Now, being born 10 years after
the event, my information need be
taken with a grain of salt as well, but I remember reading somewhere (I wish I could properly attribute it) that the warning about the
brown acid had nothing to do with it being
bad acid, but that it just too damned potent for most people. In my experience, tripping too hard is the easiest way to get your tickets for a
bad trip.
The unfortunate side effect of making the announcement, obvious if you've done many
psychedelics, is that everyone who was, until the announcement, happily dosed on the brown acid was suddenly plagued by the bad-trip-inducing ideas of possibly being poisioned, brain damaged, or never being able to come back down. A bit of a
self-fulfilling prophecy.