The Oppenheimer Report 5/27/19

Does anybody know who Edward Herbert Beresford is? Better known as “Chip Monck”, he was a theatrical lighting designer responsible for lighting the first Woodstock Music Festival stage. His deadpan voice can be heard on the soundtrack for the movie, Woodstock, and on the subsequent Woodstock: The Original Music Soundtrack And More album,. He made public service announcements, including the famous one warning people to beware of the “brown acid”. For anyone who may not know, acid is the street name for the hallucinogenic drug L.S.D, which was especially popular back in the 60s and 70s. I understand it is still available today on the street, although I wouldn’t know. I’m not sure what was circulating around the Woodstock Festival, but acid came in many forms when I was a teenager. With nicknames like “blotter”, “sunshine”, and “purple haze”, acid came in many shapes and potencies, and some of it, not all, was dangerous. From my understanding, it first emerged as a research drug to be tested on human subjects ,and in its purest form, it was not deemed to be life-threatening. How it could affect  one’s mental state is another question. In an altered state of mind, users sometimes ruined their lives. Just ask Syd Barrett, one of the founding members of the band Pink Floyd. The other problem with acid was that it was sometimes cut with other substances, which could be harmful to the body.

I had two noteworthy secondhand run-ins with the drug. The first incident occurred when I was a teenager and attended a wild and unchaperoned party in New York City, hosted by one of my high school classmates. The party took place in a high-rise apartment, somewhere in the heart of Manhattan. There were a lot of drugs being passed around. Joni Mitchell’s Court And Spark album was playing on the radio as I walked out onto the balcony for a breath of fresh air. Much to my surprise, one of my female classmates was out there, standing on the railing of the balcony. I greeted her as calmly as I could, suspecting as I did that she was tripping on the acid which was circulating at the party. Without making too much of a fuss, I calmly asked her why she was standing on the railing of the balcony (which was well over 100 feet above street level), and she happily replied that she intended to jump over to the high-rise balcony across the street. It never crossed her mind that this might be a bad idea. About that time, the host of the party walked out onto said balcony, and together we (mostly he) convinced her that she needed to come inside and help us with something. Thankfully, after some negotiating, she did step down from the railing and followed us inside, after several tense moments. The second experience ended tragically. Someone at our college in Connecticut was manufacturing L.S.D. and while testing its strength, he lost his mind and stabbed one friend to death and seriously injured another. Every “bad trip” acid story I have ever heard has been directly attributable to the potency of the drug.  

In the past week, the opioid crisis has revisited and traumatized our Muskoka community. I’m not clear on the details, but reportedly, there have  been several drug-related deaths caused an especially potent form of heroin. Known on the street as “purp”,  this dangerous drug is laced with the synthetic opioid fentanyl, or sometimes the exponentially more deadly carfentanil. There have also been unsubstantiated reports that other locally sourced drugs, like cocaine and even some black market weed, have been laced with these potenially lethal additives. I think back to the potential risks I faced as a teenager, and they pale by comparison to the dangers recreational drug users and addicts face today. Any pill handed out at a party can be deadly, and uninformed drug experimentation today is far riskier than it was over 40 years ago. Disregarding for a moment the dangers an addict faces, anybody, even, straight-as-an-arrow kids, can end up the victim of this exploding opioid crisis. My heart goes out to the families and friends of those victims. By the way, I understand that the girl we talked off the balcony that fateful night eventually became a successful scientist.

Final note:  I never dreamed I’d become a basketball fan, but, now I'm hooked. What a great playoff series the Toronto Raptors have had thus far. GO RAPTORS! You’ve fought so hard to get where you are now. Fans from all across Canada are rooting for you, wishing you continued success in your bid to become the NBA champions!

- Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2019 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED