How do I find out if an author is a crackpot?

[xiphias]

So, someone in a comment thread on my friends list pointed to a book by Thomas Dalyrimple, in which he claims that opiate addiction is a myth, and that, indeed, nobody ever gets addicted to opiates; they just THINK they do, and society coddles them.

Something like that, anyway.

How do I find out if he's a crackpot, or if his ideas are worth considering?

Comments

[redbird]

"Society coddles them" is a red flag, so I'd start by asking whether that's Dalyrimple's phrasing, your friend's, or your snarky summary. And what on earth about encouraging people to go through withdrawal symptoms (which ex hypothesi are optional) constitutes "coddling"?