carl hart
intro’d to Carl here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/6/drugs_arent_the_problem_neuroscientist_carl
jan 2014
“When I started looking at the evidence more carefully, it became clear to me that drugs weren’t the problem. The problem was poverty, drug policy, lack of jobs — a wide range of things,” Dr. Carl Hart explained earlier this year in an interview that ranks #7 in our list of the 20 most popular segments of 2014.
“One of the things that shocked was when I discovered that 80 to 90 percent of the people who actually use drugs — like crack cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana — were not addicted.”
34 min – 6% of pop, 35% of prison pop..
37 min – if we were serious..
40 min – human experiment.. drug (crack cocaine) addict behavior changed by providing alternative choices.. ie: money, – when you provide an alternative.. ie: $5 – they will choose money half time.. if money increased to $20 – never chose drug.. (1999-200)
i had been fooled – that addicts would always take the crack
43 min – media and scientists contributing to this…
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tedmed 2014 (nov):
(video not available. interesting.)
i fully believed that crime and poverty were a direct result of drug addiction
new information changed thinking of addiction in the whole poverty cycle..
80-90% of the people who use drugs don’t have problems with drugs
attractive alternatives dramatically decrease drug use..
something else to do ness..
one in three black boys will spend time in prison.. (5 yrs for level that most use w/o affect) – one in 20 for white boys
more than 80% in prison for drugs are black when most of drug users are white
the real problems are poverty, unemployment, selective law enforcement, scientific ignorance…
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Dr. Carl Hart’s talk in Liverpool on on November 14, 2014.
Thinking about Drugs with a Social Conscience
crack was such a concern that the naacp teamed up with kkk
11 min – once you become educated.. you have to question everything.. can’t just accept what heroes have said
28 min – still have cognitive functioning.. we have been claiming to be lost – actually overwhelmingly w/in the normal range
34 min – war on drugs has been very successful – paying all kinds of people… if it hadn’t been successful we wouldn’t still be talking about it..
we don’t have to talk about a lot of issues we have.. just blame it on drugs..
90% of drug research funded by us drug abuse assoc- but their focus is very narrow – ie: on the bad things… overwhelming majority of users – use drugs w/o any of these bad things/issues – so we have a disproportionate amount of information on pathology.. that’s how we become dis-educated..
focus of the light is shining on pathology… difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding something..
wouldn’t it be nice if we could say.. science for the people (power to the people)
what we can do:
- provide attractive alternatives – something else to do again (said it would be hard – but maybe not)
- de criminalize all drugs – w/corresponding education – ie: does is the most important thing
- change narrative – narrative has been dominated by people who have problems w/drugs..
- we still need to trust the data.. not necessarily the story.. but the data… will take us to a humane space (rather than power/charisma)
anti-dope law only for profit.. and only affects the poor – James Baldwin – 1986
the thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely. – Lorraine Hansburry – raisin in the sun
(pic) – having fun being along together…
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Dr. Carl Hart talks about racism, poverty and the High Price we all pay.
aug 2014
12 min – on understanding mainstream words…
will/can we ever… or should/could we just listen more.. ask for clarification in the moment more
racial discrimination… some act/actions that negatively impacts a specific racial group
25 min – there’s only a select group of people who want to learn new things..
?
_______
2014 –
The Myths of Crack Cocaine with Dr Carl Hart (from Joe Rogan Experience #469)
on studying animals…
rat park ness
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book links to amazon
notes/highlights:
Intellectuals . . . who have had the courage to voice their opposition have often paid a very high price. —TAHAR BEN JELLOUN
The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely. —LORRAINE HANSBERRY
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 6-10). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Currently, there are more than 20 million Americans who use illegal drugs regularly.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Location 47). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
hysteria that stems from misinformation related to illegal drugs obfuscates the real problems faced by marginalized people.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Location 49). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
The paradox of education is precisely this— that as one begins to become conscious, one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. —JAMES BALDWIN
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 65-67). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
But throughout my career I mainly tried to avoid controversy, fearing it might derail me from conducting the work I so loved. Eventually, I realized that I could no longer stay silent. Much of what we are doing in terms of drug education, treatment, and public policy is inconsistent with scientific data. In order to come to terms with what I have seen in the lab and read in the scientific literature, there is nothing else to do but speak out.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 117-118). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
we can strip away the misinformation that actually drives so-called drug epidemics and leads us to take actions that harm the people and communities we presumably intend to help.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 172-173). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
In 1972— long before Farrah Fawcett’s The Burning Bed and O.J. and Nicole— the courts were reluctant to prosecute domestic violence cases, in part because they didn’t want to incarcerate the family’s primary wage earner, which might have left the wife and children destitute. As a result domestic violence as a tolerated behavior and was not limited to black families.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 190-192). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
weekends were his time to let go, to make up for the social and cultural isolation of his work as a warehouse manager.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 213-214). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Knowing that someone uses a drug, even regularly, does not tell us that he or she is “addicted.” It doesn’t even mean that the person has a drug problem. To meet the most widely accepted definition of addiction— the one in psychiatry’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM—a person’s drug use must interfere with important life functions like parenting, work , and intimate relationships. The use must continue despite ongoing negative consequences, take up a great deal of time and mental energy, and persist in the face of repeated attempts to stop or cut back. It may also include the experience of needing more of the drug to get the same effect (tolerance) and suffering withdrawal
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 230-236). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
more than 75 percent of drug users —whether they use alcohol, prescription medications, or illegal drugs —do not have this problem. (addiction)
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Location 237). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Racism is the belief that social and cultural differences between groups are inherited and immutable , making some groups inalterably superior to others.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 250-251). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
The opposite of empirical evidence is anecdotal information, which cannot tell us whether the stories told are outliers or are ordinary cases . Many people rely on personal anecdotes about drug experiences to try to understand what drugs do or don’t do, as if they are representative cases or scientific data. They are not.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 268-270). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Daily use of crack— the pattern showing the highest risk for addiction—never affected more than 0.2 percent of high school seniors. A 3,500 percent increase in spending to fight drugs between 1970 and 2011 had no effect on daily use of marijuana, heroin, or any type of cocaine. And while crack has been seen as a largely black problem, whites are actually more likely to use the drug, according to national statistics.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 299-302). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
The use of drug policy to “send a message” about race was a key part of Richard Nixon’s infamous Republican “southern strategy.” That strategy was aimed at winning the South for Republicans by exploiting white fear and hatred of blacks in the aftermath of Democratic support for the civil rights movement. It made words like crime, drugs, and urban code for black in the eyes of many white people. Consequently, it gave legitimacy to policies that appeared to be color-blind on the surface but in reality inevitably resulted in increased black incarceration and disenfranchisement.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 309-313). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Meanwhile, the real problems that had made our communities vulnerable to many social ills remained absent from public debate and unaddressed. They are visible in stories like mine, but only if you know where to look and how to think carefully about the problem.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 320-322). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Unfortunately, many people—both blacks and whites— fell for the idea that crack cocaine was the key cause of our problems and that more prisons and longer sentences would help solve them.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 322-323). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
When I later read Nietzsche’s line that “whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster,” …. Battling twisted prejudices can twist and distort you, often without your awareness of it.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 422-424). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
We were all molded by these attitudes and behaviors before we could even name them…. I can’t even describe my own earliest experiences of racism— it was so pervasive that it’s like trying to recall how you learned to speak.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 426-428). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
makes me think of the science of people – and that most people are other people.. so to Hari‘s quote.. opposite of addiction is also authenticity.. redefining aa perhaps to authenticity & attachment.. no?
