I've done a lot of drugs since getting out of ASR. I never really did any before I went in, so you can imagine how curious I was after living with a bunch of kids who had tried everything under the sun. Slowly but surely I made my way through the wide variety of drugs available, trying everything once or twice, but never really favoring one drug over another. This all changed when I started to experiment with psychedelics. Thanks to my experiences with various hallucinogens I've been able to broaden my horizons, reawaken my love of nature, philosophy, and science, learn to appreciate art and music that I never would have given a chance, and most importantly, I was able to look at the world with a sense of childlike wonder that I never even had as a child.
I've seen a lot of people have bad experiences with hallucinogens, but my own experiences have all been positive. I believe that a lot of this has to do with the way individuals approach a drug. First and foremost, anything that has the potential to reshape your world view needs to approached with caution. Experimenting with hallucinogens is a little like playing with fire. If you use fire under controlled settings with a purpose in mind, it can be a miraculous tool. But if you're too young or too naive to appreciate its potential for harm, it can kill you.
Most of the people I know whose experiences with LSD were on the negative end of the spectrum were those that experimented with it at a young age, without any supervision or guidance, and the drug overwhelmed them. Most of the people whose experiences were more like mine were those who waited until they were older (my first trip was at 19), and started out slow with an experienced friend to babysit them.
By no means am I trying to claim that I'm an expert on the subject, but in my own experience, LSD and other psychedelics have enormous potential when handled with caution and respect.
