Remembering the Beat Generation

The saying "turn on, tune in, and drop out," interpreted as an injunction not to reform but to drop out of society and seek enlightenment via psychedelic drugs, is credited to Timothy Leary.
But in the documentary on the Beat Generation called The Source, a man is shown saying the following: "The ancient goals which we follow can be defined in modern terms in the metaphors of the present as turn on, tune in, and drop out." Drugs necessary?