasy and psychedelic drugs.
Manzarek, 60, who will play at Brisbane's Convention Centre on February 25 with
the remnants of the '60s band, says ecstasy and drugs such as LSD "open the
doors of perception".
The Doors, whose lead singer Jim Morrison died of a drug-induced heart attack in Paris in 1971, took their name from the drug-themed Aldous Huxley book The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell.
Manzarek says critics of the drug culture are mostly wrong. He criticised heroin, cocaine and crystal meth, but admitted a soft spot for ecstasy and psychedelics.
"Ecstasy – I've never taken it – but it gives you a nice high and you feel warm and loving towards your fellow man. Well, that's the point of it: opening the doors of perception.
"You also do that through psychedelics. You cannot do that through crystal meth or strange, crystalline white powders.
"So, my advice? Take psychedelics. Why not? There are mushrooms growing, LSD was created by a doctor. They will open the doors to perception and you will see things as they are – infinite."
But Australian Drug Foundation chief executive Bill Stronach said Manzarek was talking nonsense.
"Taking any drug has risks and clearly with LSD and hallucinogens there are significant risks," he said.
He said the best thing for parents wary of their children taking drugs was to
talk about it.
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