I think you're exactly right, lesley.
In our younger days, it was the done thing for my social group to get out of our heads on drugs. I've never seen it do themselves anyone a mischief they couldn't have equally done with alcohol.
That skews my view of it, I guess, as it seems to have in the opposite way for birds. I've seen teachers and investment bankers make themselves no worse than clutching a toilet with the universe spinning around them.
I know other people's drug stories are terribly boring bullshit, but here's my experience of the last time I took drugs. I was tucked up in bed in a room at the tail end of a party with my best friend. We were both in lovely dresses with our tangled hair spread out across the pillows. I've got dark hair, she has blond. We had music playing over us that was hanging in the air in blue and green crystals. The bed belonged to a friend of ours who earns double what we do between us, and it was the nicest, cosiest, softest, warmest, biggest place to be in the world. The curtains were billowing and rippling like a calm sea to one side of us. We were holding hands and saying words into the big tiny abyss of the unfathomable room. Words like "kablammo" and "crumbs". Those words were a conversation which translates roughly as "wow are you here?" "I'm here!" We imagined our feet could reach Australia, or we could snake our arms to the kitchen and make a cup of tea. Then we closed our eyes and surfed unusual concepts that couldn't be explained. We weren't people, we were dreams wrapped in blankets and bricks.
About half an hour later, we were almost back to normal. We were sitting up chatting and our friend came in and jokingly demanded to know if we'd also signed our names in felt tip pen on his bed.
Tested on horses so you know it's good! :o