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I do a bit of Vicodin. It crunks my meditation a fair bit but I press on. It's shallow and noisy but the post meditation high etc is still pretty good.
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Sometimes I think that meditating while high is like lifting weights. The additional noise ups the challenge. Also I think that when I die the noise will probably be really high so it's good practice for that.
I don't really do drugs. In the past I've smoked a bit of weed with some friends, but it just made me cough and gave me the munchies
Otherwise, it's just alcohol, and I find it hinders meditation. (Granted, there's a sweet spot just as you loosen up but before you feel drunk, and I sometimes perform magic in this space - but still, it doesn't do much for meditation.)
However, when I'm very drunk, I do find my creativity has no limits - I'll draw or write, and the next morning I find strange poetry or doodles or little stories which are confusing and surreal - beautiful stuff that I only vaguely remember creating, as though it had happened in a dream.
(Maybe this is a form of automatic writing? Maybe I'm channelling something? Or maybe I just enjoy a good old piss-up. Perhaps I'll experiement over a bottle of whiskey this evening... )
One of the first things I got prescribed were ADHD pills. Basically speed, it was to stay alert while studying.
They made me hype, alert, there was strong euphoria. Around this time I started reading Castaneda and random spiritual books. I couldn't really focus much. The hype mode was too extreme. The books went like blablabla blablabla. In the movie Trainspotting there's an interview clip, about like that but while reading. You see the text, read it, but can't understand anything. Everything goes like bla bla bla. 800+ words per minute without understanding anything.
Some doctor thought it was a good idea to use benzos to relax the body. It made me numb, bad side effects, anxiety, horrible feeling. Took them for a few days and felt so bad. I stopped taking them. Screwed the senses for days.
I've used opiates against pains. They gave me a relaxed state of mind but somewhat too weird numbness. Still a lot better than benzos. I didn't really get any serious side effects after I quit them, nothing special happened. Just some numbness while doing energy work.
Weed gave some visions and strong intuition for a while but nothing special happened. More bad than good. I decided to stay away from it. Maybe once a year sure but nothing more than that. Never liked it, just not my thing.
Alcohol always worsens my senses, sure it makes me feel relaxed but nothing good either.
In conclusion, I'd say...most of these things won't do anything good. There aren't any good benefits. In my case opiates were the best, least side effects. Everything else tilted the mind way too much, something screwed. Everyone is different and so are the paths we follow.
These things can become very problematic... I've known some people who couldn't get out anymore, some very close people were addicted to benzos. Maybe there are benefits for a while but then you can't stop anymore, you can't function anymore. Extreme caution...
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During meditations, I've done at least 4 hours every day for the past 19/20 years, there were some minor benefits, temporary good effects with some things but nothing that special.
I've been sober for a year now, after being a pothead for a little over half my life and drinking too. In my mind, while intoxicants (er, "entheogens") can provide some connection to other levels of conscious reality and perception, there are no such thing as short-cuts, only the long and hard way. It's a slippery slope in my opinion. Humans tend to have addictive personalities, at least, I seem to. Getting off everything has been nothing but one of the best gifts I could have given to myself. My focus and attention has improved more than it had when I was smoking before rituals or thinking that an intoxicant would "assist" me during practice. This is just me though.
