This is not the first time that the United States government has been accused of engaging in unauthorized experiments against its citizens. Two particular cases which stand out: 1) MKUltra mind control experiments, where subjects were given LSD or other drugs to make them more pliable 2) Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis, where black males were given the "Syphilis bacteria" to understand the course of the infection; The most appalling part of the matter, it was allowed to run its course even when there was a promising treatment, and those participants passed on the infection to their wives and new-born children.
The graphic novel version was written in 1977, that was the height of the Black Revolutionary movement, and the push for the advancement of civil rights for all oppressed minorities, which was a cause for concern for certain factions of the Federal Government like the FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, which launched an investigation into these "subversive" movements via COINTELPRO, or Counter Intelligence Program, which the Bureau perceived was going to tear the country apart . It was this sentiment which the writers tried to convey, when Gambi stated "... make them passive and keep them docile in what was a very politically-explosive environment"
In the beginning of the episode, it was stated that the ASA was responsible for the "Green Light" epidemic. This is similar to concerns that the Central Intelligence Agency, engaged in Cocaine Trafficking into the United States, in the latter half of the twentieth century, to finance rebel groups fighting against Communism.
When "Black Lightning" was searching for a tree pattern wound on her skin, a tell tale sign of a high-voltage flash, as oppose to a burn, Gambi said " Lichtenberg scarring - It's a fractal pattern that occurs when electricity passes through an insulating material."
Gambi said his supplier accidentally left him two bolts of silk damask; a bolt is a roll of fabric or wallpaper of specified length.