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The Resource Drug use for grown-ups : chasing liberty in the land of fear, Dr. Carl L. Hart

Drug use for grown-ups : chasing liberty in the land of fear, Dr. Carl L. Hart

Creator
Author
Summary
"From one of the world's foremost experts on the effects of recreational drugs on the mind and body, a powerful argument that the greatest dangers from drugs flow from their being illegal, and a field guide to their use as part of a responsible and happy life. Dr. Carl 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 also 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 colleague, husband, father and friend. In Drug Use for Grown-Ups, he draws on both decades of research and his own personal experience to argue definitively that the criminalization and demonization of drug use is itself far and away the greatest scourge drugs inflict on America. Carl Hart did not always have this view, to put it mildly. 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 predominantly bad outcomes. But one problem kept cropping up: the evidence from his research did not support his hypothesis. And indeed, no one else's evidence did either. From the inside of the massively well-funded research side of the American war on drugs, he saw how the inconvenient truth that the facts didn't support the ideology was dismissed, denied 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: it challenges head-on some of our strongest moral reflexes about drugs and citizenship. The propaganda war, Hart argues, has been tremendously effective. Imagine if the only subject of any conversation about driving automobiles was fatal car crashes. We regulate driving, just as we regulate alcohol. During Prohibition, fatalities from alcohol use skyrocketed, because people didn't know what they were drinking, and hundreds of thousands were inadvertently poisoned. So it is with the opioid epidemic, response has been driven by a mass panic that in many respects reminds Hart of the crack cocaine panic of the 1980's. Drug Use for Grown-Ups offers a radically different vision: of how, when used responsibly, drugs can powerfully enrich and enhance our lives. The nexus of special interests that benefit from drug criminalization and demonization, Hart shows us, has kept this country in a terrible place, but change is beginning to come. Ultimately this is about education: the facts are clear. In every country with a more permissive and humane drug regime, all human outcomes are better, from mortality to addiction to overall quality of life, and the countries with the most permissive regimes, like Portugal and Switzerland, have the best outcomes. We have a long way to go, but the vital conversation this book will generate is an extraordinarily important step"--
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
1 online resource (xiv, 290 pages)
Contents
  • The war on us : how we got in this mess - Get out of the closet : stop behaving like children
  • Beyond the harms of harm reduction
  • Drug addiction is not a brain disease
  • Amphetamines : empathy, energy, and ecstasy
  • Novel psychoactive substances : searching for a pure bliss
  • Cannabis : sprouting the seeds of freedom
  • Psychedelics : we are one
  • Cocaine : everybody loves the sunshine
  • Dope science : the truth about opioids
Isbn
9781101981658
Instance
Label
Drug use for grown-ups : chasing liberty in the land of fear
Title
Drug use for grown-ups
Title remainder
chasing liberty in the land of fear
Statement of responsibility
Dr. Carl L. Hart
Creator
Author
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
"From one of the world's foremost experts on the effects of recreational drugs on the mind and body, a powerful argument that the greatest dangers from drugs flow from their being illegal, and a field guide to their use as part of a responsible and happy life. Dr. Carl 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 also 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 colleague, husband, father and friend. In Drug Use for Grown-Ups, he draws on both decades of research and his own personal experience to argue definitively that the criminalization and demonization of drug use is itself far and away the greatest scourge drugs inflict on America. Carl Hart did not always have this view, to put it mildly. 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 predominantly bad outcomes. But one problem kept cropping up: the evidence from his research did not support his hypothesis. And indeed, no one else's evidence did either. From the inside of the massively well-funded research side of the American war on drugs, he saw how the inconvenient truth that the facts didn't support the ideology was dismissed, denied 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: it challenges head-on some of our strongest moral reflexes about drugs and citizenship. The propaganda war, Hart argues, has been tremendously effective. Imagine if the only subject of any conversation about driving automobiles was fatal car crashes. We regulate driving, just as we regulate alcohol. During Prohibition, fatalities from alcohol use skyrocketed, because people didn't know what they were drinking, and hundreds of thousands were inadvertently poisoned. So it is with the opioid epidemic, response has been driven by a mass panic that in many respects reminds Hart of the crack cocaine panic of the 1980's. Drug Use for Grown-Ups offers a radically different vision: of how, when used responsibly, drugs can powerfully enrich and enhance our lives. The nexus of special interests that benefit from drug criminalization and demonization, Hart shows us, has kept this country in a terrible place, but change is beginning to come. Ultimately this is about education: the facts are clear. In every country with a more permissive and humane drug regime, all human outcomes are better, from mortality to addiction to overall quality of life, and the countries with the most permissive regimes, like Portugal and Switzerland, have the best outcomes. We have a long way to go, but the vital conversation this book will generate is an extraordinarily important step"--
Assigning source
Provided by publisher
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Hart, Carl L
Dewey number
362.973
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
LC call number
HV5825
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • dictionaries
  • bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Recreational drug use
  • Drug abuse
  • Drugs of abuse
  • Drug legalization
  • Drug abuse
  • Drug legalization
  • Drugs of abuse
  • Recreational drug use
  • United States
  • POLITICAL SCIENCE / Civil Rights
Label
Drug use for grown-ups : chasing liberty in the land of fear, Dr. Carl L. Hart
Instantiates
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
The war on us : how we got in this mess - Get out of the closet : stop behaving like children -- Beyond the harms of harm reduction -- Drug addiction is not a brain disease -- Amphetamines : empathy, energy, and ecstasy -- Novel psychoactive substances : searching for a pure bliss -- Cannabis : sprouting the seeds of freedom -- Psychedelics : we are one -- Cocaine : everybody loves the sunshine -- Dope science : the truth about opioids
Control code
1150789265
Extent
1 online resource (xiv, 290 pages)
Form of item
online
Isbn
9781101981658
Lccn
2020004188
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Other physical details
illustrations
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
577e1700-4d32-4fc7-bd93-cfab9af1bde8
Publisher number
EB00822276
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)1150789265
Label
Drug use for grown-ups : chasing liberty in the land of fear, Dr. Carl L. Hart
Publication
Copyright
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
The war on us : how we got in this mess - Get out of the closet : stop behaving like children -- Beyond the harms of harm reduction -- Drug addiction is not a brain disease -- Amphetamines : empathy, energy, and ecstasy -- Novel psychoactive substances : searching for a pure bliss -- Cannabis : sprouting the seeds of freedom -- Psychedelics : we are one -- Cocaine : everybody loves the sunshine -- Dope science : the truth about opioids
Control code
1150789265
Extent
1 online resource (xiv, 290 pages)
Form of item
online
Isbn
9781101981658
Lccn
2020004188
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Other physical details
illustrations
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
577e1700-4d32-4fc7-bd93-cfab9af1bde8
Publisher number
EB00822276
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)1150789265

Subject

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