Dex, I totally get where you're coming from, and I myself feel pretty intensely turned off to the way psychedelics have come to be regarded in our culture. It's becoming almost as alienating to me personally as the "let's go get drunk" mindframe. If you spend any time living on a college campus, you realize it's no wonder that psychedelics have gotten a bad name. I think the drug users' attitude towards them needs to change in order for the public attitude to change---people being reckless, over-indulgent, irresponsible, obnoxious and stupid on psychedelics merely adds fuel to the fire of anti-drug propaganda, and it simply perpetuates that attitude within our own youth culture. I hate when spiritually-minded people I know refuse to even try psychedelics because they have seen too many people abuse them. It's frustrating because I KNOW the right set and setting would help them SO much in figuring out their lives...

All that being said, I feel your argument is a bit dualistic.

There are not hard categories of 'positive use' and 'misuse'. Anyone who uses them knows that each experience is a mix of both. And one of the most important realizations on the spiritual path is that WE'RE ALL THE SAME. Every last one of us. Its_a_Plant DOES have a point when he says
Quote Originally Posted by Its a Plant
That's what makes the world so amazing : no one has the same opinions about anyone else. Every single person is unique and their own.
Sure we all have different opinions, we have different styles, but we're all doing the same thing in different ways. And it's impossible to do it wrong. When you can see the world from a perspective of nonduality, arguments seem pointless. And you realize that we are all just expressing ourselves perfectly at each moment, and all of us are saying the same thing, which is.... IT.

Shunryu Suzuki talks about this pretty well with the concept of "little mind" and "big mind" in Zen. At a certain point you just realize that all of our "little mind" ego-centered thoughts are just a manifestation of big mind, which is everything. That is why in meditation you try not to judge yourself. No matter what, you are not doing anything wrong. You just let go of each thought and let it pass naturally. And then you realize that THAT HAPPENS NATURALLY whether you intend it or not. Everyone's life is a meditation, and your thoughts are the same as anyone else's: just clouds passing through the sky.

The things you say about not-wasting, and having respect for psychedelics are important. It is incredibly frustrating to me to see so many people with the "wrong attitude" towards them, mostly because I want everyone to see the joy inherent in their lives and to take advantage of the profoundly beneficial effects that are right there at their fingertips. I wish they could just TASTE it---taste *IT*---for even one second, and they would finally KNOW how beautiful life is, and how much energy they have been frittering away on ephemera.

But then the frustration subsides as I realize that we are each living out the reality of life in our own way. It is like music, it ebbs and flows, has moments of tension and frustration and wrong-headed thinking, and sometimes hopefully the tension is resolved in a clear-headed, spacious, moment of peace. But every one of those moments is a beautiful and creative manifestation of the same kind of energy. Do you know what I mean? There is nothing ULTIMATELY wrong with the way those people are living.

I think you and I know, along with many other people, what they are missing. How can they take psychedelics and just not get it? That to me is crazy. It's crazy to me how all human beings make themselves suffer. But at the same time, it's okay. The most we can hope to do is teach people what we have to offer, and hope that we can help them discover the true potential of drugs.

So to sum up this longass post:
There is no real line to draw between the laughing Buddha, what Terrence McKenna called 'the cosmic giggle,' and just plain-old being ridiculous and silly and having fun with your friends on psychedelics. Spirituality--contrary to what the Catholic church would have you believe--is not by any means something totally SERIOUS.

love.