High Price, featuring Carl Hart

Reason presents Carl Hart, author of

High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society

In conversation with John Tierney

When the U.S. intensified its War on Drugs in the mid-1980s, the media, government policy, police forces and of course Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign all painted the perils of illegal drug use. Illegal drugs were blamed for increased murder rates, addiction, overdoses and myriad other problems plaguing the country’s urban areas.

Growing up African American in one of Miami’s toughest neighborhoods, Carl Hart never questioned this conventional wisdom. But as he got older, he decided to explore the truth – what long-term effects do illegal drugs have? Are they as addictive as he had been led to believe?

Carl’s quest led him to specialize in the science of drug use. He now realizes, “The view that drugs are a problem for all who use them is inconsistent with the scientific evidence. Eighty-five percent or more of drug users — whether they use alcohol, prescription medications or drugs deemed illegal — do not have a problem.”

http://www.highpricethebook.com/

Carl Hart is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Columbia University. He is also a Research Scientist in the Division of Substance Abuse at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Hart is a member of the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse and on the board of directors of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence and the Drug Policy Alliance.

A native of Miami, Florida, Dr. Hart received his B.S. in psychology at the University of Maryland, and received his M.S. and Ph.D. in experimental psychology and neuroscience at the University of Wyoming. He lives in New York City.