This is the first of a multi-part article. Please stay tuned for the rest of the series which will address cannabis, alcohol, tobacco, and other popular substances.

College and drug use go together like weed and the munchies. Young adults, some living away from home for the first time--with a heightened sense of freedom overwhelming their sense of responsibility--can become curious about experiencing different types of intoxication.

Not all college students engage in substance experimentation, and if you're not one of them, please keep in mind that this article is not written to encourage you to do so. Rather, this article is aimed to those who have already made up their mind and want to know what to expect.

Part 1: Psychedelics

When Apple became the world's most valuable company, there was a heightened interest in its co-founder and visionary Steve Jobs. Much of this interest surrounded his psychedelic drug use. What did the man who guided his company from the verge of bankruptcy to the envy of all entrepreneurs think about psychedelic drug use? Jobs is quoted in his biography, 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. It reinforced my sense of what was important—creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could."

So it is clear why business students might want to see the world the way that Jobs did during his experience, but surely serious majors like math and science have little to gain from this philosophy-heavy hippie substance, right?

Well that depends on just how serious you are about science. If you understand the significance of DNA's double helix structure, you probably know about a scientist named Francis Crick who was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for "discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids." Crick and his team are credited for discovering the structure of DNA, one of the world's most important discoveries; and he was on LSD when the idea came to him.

Because of its history of inspiring some of the world's most important thinkers, LSD in particular and psychedelics in general provide the experience of choice among academics. But of course as with any substance, people should weigh the pros and cons before deciding whether the experience is right for them.