On Drugs: Our First Interview
HLG Sits Down with JSR to Talk about His New Book!
JSR’s book, On Drugs: Psychedelics, Philosophy, and the Nature of Reality, will be published on September 23, 2025, from W. W. Norton/Liveright. Please pre-order it if you have not done so already.
There will surely be other interviews to come with —shall we say— more adversarial parties. But we thought we’d get out ahead of the game and release an in-house interview first. In any case it’s not as if our own HLG is a big softie, or is incapable of throwing a few hardballs herself (as we at The Hinternet know all too well!)
This interview was recorded back in March, when JSR made a brief visit to The Hinternet’s center of operations in Quimper. We’ve been holding it until now. It has been edited for clarity.
HLG: Justin, great to see you here at the office for once!
JSR: Thanks Hélène, you know I always love to come to Brittany when I have the time.
HLG: Let’s get right into it then. Tell me, are you “on drugs” at the moment?
JSR: Yes, I suppose I am. I’m on amlodipine for chronic high blood pressure; I’m on an SSRI for depression (I can never remember its name); I’m on Venlafaxine for severe anxiety disorder. No mood stabilizers for now, though perhaps I could use some [chuckles]. I’m hyper-vigilant about avoiding meds that cause weight gain — I’d rather be a total psycho mess with a 31” waist [78.74 cm —eds.] than a blissful blimp. Oh, and I’ve also drunk coffee every single day since September 13, 1990. Since waking up in your lovely guest room this morning so far I have had nine espressos.
HLG: Nine?!
JSR: Yes, nine, and I’d say that’s below average for this time of day [roughly 3:30pm —eds.] Technically, as I argue in the book, “drugs” should exclude mind-altering substances delivered in a fluid form —the word itself comes from the Dutch adjective for “dry”, after all—, so coffee’s out, if we wish to be rigorous. But yes, I do have a few powders and potions in me right now. I suppose I should also add for the sake of completeness that I’m “on” dopamine, norepinephrine, and all sorts of other endogenously produced chemicals, which bring it about that I, just like everyone else, am effectively always on drugs. There are always chemicals serving in some way or other to shape my perception of reality, and the idea that there could be some default setting of the brain that is chemical-free, in which you have direct access to the world as it is in itself, uninfluenced by what your own perceptual apparatus is bringing to the picture, is a total myth. Philosophers have always known as much, of course; it’s not news. But this has not prevented them, in practice, from proceeding as if the sober or unenhanced mind is the only one that deserves to be consulted in any philosophical inquiry as to the nature of reality, or as to the “fit” between the mind and external reality. The cultural and historical reasons for this are complex. I address them in the book, and perhaps we can address them together later as well.
HLG: Perhaps. But you know what I mean when I ask you whether you’re on drugs. You’re not “tripping” right now or anything like that, are you?
JSR: No, of course not. That was a punctuated moment of my life, I got enough material out of it to write a book, and now it’s over and will almost certainly never happen again.
HLG: Would you say you’re “against” recreational use of psychedelics now?
JSR: Well, it’s complicated. Everything depends on what you mean by “recreational”. But you know what? Before I give you my full answer, I feel like we should maybe throw up a paywall? I mean look Hélène, me telling you what I think about drugs? That’s premium content if anything is.
HLG: Can’t you just give us a simple “yes” or “no” answer first? Just tell us whether, having come to the end of your work on this book, you’re against recreational use of psychedelics.
JSR: No. Not until you give me that paywall.
HLG: Fine. Here you go.