Drug Use for Grown-Ups

I really want everyone alive to read this. The title might suggest that this will be a how-to for drug use, but it's a powerfully revisionist book that completely annihilates a lifetime of indoctrination that we're all put through.

There were several moments in the book when I felt acutely embarrassed of my own ignorance, especially being an ex harm reduction professional with a long-standing interest in the subject. Thankfully, Hart talks very openly about his own history of ignorance and participation in the state's demonisation of drugs, and how his mind had been changed by his work in neuroscience and the science of addiction.

I think most people who aren't drug users would find this book to be an effective exercise in empathy with those who do. But most of all, it's necessary to dispel the myths that we're told about drugs and the people who take them.

I really loved Hart's tone too and am putting him on top of my fantasy celebrity dinner party (with all the drugs) list.

Interesting Perspective Marred By Bias And Lack Of Scholarly Rigor. Let me state up front: I am a former Libertarian Party official at the State and local level, and an avowed anarchist to boot. I fully concur with Dr. Hart's position that all drugs should be fully decriminalized. And it was this agreement that had me initially wanting to rate this book at a full 5.But considering the actual arguments and the actual text presented, I cannot claim to be an objective judge of the merits of the books I'm reading if I did that. Because there are definite problems with this book that I've called out in no uncertain terms when I *didn't agree with the author's positions - and thus I cannot ignore them here, when I do largely agree with the author's positions.

Specifically, there is quite a bit of anti-white “they're all just a bunch of racist pieces of shit” strawmen commentary in this text. Numerous cases where Hart blames racism rather than applying Hanlon's Razor or even looking for alternative, non-race based reasonings for his opponents' positions. And having been on both sides of this debate at different times in my life, I can testify as a fellow Son of the South (rural exurbs outside Atlanta vs Hart's coming of age in urban Miami) that there are several other rationales other than the racism Hart claims is at the heart of all anti-drug laws.

Further, barely 12% of this text is bibliography, despite Hart claiming numerous times “I know I'm going to have to present some evidence here since this is not a commonly held position”. More often than not, rather than actually examining studies showing various harms from various substances, Hart dismisses them with the hand wave of a professor more concerned with getting his own point across, “there is no basis for that claim, we're moving on”.

I actually enjoyed the less formal tone of the presentation here, as it made the book overall far more readable than some academics make their narratives. I simply wish the narrative were more substantive.

Recommended.

Dr. Carl Hart is living in the year 2100. His bold proclamation is elegant in its simplicity: criminalization of ANY recreational drug causes more inherent harm to society than good. For that reason, EVERY drug should be decriminalized, legalized, regulated, and taxed.

Just like ending prohibition in the 1920's. Just like ending marijuana criminalization today. Just like some states are even pushing for legalization of some psychedelics. This fight will not end until all drug prohibition ends and the words of the Declaration of Independence finally ring true: the right to the pursuit of happiness.

Everything we were taught in school and told by the Mainstream Media about recreational drugs is either completely wrong or incredibly sensationalized.
Police over the last century have demonized & lied about a specific drug and use those lies as post-hoc justifications for the unjust murders they committed, to further brutalize the poor and marginalized communities, and to justify future murders.

Any time you hear “[New scary drug] makes people aggressive, gives them immense strength, and makes them impervious to bullets,” or anything like that, it's lies made up by cops. Every time.

Remember that guy who “became a cannibal after taking bath salts?” Well turns out he didn't have any bath salts (MDPV, methylone, mephedrone, etc) in his system at all at the time of the assault. But that didn't stop the cops from lying and the media from buying & repeating their lies. And now that class of drug, which had NOTHING TO DO with that assault, is outlawed. For no good reason.
The major cause of drug-related deaths is user's poor understanding of how to administer the drug safely, and the fact that because these drugs exist on a black market, they are unregulated and no one really knows what they're buying. This can be remedied through legalization, regulation, and education.

Brutalizing drug users will never eliminate the use of these drugs. Ever. These laws are always enforced in a manner that primarily harms the poor and marginalized people, despite the fact that drugs ARE expensive, and frequently used by the well to do. But if you're rich and white, the cops aren't gonna bust down your door for wanting to have a good time in the privacy of your own home.
Crack and cocaine are the same exact drug chemically and pharmacologically, yet the sentences for possession are 18x greater for crack. Why? Because historically black people used crack and white people used cocaine. That's literally the only reason. (Luckily it's down from what it used to be before 2010, which was 100:1. Thanks Obama, I guess)

Drugs won the “war on drugs.” It's time to end it. It's time to stop the prison industrial complex from continuing to enslave people who dare to want to alter their minds. It's time to legalize.

I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone. This is a fight that anyone who supports individual freedom and/or dismantling the racist, oppressive criminal justice system should support.