In the late 50s the beatnik and allied subcultures began using LSD, Mescaline, and hig strength marijuanna as mind-expanding intellectual experiences. In those days a drop of acid w2ould be put on a sugar cube and the person would swallow it and go into a psychotic state with the help of another person who would help them and direct that state as a "guide." Many people who tried if were under the impression that they had found a type of vast subjective truth during such episodes. The problem I found with this new wisdom that many who believed they had acquired it didn't have enough rational sense left to find the toilet afterwards.
In successive years I watched drug usage expand into college graduate students, then to undergraduate students. By about 1967-68 drug use had worked its way full scale into the high school levels. The intellectual pretentions were dispensed with. Drugs, all drugs, became casual fun. High school kids were being taken to hospitals by truckloads on bad trips with psychedelics. Even heroin use was going up at about 15% per year nationally.
When I went to several years of technical school starting in 1971 we lost about 1/3 of our freshman class to drugs. The greetin among the users was, "Hey man, what's happening." When mid-term and final exam time came along, they still didn't know what was happening and flunked out, ruining their lives.
The drug mentality is still with us today. The numerical influx has influenced our social, educational, and other institutions. The culture has changed to accommodate it. It's my belief that the resulting deteriorated mentality is responsible for the Clinton presidency.
That's part of the complex story. Much of the rest of it is in about 900 pages of articles at zolatimes.com. I don't believe this society is going to survive what I've seen, and am seeing.