Since much of how I feel about drugs in general have been stated here, especially about tobacco and alcohol, I would like to focus in on the original impetus of this thread: LSD. As recent books and films have adequately demonstrated, the relationship between human beings and psychoactive substances is rich and complex, with an ancient history. An adequate recounting and discussion of this is beyond the scope of this post (and probably my abilities).
Buck, however, asked a pivotal question: "As much as people might enjoy them, what good does it do the human race to have them [drugs] around?" Let me be clear. It is not my intention to defend all drugs or all drug usage. I would like to point out, however, that the Nancy Regan "just say no" approach to this issue is both ridiculous and harmful. Having said that, let me focus once again on psychedelic substances such as LSD. There is legitimate evidence that psychoactive substances have played a pivotal role in the evolution of human consciousness. Let me address two general areas. The first is religion. Based on my readings, I am quite comfortable with the notion that modern religions grew from shamanistic and revelatory spiritual practices where one *experienced* the sacred in a personal and mystical fashion. The following paragraph is a good introductory summary.
<<Hallucinogens, throughout the breadth of time, have played a vital albeit hidden and mysterious role. They have often, in aboriginal and shamanic contexts, been at the absolute center of culture and world view (Dobkin De Rios, 1984). Opening up the doors to the spiritual planes, and accessing vital information imperative to tribal cohesion and survival, hallucinogenic plants became what some scholars have considered to be the bedrock of human civilization (Wasson, 1968; Wasson et al, 1978; Huxley, 1978). Within the context of shamanic society, these awe inspiring botanicals were utilized to facilitate healing, divine the future, protect the community from danger and enhance learning (e.g. teaching hunters the ways of animals) (Cordova-Rios, 1971). However, with the advent of stratified and hierarchical societies, such plant potentiators came to be viewed as dangerous to the commonweal and controls were placed on direct and revelatory access to the sacred (Dobkin De Rios & Smith, 1976). In some societies (e.g. Aztec civilization) use of psychotropic plants was restricted to the select castes of the religious priesthood. In others, including the progenitors of our own contemporary Euro-American culture, absolute proscriptions on the use of plant drugs for divine purposes were decreed. A rich heritage of plant lore and applied healing had been passed down from pagan and pre-Christian Europe, rivaling and often surpassing the demonstrated efficacy of Church sanctioned medical practitioners. Hallucinogenic plants with magical as well as healing properties were essential elements of this indigenous pharmacopoeia. Members of the Solanaceae family with their alkaloids atropine and scopolamine, including a great number of species of the genus Datura, as well as mandrake, henbane and belladonna, had wide application as agents of healing and transcendence (Harner, 1973). In taking action against the indigenous use of psychotropic plants, the Church sought to eliminate a perceived threat to its oligarchic powers and reassert its monopoly on legitimate access to the supernatural (O'Neil, 1987). By casting the healer as a witch and the hallucinogenic plants as tools of Satan, the Church succeeded not only in eliminating competition to the elite physician class but also in virtually eradicating knowledge of these vestiges of pagan and shamanic consciousness. >>
Aegis stated that: " While Shrooms are grown naturally, and without added chemicals to induce the halcinagenic effect, or the high, LSD requires those extra bits of chemical." This is not entirely true. LSD is derived from ergot, a fungus that lives on rye and other grasses. While LSD is a more potent form, ergot itself is psychoactive and the source of the infamous "St. Vitus Dance" often mentioned in writing of the Middle Ages, a phenomenon that could affect whole villages with "madness".
The study of psychoactive substances and religion is a controversial yet serious topic of discussion. The book, "Psychoactive Sacramentals" chronicles the written reflections of several dozen leaders in religion, mental health, and allied fields who gathered at a conference in 1995 supported by the Chicago Theological Seminary and Council on Spiritual Practices. Addressed where such questions as: What place might psychoactive sacramentals--entheogens, have in contemporary religions and religions of the future? Can the careful use of entheogens enhance spiritual development? How might entheogens enhance spiritual practices? What cautions ought to be considered? Or, as Walter Houston Clark notes: "If we can accept the direction of the argument thus far, that the essential core of religion may be found in the mystical consciousness and the direct experience of the holy, I can show considerable evidence that it is this aspect of the nonrational consciousness that the psychedelic drugs release."
The second area I will touch on briefly is the whole '60s phenomena. Books like "Acid Dreams" and "Storming Heaven" lucidly document the significant impact LSD had on the evolution of Western culture. Areas as diverse as the massive CIA funding for use of LSD for mind control applications using civilians and military personnel as test subjects to LSD's contribution to the rise of the counterculture are documented. Having participated in over 200 LSD *sessions* personally, I am under no delusions about the "mystical" effects of LSD. However, in the correct set and setting, with the proper respect and motivation, psychedelic substances can provide an opportunity for growth and insight. As such, they should not be dismissed out of ignorance or lumped into a category with crack or amphetamines. However, their use also needs to be intelligently regulated, and they should not be available for wholesale use and abuse by a society that, as a whole, apparently no longer has the cultural rituals and guidance to intimately commune with them as our ancestors did. As Terance McKenna points out, the use of psychedelic substances with an appropriate set and setting is the opposite of "drug use":
The solution to much of modern malaise, including chemical dependencies and repressed psychoses and neuroses, is direct exposure to the authentic dimensions of risk represented by the experience of psychedelic plants. The pro-psychedelic plant position is clearly an anti-drug position. Drug dependencies are the result of habitual, unexamined, and obsessive behaviour; these are precisely the tendencies in our psychological makeup that the psychedelics mitigate. The plant hallucinogens dissolve habits and hold motivations up to inspection by a wider, less egocentric, and more grounded point of view within the individual. It is foolish to suggest that there is no risk, but it is equally uninformed to suggest that the risk is not worth taking. What is needed is experiential validation of a new guiding image, an overarching metaphor able to serve as the basis for a new model of society and the individual.
In closing, I would add that apparently the therapeutic value of LSD and other psychedelic agents are once again being considered. I came across this blurb recently. It does give one pause:
For the first time since the mid-60's, the FDA is approving research into the therapeutic use of hallucinogens with specific groups of people, beginning with patients facing life threatening diagnoses. In the preliminary research a very large percentage of participating terminal patients, "describe as a result of the drug experience the loss of the fear of death." In the Baltimore study, scientists are examining LSD as a possible treatment for addiction to heroin, opium, alcohol, and sedative hypnotics. University of Miami researchers are studying the psychedelic drug ibogaine to treat cocaine addiction. Other scientists are focusing their psychedelic research on learning more about the human brain, discovering antidotes to drug overdoses, and relieving pain in cancer patients. 
