Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear

Carl L. Hart is engaging and informative in his campaign against the War on Drugs. As a professor of psychology at Columbia University and a research scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, he wields impressive expertise on the effects of chemicals on the human brain. As a Black man, husband, father and recreational drug user, he's also well-acquainted with the misinformation and political agendas that unnecessarily complicate the relationship between adults and their leisure activities.

In Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear, Hart establishes a compelling case for drug decriminalization, both by objectively detailing the chemical effects that popular substances have on the body, and by outlining the political and financial incentives behind their criminalization--laws with egregiously racist enforcement: "Complex economic and social forces are routinely reduced to 'drug problems,' and resources are directed to those in law enforcement rather than to neighborhoods' real needs, such as job creation, better education, or lifesaving drug services." Drug use, he points out, is common and often beneficial; it's addiction, poverty and ignorance that kills.

Hart doesn't ignore fatality risks, but he presses beyond simplistic reasoning to illuminate the ways that unregulated, underground economies negatively influence quality and lead to overdose. His passion about the advantages of drugs on people's wellbeing is infectious, and he enumerates the positive effects that methamphetamines, opioids, hallucinogens, etc., can have when consumed safely and smartly. Abstinence-only education has been de rigueur for a fatally long time, and this iconoclastic manifesto offers a welcome pathway toward society's more sensible relationships with drugs. --Dave Wheeler, associate editor, Shelf Awareness

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