In my family, one of the few feelings it was okay for males to express was anger— and to do that properly, you needed to have power or else you would be crushed.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 446-447). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
There is little doubt that I was affected early on by my mother’s lack of formal education and the limited vocabulary that was used in my home and by most of the people around me. They couldn’t teach me what they didn’t know. Nonetheless , I did learn many critical skills from them, among them the ability to listen, to patiently observe, and to be aware of myself. I learned to read other people, to pay attention to body language, tone of voice—all types of nonverbal cues. Data from recent studies show that children from working -class backgrounds like mine have greater empathy: they are both better able to read other people’s emotions and more likely to respond kindly to them.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 504-509). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
whoa. 1. perhaps not her lack of formal ed.. perhaps more her lack of luxury.. 2. learning empathy trumps academia. .. no? – one reason i think we have so much backwards… ie: on who could learn from who.. what lessons need to perhaps be our first lessons.. community/empathy/listening
Consequently, my confidence rose when I began to work to expand my vocabulary: I could take charge when I knew more mainstream apt and apposite words. I soon recognized the sheer power that precise language could give me. It was liberating, even exhilarating at times. But as a child, of course, I didn’t know what I wasn’t being exposed to.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 534-536). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
The working-class children were often happier and better behaved. They were much closer to their extended families and were full of energy. They mostly did as they were told. They knew how to entertain themselves and were rarely bored. They were more adept at relationships.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 569-571). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Pill, because she said she didn’t know what was in it. She felt it might sterilize her permanently or could be part of some conspiracy to destroy the black family. We’d all heard about the Tuskegee syphilis experiments and how black men had been left to suffer a curable disease just to allow white scientists to see how it progressively destroyed their bodies and brains.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 674-677). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Winning matters; nothing is worse than being a loser. I got this message virtually everywhere. It dominated both the mores of the mainstream and of the hood.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 759-760). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
It wasn’t school achievement itself that we saw as “acting white.” It’s something much more subtle than that . And understanding this complexity is important to understanding my story and to recognizing what’s really going on in poor neighborhoods . What was being reinforced and what was being punished was not about education.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 772-775). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
What really got kids labeled as dorks or sellouts and picked on about their schoolwork were their attitudes toward other black people. …It was snobbery, not schoolwork, that was “white” to us.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Location 780, 783). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Today, of course, like other academics, I bring work home because I enjoy the challenge and want to stay ahead of the game— and so do my children. They know they have to do homework to please their parents and do well in school . They get rewarded for doing it and punished for avoiding it. Like I did as a kid, they see school as their job— but for them it’s not a meaningless burden, but rather a path to a desirable future.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 869-872). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
? – is it meaningful because it’s better than what you had..? or because it’s authentically meaningful..? – meaning.. are they really into all of it..? or into the package deal – to get to meaningfulness..?
Data now confirms that believing in the importance of practice, rather than innate ability, gives people an edge . It turns out, in fact, that some of the praise that parents give their children is not simply benign. When children believe that they were “born smart,” they may actually take on fewer intellectual challenges or risks. They become afraid that if they fail, it will prove that they were incorrectly labeled.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 917-919). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
dweck ness
But although there are some cases of abuse, the vast majority of therapeutic users do not become addicted. Indeed, there’s some evidence that children given these drugs to treat attention problems are actually at lower risk of addiction later in life than those whose ADHD is not treated with medication.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 1191-1194). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
does that really have to do with getting the drug..? or might it have to do with the ramifications of societal norm oppressions… ie: the one with the meds got less neg reinforcement.. for being dead/drugged basically.. while those not taking meds.. remain more alive/aware of abuse (for not fitting norms.. dis/order ness)
a great deal of pathological drug use is driven by unmet social needs, by being alienated and having difficulty connecting with others.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 1326-1327). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
There is now a plethora of evidence collected in animals and humans showing that the availability of nondrug alternative reinforcers decreases drug use across a range of conditions.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 1353-1354). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
The choice to use depends far more on context and availability of alternatives than we have been led to believe. Of course, you have probably heard about studies in which rats or even primates continually pressed levers to get cocaine , heroin, or methamphetamine until they died, choosing drugs rather than food and water. But what you probably didn’t know is that these animals were kept in isolated, unnatural environments for most of their lives, where they typically became stressed without social contact and had little else to do.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 1374-1378). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
for many – this is school (teachers as well – not knocking the gathering.. knocking the compulsory agenda of the gathering) – ie: had little else to do beside what they were told..
