Drug Use for Grown-Ups
Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear
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4.0 • 6 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
“Hart’s argument that we need to drastically revise our current view of illegal drugs is both powerful and timely . . . when it comes to the legacy of this country’s war on drugs, we should all share his outrage.” —The New York Times Book Review
From one of the world's foremost experts on the subject, a powerful argument that the greatest damage from drugs flows from their being illegal, and a hopeful reckoning with the possibility of their use as part of a responsible and happy life
Dr. Carl L. Hart, Ziff Professor at Columbia University and former chair of the Department of Psychology, is one of the world's preeminent experts on the effects of so-called recreational drugs on the human mind and body. Dr. Hart is open about the fact that he uses drugs himself, in a happy balance with the rest of his full and productive life as a researcher and professor, husband, father, and friend. In Drug Use for Grown-Ups, he draws on decades of research and his own personal experience to argue definitively that the criminalization and demonization of drug use--not drugs themselves--have been a tremendous scourge on America, not least in reinforcing this country's enduring structural racism.
Dr. Hart did not always have this view. He came of age in one of Miami's most troubled neighborhoods at a time when many ills were being laid at the door of crack cocaine. His initial work as a researcher was aimed at proving that drug use caused bad outcomes. But one problem kept cropping up: the evidence from his research did not support his hypothesis. From inside the massively well-funded research arm of the American war on drugs, he saw how the facts did not support the ideology. The truth was dismissed and distorted in order to keep fear and outrage stoked, the funds rolling in, and Black and brown bodies behind bars.
Drug Use for Grown-Ups will be controversial, to be sure: the propaganda war, Dr. Hart argues, has been tremendously effective. Imagine if the only subject of any discussion about driving automobiles was fatal car crashes. Drug Use for Grown-Ups offers a radically different vision: when used responsibly, drugs can enrich and enhance our lives. We have a long way to go, but the vital conversation this book will generate is an extraordinarily important step.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this comprehensive and illuminating study, Columbia University psychology professor Hart (High Price) combines his scientific research on how recreational drugs impact brain functioning with reflections on his own use of heroin and other drugs. Hart's appeal for more liberal drug laws is based on his professional transformation from being a "true believer" in the ideology that drugs cause brain damage to debunker of the "distorted" science behind harsh drug policies. He views the war on drugs as a means for police departments to inflate their budgets, and points out that drugs are inherently more dangerous when illegal because people don't know what they're taking (fentanyl instead of heroin, for example). He critiques data collection methods for counting overdose deaths, noting that the qualifications for "death investigators" vary widely from state to state and that the co-occurrence of alcohol in opioid overdoses is often "completely ignored," and alleges that police often use toxicology reports to justify excessive force. Hart closes the book with a call for "respectable middle-class drug users stop concealing their use" and engage in efforts to dismantle the "antidrug bureaucracy." Careful reasoning and detailed evidence buttress the book's most surprising claims, including that methamphetamine and Adderall produce "nearly identical effects" on users. This bracingly contrarian take provides much food for thought.
