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Sonic Youth have always done everything they can as a band to downplay their use of drugs in the media eye. That said, of course they have dabbled in them. Lee used to follow the fucking Grateful Dead!
Lee's also the one who is most open about admitting what he's done overall. I've heard him joke about acid in a radio interview (albeit in the '80s) and "Eric's Trip" is obviously based upon a first person perspective. "Karenology" also seems to imply he hung with a tripper crowd. In Journal's '80 he has a really amusing part where he talks about being winded on stage at a show with Big Black, and thinks to himself, "Maybe it was the coke..." It doesn't read like he was kidding since the journals weren't likely to be published back then.
Thurston has only ever admitted to smoking weed that I know of, which he did a lot in his '90s tour diaries (and of course there's always "Providence"). I'd find it hard to imagine that the guy who wrote "Death Valley '69" with Lydia Lunch hadn't done his share of acid, but I can't think of any time I've seen him say so. He's also the one who's written songs about heroin ("Silver Rocket", "Junkie's Promise") but they don't even sound particularly first person narrative so much as talking about somebody he knows. Plus as such a huge Velvet Underground fan, how could he not write a couple songs about heroin?
When I saw them in Seattle at the first Endfest in like '92, Thurston was drunk enough on stage that Kim was giving him shit about it. He'd probably been partying with Mudhoney, who were on right before them.
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