Suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us…and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats… All swooping and screeching and diving around the car. And a voice was screaming: Holy Jesus, what are these goddamned animals ?

We had two bags of grass… pellets of mescaline… five sheets of high-powered blotter acid… a salt shaker
half-full of cocaine… a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers. Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer… a pint of raw ether…

Shit!

Two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip… but once you get locked into a serious drug collection… the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved… than a man in the depths
of an ether binge…

And I knew we’d get into that rotten stuff pretty soon.