My concerns were entirely focused on the respect of my peers and whatever was necessary to maintain my status. I just didn’t see that white guy as human; he wasn’t one of us.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 1522-1523). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
they turned out to be some of the most open -minded, intelligent, and intriguing kids I hung out with in high school.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Location 1733). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
The researchers found that , regardless of the severity of the initial offense, teens who were incarcerated were three times more likely to be reincarcerated as adults 1 compared with those not incarcerated for similar offenses. … Similarly, Canadian researchers conducted a large-scale, carefully controlled study in which 779 low-income youth in Montreal were followed from ages ten to seventeen; they were interviewed as well as their parents and teachers. Years later, researchers examined their criminal records and found that those who had received any kind of custodial sentence as teens were thirty-seven times more likely to be arrested in adulthood than their peers who had committed similar crimes but were not incarcerated during adolescence.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 1908-1915). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Social influences like incarceration during youth predict adult crime far more strongly than anything we’ve been able to identify so far related to biological factors like dopamine in the brain.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 1920-1921). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Moreover, because black youth are more than twice as likely to be arrested as whites, 4 the negative effects of juvenile prison have a disproportionate effect on our community. (For drug offenses, the inequities are even more glaring: drug cases are filed against black youth at a rate almost five times greater than for white youth, even though more white youth, 17 percent, report having sold drugs than blacks do, 13 percent.) 5 While these facts are discouraging because they show how big the problem is, they also suggest that a clear solution is minimizing juvenile incarceration rates.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 1922-1927). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
it really is impossible to grow up in a world that despises people who look like you and not succumb to secret self-doubt at times. It quietly eats away at you, with a corrosive shame that is extremely difficult to extinguish because it goes unexpressed.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2218-2220). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
I felt like I wasn’t alone for the first time; the sources of my pain had been named and were shared, after all. Moreover, undeniably brilliant and talented people had felt similarly. Even they were fighting the same demons , both from within and without. They had often themselves literally been hidden from view, like Ella Fitzgerald’s voice appearing to emanate from the mouth of a white woman.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2223-2225). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
When he skewered America’s commercialism and the commodification and co-optation of rebellion in “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” I felt like my world and experience were being expertly dissected and explained for the first time.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2227-2229). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
The no-knock raids of the 1960s became even more prevalent over time: with the war on drugs as their rationale, by 2006, there were more than forty thousand military assaults on homes every year, with SWAT teams typically entering with no warning. Most of them occurred in black neighborhoods. In some of the tragic cases, police raided the wrong address and innocent people were killed. 2
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2247-2250). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
The important point here is that powder and crack cocaine are qualitatively the same drug.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2282-2283). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Snorting cocaine powder, on the other hand, bypasses the liver. Blood vessels lining the nose take it directly to the brain. Consequently, about five minutes after snorting a line, you “feel it.” In contrast , oral administration takes half an hour to “hit you.” If you really want to get drugs to the brain fast, however, intravenous injection or smoking is the way to go. These routes produce the most intense high— and are associated with greater rates of addiction.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2309-2313). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Ironically, as I began lamenting having been born too late to join the Black Panthers or protest the Vietnam War, I was unaware that a new assault on black people was being launched back home. That was Ronald Reagan’s war on drugs.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2476-2477). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
life— it played right into the stereotypes that use always leads to devastating addiction and that drug use by black people is the real source of our problems.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2596-2597). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
I didn’t see then that the way we fought drugs actually made our oppression worse. I viewed the drugs as the problem, not our ideology around them or our treatment and law enforcement policies.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2600-2602). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
I was making the same mistakes in thinking that our leaders were. For example, I began to think that violence , the presence of guns in the hood, and the willingness of people I knew to use them were all caused by drugs. I left out the pieces— like my own family’s experiences with domestic violence and parental absence and my personal experiences with gun crimes— that didn’t fit.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2604-2607). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Ronald and Nancy Reagan took to national TV to promote “outspoken intolerance” against drugs, calling them a “cancer” and asking Americans to join their antidrug “crusade.”
