On the streets of Washington, "Hinckley" is slang for PCP: the drug is so mind bending that the user can end up in St. Elizabeths, the local psychiatric hospital where John Hinckley Jr. was sent after shooting Ronald Reagan in 1981. The hospital has tried to treat its notorious inmate like any other patient. But the futility of that became apparent when St. Elizabeths, maintaining that Hinckley's condition has improved, recommended that a judge allow him to leave for a one-day unescorted visit with his parents over Easter.
Because Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity, he has a...