I think people overlook the obvious. What was happening in the late 60's? The hippie movement was a powerful, and drugs were like candy then. You could all too easily get drugs. I'm sure it was a an escalation from smoking weed to tripping on acid and shrooms to heroin. If anything, the drugs caused him to be unstable. And looks can be deceiving. Maybe he wasn't as all together as one might have thought. Something happened in his family that changed everything, and it made life difficult for Jeff. His father was abusive and an alcoholic. That's not exactly a good start to life. Eventually I may re-read 1968, but it's a difficult choice, because I don't like what happened to Jeff. Still, I agree that Jeff's downward spiral played an important role in JP's development.