A little known element of this CIA LSD story is the impact it had on French separatism in Quebec. Many people in Canada are familiar with the reasons why, but I don't think so many Americans are.

So, while the CIA was administering LSD to unknowing subjects in the United States, they apparently were at least somewhat worried that they were violating U.S. law. They removed some of their operations to Montreal, where they targeted francophones for their undisclosed LSD experiments.

Why they specifically targeted French speakers is unknown, but in Quebec, when the truth came out, the shit really hit the fan.

French separatists claimed, and there's probably at least some truth to this, that the Canadian government knew about the CIA operation and placed some limitations on it — like keep it confined to the second-class citizens of French-speaking Quebec.

At the time, francophones were a distinct underclass in Canada, and there would have been fewer political repercussions for experimenting on them, if the experimenting came to light.

Well, it did come to light, and for many years it was one of the reasons that separatist argued passionately that Quebec should leave Canada. And that almost happened.