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2649-2651). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
unfortunately, while crack cocaine itself wasn’t an unprecedented phenomenon, what did genuinely change in the 1980s was the way the leaders of our community thought about the police and justice system.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2692-2693). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
asking for more protection from police..? – a uniting of people who wanted more prisons and less mercy.. (myths – that one hit could make you addicted.. and that users were impulsive.. to get another hit)
those incarcerated under the federal anticrack laws were black: for example, in 1992, the figure was 91 percent and in 2006 it was 82 percent. 8 While the intent may not have been racist, the outcome— lack of outrage and failure to change course in response to the disproportionate number of black men who were convicted, imprisoned, and disenfranchised— certainly was.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2756-2759). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
joni mitchel & bob dylan
Much of my confidence came from the fact that Rob was very clear with me that hard work was what mattered most. Because he kept reinforcing that idea, I wasn’t as intimidated by the subject
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2872-2873). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
I found it more and more difficult to connect with my closest friends and family members. I wanted to discuss the larger societal issues that trapped so many people like us in those horrible conditions. But they were more concerned with immediate issues like how to pay this month’s rent and how to put food on the table today for their kids. They had little interest or time for what someone called my “academic masturbations.” I wanted to work on changing the world and all they wanted was work. I didn’t fit anywhere.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 2913-2917). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Terri’s father. He lived in Longmont, Colorado, and taught me a critical lesson that paved the way for my graduate school success. Terri’s father had served in the military and was an information technology consultant. (1992)
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 3219-3220). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
he knew I might feel that since I was now a graduate student, I would have to start pretending that I knew things I really didn’t know. I might be embarrassed, at this new level of recognized achievement, to admit ignorance. He was right.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 3226-3227). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
I had to be brave enough to ask what others might see as obvious questions. Not learning key things I needed to know for my work would be worse than possibly looking ignorant for a moment.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 3229-3231). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Richard Saul Wurman – presiige
Jim Rose gave me one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten as a result, saying that I should face each person anew. Rather than defensively assuming that my views or actions had altered the relationship, I needed to be open first and let the other person’s actual reaction— not my expectations or apprehensions— determine my response.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 3322-3325). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
As is often the case, once many people become a part of the system they once criticized, they are rewarded for behaving in a manner similar to those around them.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 3329-3330). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
mid-1980s. The author, who was a medical doctor, wrote: Most of the negroes are poor, illiterate and shiftless. . . . Once the negro has formed the habit he is irreclaimable. The only method to keep him away from taking the drug is by imprisoning him. And this is merely palliative treatment, for he returns inevitably to the drug habit when released.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 3418-3421). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
went on to claim: [Cocaine] produces several other conditions that make the “fiend” a peculiarly dangerous criminal. One of these conditions is a temporary immunity to shock— a resistance to the “knock down,” effects of fatal wounds. Bullets fired into vital parts that would drop a sane man in his tracks, fail to check the “fiend.”
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 3429-3432). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
..there were actually no sound pharmacologically rational reasons behind why alcohol and tobacco were legal, and cocaine and marijuana were not. It was mainly about history and social reasons , about choosing the drug dangers that would be highlighted to spur public concern and those that would be ignored. It seemed as if sound pharmacology was almost never considered or minimized. Bans on drugs were inevitably preceded by hysterical coverage filled with scare stories about drug use by despised minorities, often immigrants and the poor.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 3448-3452). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
unless they were prompted, craving wasn’t their primary concern. The patients’ real issues were mainly related to practical things like the high cost of housing and other essentials.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 3637-3638). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
It became increasingly clear to me how our prejudices about drug use and our punitive policies toward users themselves made people who take drugs seem less human and less rational.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 3677-3678). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
we’ve all probably observed how people respond to rewards in multiple areas of life. It’s often seen most clearly in parenting: for example, if my sons want a new computer, I expect them to maintain a certain GPA. In most workplaces, if the boss offers
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 3865-3867). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
not sure about this reward stuff.. imagine if instead of reward.. it’s gershenfeld.. something else to do.. reward seems like a bandaid.. and perhaps something else we’ve been blinded to.. that they only way to change is by reward..
very cool that results are better than 12 step – 53% to 11% and 83% to 11% – rates of relapse same.. but imagine if we did something even better.. as well as – something that would keep people from it in the first place. Maté aa ness – deep enough
participants’ drug-taking behaviors are being replaced with real-world job skills.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 3890-3891). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
again – imagine if focus isn’t just people getting jobs.. but finding/doing/being the thing they can’t not do..
