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

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 colleague, 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.

From inside the massively well-funded research arm of the American war on drugs, Hart 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 offers a radically new vision: when used responsibly, drugs can enrich and enhance our lives. We have a long way to go, but this book is an extraordinarily important step.