Gary,
You are correct. More then that, the much publicized hype about the psychedelic era is largely a fabrication of sensationalism which is wholly ignorant of the realities, and of drug usage and their effects. The 'hippies' were a diverse mixture of competing conceptual movements which developed in the era of blossoming progressive intellectualism that was truthfully in response to the impact globally of the awareness that nuclear weapons could extinguish all life. Many of those that 'looked the part' were actually spiritually inclined and adverse to any intoxicants, and most others indulged only to a degree of what might be called a communion of safe passage, lest they be attacked by the more paranoid elements associated with trafficking. Experimentation by young adults especially on college campuses made drug use and progressive movements co-incidential in time and location. It was really the bureaucratic reactionism against such 'give peace a chance' movements that labled progressives as 'drug crazed', and there is plenty of archival evidence of that sensationalist propagandizing which actually had the consequence of promoting curiousity and defiance and exacerabating drug usage. COINTELPRO destroyed countless innocent lives and much of the reactionary response to drug use was counter-productive to interdiction and often corrupt. Witch-hunting.
As for the psychotropic effect of LSD, it is just the opposite of what Amrit suggests. The drug causes a constant reiteration of a relatively focused perception, be it a mood, idea or sensation. The much hyped 'expansion of consciousness' by those whom experienced 'good trips' was more a post experience attempt to rationalize the indulgence. It does not induce an evolutionary thought process. THC, on the other hand, which was and is often a drug of choice by artists, musicians and other creative types, does lend itself to an exploratory reverie due to its mild euphoric and relaxant qualities with little in the way of side effects unless indulged compulsively by those whom would do the same with alcohol or gambling. I rather expect Einstein would have been exposed to absinthe, not pot, in Vienna. I think where you would find archival evidence of a real impact of drug use on scientific thinking is in the famous cocaine addiction of Sigmund Freud, whom did eventually come to recognize it himself and that the drug did have the effect of producing a channelized compulsive psychoactive drive. The modern cocaine epidemic also has impacted financial markets in that the very drive that Freud finally admitted, is often sought by many of compulsive ambition. And it might be added, that the financial markets have also become addicted to Quantum Mechanics.
Keep yer glasses an yer cigaretts below the winder soes nobody hassels ya. 'Toronto John McCaul'