Lead image of Carl Hart, Phd.
We’re about two generations removed from D.A.R.E. programs and Nancy Reagan’s war-on-drugs-inspired “Just Say No” campaign, and yet the debate on what illicit drugs could do to you wages on. In fact, in the opinion of Carl Hart, PhD, a stimulant like hexedrone—better known on the streets (and in Miami) as “bath salts”—is the kind of drug that would actually benefit a person who took it right before a nightmarish event or a pre-COVID company holiday party.
Hart’s name has been ringing bells heavily since the top of this year, when his newest book, Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear, offered an insightful look into his position as a “drug abuse scientist” and pushed back against what he sees as the demonization of certain drugs and those who take them. He has questioned the prevailing opinion that methamphetamine interferes with cognition, and he has presented findings that suggest marijuana has minimal impact on the working memory of regular smokers.
Now entering his fifth year as a “regular heroin user,” this neuroscientist and tenured Columbia psychology professor makes the case for decriminalizing narcotics, arguing that “we’re too afraid of these drugs and of what we think they do,” according to his 2013 memoir, High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society. “Science should be driving our drug policy and our drug education, even if that makes you and me uncomfortable,” he shared in a 2014 TEDMed conference.
This is not an easy message to absorb, even for an audience that enjoys the higher points of life, which Complex readers might.
Hart, 54, tried heroin for the first time in his 40s, and has used it regularly—and, he says, responsibly—in the years since. His positions may seem quite extreme to some, but in coming out of the “chemical closet,” he has employed ample research in creating a much-needed discussion about the costs of the drug war.
In this chat, Hart breaks down how drug education needs to be reevaluated in America and why testing is only for the industries to make money, and offers insight behind how toxicology reports are used to criminalize victims of police-sanctioned violence.
In legally regulating illicit drugs, Americans would be forced to create more language around safe usage
“Let me unpack that because, again, people don’t get that. The bottom line here is that when we think about drugs in this country, people are rightfully concerned that people will die [from usage]. And so, when we think about opioids in this country, the reason why people are dying from that is because of tainted drugs and the lack of information regarding why people shouldn’t mix opioids with other sedatives like alcohol, benzodiazepines, antihistamines (like promethazine). They don’t know that.
“If we legally regulated these things, then we wouldn’t have to deal with the tainted drugs. We would have a better quality of drug and quality control for the drug, so people would no longer have to worry about such things in drugs like fentanyl. Then, when you add in some proper education, you make sure that the people understand about safe usage. Creating the language and education around safe usage—whether through public service announcements or other ideas—is what my message is.”
Toxicology reports are never in favor of the victim—especially when they are Black
“The take from the toxicology report is that the headlines never match what’s going on with the person who died. The headline always blames the opioids, but that is not usually the case. In those reports, we can’t tell which drugs someone has died from, typically, but what you can see is that the person who died had multiple drugs in their system. We know when seeing that the combination of certain sedatives—opioids with alcohol, opioids with benzodiazepines or with antihistamines—increase the likelihood of respiratory depression and death. The major takeaway is do not mix these drugs together.
“Fentanyl is a lot more potent and is often passed off as heroin or something else. It can be a lot more dangerous if the person doesn’t know they have fentanyl [in their system]. A take-home message for your readers here is that we should have more test facilities where people can submit small amounts of their drugs to be tested, and then they get the chemical printout. If it contains fentanyl, then they would immediately know not to take it. They actually have such facilities in places like Spain, Austria, and in the Netherlands. These are places around the world, but we still don’t have them here in the United States.”
The war on drugs continues only to criminalize certain groups in this country
“First of all, there is no distinction between hard drugs and soft drugs. The body doesn’t make that distinction and that is where we screw the conversation up in this country. The point of all of this is that we have these repressive drug laws meant to keep certain groups under control. People should look at the states that are liberalizing their drug policies and see that those are the states that have predominantly white populations—because we are OK with arresting Black and brown bodies for drugs over when it is white folks. Unless you’re in a place like Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, they just don’t care, period.”
Drug tests are only aiding in making others money, not helping you find employment
“Drug urine tests are nothing more but to make money for the people in that industry, right? This is part of the ‘war on drugs,’ or the ‘addiction industry,’ that is a billion dollar income for them. These companies are not there to actually help people to detect a problem, because the urine tests don’t tell you anything about the person’s ability to function or their ability to competently carry out the task that you’re hiring for. And so, the urine tests are not the most effective way to see if they are able to accomplish the job at hand. The urine tests are there as part of the drug war jobs program. It is a way to make sure certain people have a job and money, while others don’t. That’s what it is for.”
Resources are a key to better understanding and having the right tools to learn
“There is my book, Drug Use for Grown-Ups, and it has all of this information. There are also a host of tips about how people can stay safe, how they can help their loved ones stay safe, and how they can put pressure on their local and national politicians to ensure that we have the right tools in place to keep American citizens alive, productive, and safe. I also have a website that features all of my writings—op-eds advocating on behalf of people like Laquan McDonald, George Floyd, and how they used drugs to scapegoat police aggression. It is all right there for the public to learn from and share with others.”