I liked getting to know the participants: it not only helped the experiments run more smoothly but also gave me insight into their world, which allowed me to do better science. I now try to minimize the extent to which theories or stereotypes influence my view of drug users
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 3901-3902). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
cool that’s how you wrote this book as well. your story intertwined with your revelations/research/experimenting/listening…
This simplistic thinking is the main thrust behind the notion that drug addiction is a brain disease. It certainly isn’t a brain disease like Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease. In the case of these illnesses, one can look at the brains of affected individuals and make pretty good predictions about the illness involved. We are nowhere near being able to distinguish the brain of a drug addict from that of a non– drug addict.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4254-4257). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
One of the most popular beliefs about methamphetamine is that it is highly addictive, more so than any other drug. In the next set of experiments, I set out to address this issue. Under one condition, I gave methamphetamine addicts a choice between taking a big hit of methamphetamine (50 mg) or five dollars in cash. They took the drug on about half of the opportunities. But when I increased the amount of money to twenty dollars, they almost never chose the drug. 14 I had gotten similar results with crack cocaine addicts in an earlier study. 15 This told me that the addictive potential of methamphetamine was not as had been claimed;
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4279-4285). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Ninety percent of individuals who tried methamphetamine once, they were also told, would become “addicted.” How could such inaccurate information be given to naive students, let alone be reported on NPR, I thought.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4294-4296). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Upton Sinclair’s famous quote aptly describes this situation: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” 18 Consider also that NIDA funds more than 90 percent of all research on the major drugs of abuse. This means that the overwhelming majority of information on drugs published in the scientific literature, textbooks, and popular press is biased toward the negative aspects of drug use.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4318-4322). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
The human cost of this misguided approach is incalculable, as hundreds of thousands of men and women, including my own family members, languish in prison as a result.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4329-4330). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
I explained that my twenty-plus years of drug research experience has taught me many important lessons, but perhaps none more important than this— drug effects are predictable. As you increase the drug dose, there is more potential for toxic effects. Black boys ’ and men’s interactions with the police, however, are not predictable.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4364-4366). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
I discovered, though, that DPA faced the same pressures and limitations that many other nonprofits face— the donors influence priorities.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4395-4396). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
If the society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority. —BARBARA JORDAN
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4404-4406). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
The thing that pleases me most, however, is that they are happy and cheerful.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4510-4511). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
I thought about all the years that I spent away from my Florida family in order to obtain an education that seems inadequate to help solve the problems they face.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4518-4519). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
One such option is drug decriminalization. Decriminalization is often confused with legalization. They are not the same thing.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4547-4548). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
major difference: Under legalization, the sale, acquisition, use, and possession of drugs are legal. Our current policies regulating alcohol and tobacco, for those of legal age, are examples of drug legalization. Under decriminalization, on the other hand, the acquisition, use, and possession of drugs can be punished by a citation much like traffic violations are. Mind you, drugs still are not legal, but infractions do not lead to criminal convictions— the one thing that has prevented so many from obtaining employment, housing, governmental benefits, treatment, and so on. This is crucial when you consider this fact: each year, more than 80 percent of arrests in the United States for drug offenses involves only simple possession. 1 Sales of all illicit drugs, however, remain criminal offenses under decriminalization laws.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4548-4555). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Back in 2001, Portugal took the unprecedented step of decriminalizing all illegal drugs.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4559-4560). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition..
Overall, they have increased spending on prevention and treatment, and decreased spending for criminal prosecution and imprisonment. The number of drug-induced deaths has dropped, as have overall rates of drug use, especially among young people (15– 24 years old). In general, drug use rates in Portugal are similar , or slightly better, than in other European Union countries. 2 In other words, Portugal’s experiment with decriminalization has been moderately successful.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4571-4575). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
And given how entrenched some drug myths are, one should not expect change to occur within a short period.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4590-4591). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
so what if we take the piece of your findings.. of supposed addicts deciding/pickin the choice of something else.. – what if we offer a preferable something else to 7 billion people (or 1st to one community/city), what if that hastens all this (equity) rather than having to teach things (that aren’t part of the deepest problems..)
We should not be locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing. —P RESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4966-4969). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition
The real problem in such communities, especially those of color, was not drugs but drug policy and drug law enforcement.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 4976-4977). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
From my perspective, drug decriminalization can serve as an intermediary step towards drug legalization as long as people are taught how to use drugs safely.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 5034-5035). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
One of the most important lessons is that the war on drugs is an international affair that disproportionately harms poor people of all nations.
