Non-PRO anglais vers français Autre Idiômes / maximes / proverbes

Here's the context :So it was with some skepticism that xxxx received a representative of xxxxx in 2002 who had come to ask if he would be interested in having the entire xxxxxx library digitized. “I don’t know how to put this—I had the feeling they were smoking something,” xxxxx recalled, though he described the initial conversation as cordial. They touched on questions of cost, disruption to the collection, and possible damage to books. “I thought it would be terrific if they could do it,” Verba said. “But I expressed at least as much skepticism as optimism. I thought it would be a long time before anyone digitized a whole library.”
Does it mean they are they hiding something or does this mean that they were being overly-optimistic due to substance use? (ils avaient fumé la moquette et étaient totalement fous?