Many influential intellects experimented with psychedelics at one point or another in their lifetimes. As a student, these experiences can be far from being detrimental and even be life-altering and profound.

In the Walter Isaacson biography Steve Jobs, Jobs is quoted saying, “Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it.”

Given Jobs’ great success, it would seem unlikely that experimental drug use ever impeded upon his career. In fact, in other cases, psychedelics — drugs that have hallucinogenic effects — may have actually helped notable minds take their work to new levels.

Kary B. Mullis — who developed polymerase chain technology used to copy single strands of DNA, earning him the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Michael Smith — acknowledges that his experimentation with LSD in the 1960s and 1970s may have had a much bigger influence on his work than the classes he took in university.

In an interview for the British Broadcasting Corporation television program Horizon in 1997, Mullis even went as far as to postulate, “What if I had not taken LSD ever; would I have still invented PCR? I don’t know. I doubt it. I seriously doubt it.”

So far, I’ve only talked about very famous and influential people and their success with experimental drug use. But what about a student, someone who is still in the process of developing professionally?

I can’t speak for other students, but I’ve had prior experience with psilocybin — magic — mushrooms, LSD, MDMA, DMT and of course, like many other university students, marijuana. I can say that without a doubt that I have had many positive experiences on these drugs that did not impede my studies.

I take a psychedelic substance of some sort probably once every month, but it depends on the last experience I had with whatever I was taking. If the trip was bad, then I steer clear from those types of drugs for a little while, just to reintegrate myself back into everyday life.

The reason why I space out my trips so much is because I like to allow time to reflect on the experience, and to allow the drug to leave my system so that the next time I take it, I won’t have built up a tolerance.

I balance school with taking these substances by making sure that when I do take a drug, whatever it may be, that I don’t have a lot going on at that particular time and that I don’t have to wake up early the next day for classes. I take this time because for me, taking these drugs is not simply because they’re “fun” or because I like to “get high.”

I use them in part to rekindle my spirituality, to gain new insight to the problems in my life and to channel my own creativity by expanding my mind and dissolving the boundaries of regular consciousness.

However, just because I have had success with psychedelic substances does not mean that I promote the use of these drugs for all students. Drugs affect everyone’s brain differently and what might work for one person may not work for another.

Despite my experimentation with illicit drugs, I am definitely not the typical image of a drug user that you may expect, based on the way that the media and other institutions portray people like me. I get good grades as a full time student, I work two jobs and I’m active in my community and at the University of Saskatchewan in a variety of different ways.

I’m still able to juggle all my commitments and to experiment with psychedelics without totally destroying my ability to function. In fact, I believe that taking these drugs has actually helped with my creativity as an artist and as a student, and helped me discover things about myself that I never knew before.

When it boils down to whether or not you can be a functional and successful student while experimenting with illicit drugs, the answer is yes, it is definitely possible. We owe a lot of our success as a society to psychedelics, from arts to science. So instead of demonizing our fellow psychonauts, let’s applaud them in their journey towards a better world.

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Kay-Lynne Collier