Hart, Carl (2013-06-11). High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society (P.S.) (Kindle Locations 5051-5052). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
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may 2015 – at uni of east london
@DrCarlHart will be giving a lecture here in 20 minutes. Make sure you watch it LIVE here – https://t.co/6528b8cW0R
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/UEL_News/status/603239712472588288
telling that the intro is so touching.. no?
i don’t have to be in a fight.. and it’s an uncomfortable position for me –
a whole history on behavioral science/drugs.. that had been worked out…on research we already know – but not being shared w/public – ie: rat park
what i didn’t know – is the animal didn’t have anything in the cage.. besides pressing the lever
49 min – on consequences of erring on the side of caution
difficult to get a man to understand something when salary depends on him not understanding it.. Upton Sinclair
59 min – american psychological association’s monitor (mag) title: build resilience in black boys. think about that. organization with more psychologists than any other organization around the world.. their solution when you have a sick society is to build resilience in black boys.
1:01 – my question is.. why are we as a public constantly misled.. as it relates to drug policy.. because it allows us to go after the people we don’t like w/o explicitly saying so..
1:02 – also.. misled because it allows us to avoid dealing with the real problems poor people face. don’t have to deal with them if you simply say.. those communities are screwed up because of drug use. game over.
1:03 – also – misled because it increases finances… we all have benefited handsomely from this war on drugs..
pluralistic ignorance.. perhaps tech can help us wake up with a synchronistic energy
1:04 – drug problem treated as health/criminal problem.. no.. because 80-90% use drugs w/o a problem
1:05 – what can we do about it
1:06 – if you continue to work and be successful.. you will have the opportunity to sell out.. but if you’re going to make waves.. you have to do this.. you have to do the work
huge. the combo of intense hard work.. and maintaining the art/energy of it.. the intent of it.. (which paradoxically is the only way to maintain it… if the intent.. if the person.. remains authentic.. no?) how to be private in public.. on keeping your anechoic chamber ness… huge.
1:08 – if we’re not out of the closet – of being responsible drug users… the narrative won’t change
on de criminalizing drugs – treating drugs like a traffic violation
1:10 – de criminalization doesn’t touch the issue that i’m primarily concerned with.. the adulterants in the illicit drug market (i don’t even know what’s in it – and they’re more dangerous than drugs) – ultimately .. we will have to legally regulate this market.. we might have to teach drug ed… the facts about drugs
1:11 – one of the things about being human: cognitive flexibility… you can change your mind. constantly re evaluate. we haven’t done that.. for the last 100 yrs.
1:14 – govt benefits are what we should be doing in a humane society
1:15 – neuropharmocological studies aren’t a waste of time.. but money is disproportionately spent – priorities are screwed up
1:16 – what i think should be done.. focus on trying to understand how drug arrests/incarcerations disrupt people’s life-trajectories/mental-health/life-expectancy
perhaps a worst case scenario is enough.. Paula Cooper.. .. no? systemic ness matters. we can never chase this down. unless we go deep enough.
1:20 – who’s benefiting the most – law enforcement.. very concerned about law enforcement and prison workers losing their jobs..
i’m worried about street drugs with adulterants in them… law enforcement confiscates these.. but never publish that.. shift from war on drugs to public safety
1:24 – race relations – i think we get along well – but we subjugate people. racial discrimination is another thing
problem with political officials.. is having the courage to do the right thing.
the problem: people selling out once they’re popular.. we need to be courageous
1:29 – asked if he had been contacted by us govt to help out with this.. he said no.. ie: some people might get embarrassed… but i have by colombian/brazilian govts..
1:31 – politicians worried about voters…
life is too short for less than honest/genuine people.. – on politics ness
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interview with Tavis Smiley
“The politics of respectability has done serious harm.” – CarlHart… fb.me/7ixuMx0Z6
time in england… critical.. and english speaking country that had a critique on the u.s. ie: on racism
i point all this out in high price, ie: my mentors et al, so that people realize.. i’m not special..
we are led to believe that it’s the drugs that has caused people to be the way they are.. yet 80-90% don’t have problems with it.. so you can’t blame the drug.. when you provide people w/alternatives.. they will use the alternatives if they are attractive.. what’s surprising is how the public has ignored the facts… in science ie: saying this isn’t right..
why won’t scientific community won’t say more about this.. 1\they don’t have to face society with these questions 2\they are benefitting financially
i work hard at being the best at what i do so i can be who i am..
