Pollan also gave credit to the fact that Leary did bring psychedelics into pop culture in a major way, which has had some detrimental effects on serious study, but near the end of the book also acknowledged that on the flipside, all that exposure means currently a lot more people may be interested in serious study than there might be otherwise. I do appreciate Pollan's earnest attempts at considering many sides of an issue.

edit: pronoun clarifications