Digging Deeper - Carl L. Hart

A recommendation of the book "Drug Use for Grown-Ups"
Published on October 11, 2022.

I'd like to start blogging about non-technical topics as well. So with this I present what will hopefully turn into a series of blogposts, "Digging Deeper". Here I aim to take a closer look at some authors whose content I've enjoyed recently.

The first entry is about Carl L. Hart. He is an American professor of psychology and focusses mainly on drugs.

I've first heard from him in this episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast. What he talks about there conflicted with some of my beliefs, but I was intrigued to find out more. So I also watched this talk of him and bought his new book, "Drug Use for Grown-Ups".

My copy of 'Drug Use for Grown-Ups'

I highly recommend checking out both the videos linked above and his book! He challenges many beliefs held by large parts of society. Beliefs that unfortunately continue to shape policy decisions regarding drug use. All this is done on the basis of the current scientific understanding of how these drugs work and what happens to their users. Even though I consider myself to have a passing interest in these topics already, I learned a whole lot of new things. And in the book all this is presented in a very entertaining way, with some insightful personal anecdotes along the way.

So if this topic interests you as well, please read the book, you won't regret it.