Re: Good lord.
"... some under the influence of a substance first synthesized in 1970s California."
If you mean LSD, I think that was first synthesised in 1938 in Switzerland - if we can trust my old chemistry teacher and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide (the S stands for Saur = Acid). Not that I've ever tried it, I prefer a glass of bitter, or Barolo.