Education

Michael Pollan is a journalist and philosopher. In his refreshing work How to Change your Mind, he describes the revolutionary developments around mind altering substances such as LSD, psilocybine and DMT. His fascination for psychedelics emerged because of his own experience with these types of drugs. In this book, he engages in discussion with neuroscientists and therapists who research the effects of psychedelics in relation to the treatment of depression and anxiety.

Drugs voor junkies en dummies – Filemon Wesselink & David Bezemer 

Wesselink and Bezemer offer an extensive roadmap to the most used types of drugs, in order to guide the reader through multiple ways to experiment with substances in a safe and pleasant way. The duo builds their information on their own experience, which makes this work more than a solemnly factual account, but instead provides the reader a fun and entertaining piece of literature.

As opposed to the situation in the seventies, the face of the mob in the Netherlands has changed tremendously. Criminals deem themselves untouchable and street liquidations have become daily reality. A shadow economy has emerged around drugs. Tromp and Tops describe how this industry has managed to emerge, and how the Dutch government should respond to this. The War on Drugs is not the solution, they claim. Instead, the state would do well to prepare for controlled forms of regulations and legalization of drugs. Here lies the solution, according to Tromp and Tops.

XTC hit like a bomb in the nineties, when the love drug permanently took its place within the Dutch partyscene. In XTC, een biografie (red: XTC: A Biography), Zandstra and Pottjewijd uncover the emergence and life course of this drug. From its discovery, to its relation to the Bhagwan community, to the notorious waste disposal. The drug symbolizes the impetuous policy of the Netherlands when it comes to drugs, that stretches beyond the housescene.

Doctor Hart is a renowned expert in the field of exploring the effects of recreational substance use on the mind and body. As a scientist for the Colombia University, he reveils that mind altering substances can have a positive effect on the human mind and brain. As someone with personal experience he shows how drugs can easily be combined with a healthy and productive life. In Drug Use for Grown-Ups he argues that the demonization of drug use is overdue, and that a more progressive approach would be the answer.