In his third book, Stoned: A Doctor's Case for Medical Marijuana, palliative care physician David Casarett takes a first-person investigative journalist's approach to making sense of marijuana's therapeutic potential and adverse effects. He shares what he's learned about this chronically misunderstood drug -- including the control it gives patients over their health and the educational atmosphere of dispensaries -- and outlines what we still need to do to explore its potential health benefits.

Casarett is a professor of medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine and chief of palliative care for the Duke Health System. He is the author of more than 100 journal articles, numerous magazine articles, and Shocked, another nonfiction book about the science of resuscitation. Casarett's first novel in the Ethical Chiang Mai Detective Agency series, Murder at the House of Rooster Happiness, was published in September 2016. The next installment, The Missing Guests of the Magic Grove Hotel, will be published in the fall of 2017.