what words are the 1950's equivalent for 'tripping' on drugs?

Funkbot's right. also "way out there"

Honestly that is a tough question because back then it was so taboo that no one published, sang about, or filmed it. It was all "clean" in the mainstream.

Jack Kerouac was around during the 1950's and he wrote a lot of books, AND did a lot of drugs. So you could find out by researching him.

Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

In late 1951, Joan Haverty left and divorced Kerouac while pregnant. In February 1952, she gave birth to Kerouac's only child Jan Kerouac, though he refused to acknowledge her as his own until a blood test confirmed it 9 years later.[29] For the next several years Kerouac continued writing and traveling, taking extensive trips throughout the U.S. and Mexico and often fell into bouts of depression and heavy drug and alcohol use. During this period he finished drafts for what would become 10 more novels, including The Subterraneans, Doctor Sax, Tristessa, and Desolation Angels, which chronicle many of the events of these years.

Tristessa is actually about a woman who is addicted to morphine, so you would probably find a lot of useful words there. At Amazon.com I found an excerpt from the book, and he keeps using the word HIGH, and also uses the word STONED and says that the male character is "loaded with the poison of morphine." http://www.amazon.com/reader/0140168117?_encoding=...

Goodluck - this is interesting. Now I wanna get the book!