(above answer) when asked how he gets away with dressing/looking like he does with a high profile position..
rest of video here:
http://video.pbs.org/video/2365045350/?start=1200
the politics of respectability has done so much harm.
if i would have gotten huffy and puffy – the good folks would not have heard what i had to say
23 min – on high price – the book is hybrid: memoir/science/policy:
1\ memoir: you don’t have to be perfect to make a contribution in society;
2\ science: you’ve been lied to, misled, about how awful drugs are. drugs have been used as a scapegoat not to deal with the real problems that poor people face. (not to say drugs aren’t potentially dangerous)
3\ policy: since many of our assumptions about drugs are wrong – we should start to think about changing public policy, ie: de criminalize all drugs..
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30 activists will hold pop-up classrooms in BK & Harlem protesting economic barriers to education. I am one of… http://t.co/LuCfsSLBwn
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/drcarlhart/status/611942598480109568
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on london real:
Debunking Drug Myths | London Real
i love being idealistic.. when i stop being idealistic.. i don’t want to be here.
11 min – on not condoning drug use.. but rather.. understanding human behavior
15 min – this isn’t really about drugs.. it’s about some drugs.. and some (assumed undesirable) people
18 min – in us/uk we get our heroin off the street – so adulterated/impure..
22 min – on media perpetuating myths about ie: crack, crack withdrawal
24 min – you’re saying something that everybody else’s anecdotal experience seems to be inconsistent with.. and there are scientists that will disagree with this position
25 min – evidence alone – that my experiments funded by govt
28 min – drugs hit the market.. they are believed.. because have no experience to refute it
29 min – you don’t even have to be powerful.. just a participate in the society.. to perpetuate the vilification
30 min – i love being idealist, when i stop being idealistic i don’t want to be here..
36 min – bruce alexander
39 min – prison as commodity
our general population seems to be ok with it.. that’s why it happens
people are apathetic because it doesn’t impact them
42 min – i have to look in the mirror every day and make sure i’m doing all i can to promote these ideals: freedom…
44 mi – on the problem.. if vast majority of people who use drug aren’t addicted.. the substance can’t be the problem.. so.. look at environment et al
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find/follow Carl:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/fac-bios/HartC/faculty.html
Carl Hart (born 1966) is an associate professor of psychology and psychiatry at Columbia University. Hart is known for his research in drug abuse and drug addiction. Hart was the first tenured African American professor of sciences at Columbia University.
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perhaps rat park ness with Scott in prospect or ?
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on hotel episode in brazil – aug 2015
one thing i learned from this event.. i’m no longer a regular black man.
how about we care about the regular people..
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oct 7 2015 – nobel conf – addiction
https://gustavus.edu/events/nobelconference/2015/video/
i have a problem with the focus on addiction.. you don’t challenge the status quo for the sake of it.. you do it for the consequences… if not
the paradox of ed: as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is educated – james baldwin
most people who use drugs don’t need jail.. or to be treated medically.. they need to be educated
make sure we transfer real info that keeps people safe – we have exaggerated the harmful effects of drugs, ie: meth commercial
sometimes when i go to talks i feel like a prisoner of the speakers rhetoric.. i don’t want you to feel like that.. so leaving references
meth improves cog performance.. (matt kirkpatrick study)
meth improved speech – rated as more coherent – (jennifer parde study)
meth, adoral, … same drug..
can’t make conclusions about impairments w/o comparisons – control group alone is insufficient.. without making a normative data base, ie: education, age…
and what about to our possibility.. ie: science of people ness..
cog performance of meth users is normal… this propensity to interpret and brain/cog differences.. is not appropriate.. it helps to give you a distorted view..90% of research focuses on pathology…. scientists in general err on the side of caution
wondering again.. how many people in the help others field.. would hate to lose their job.. ie: find a cure they are working on…
why we keep being misled: we’re less comfortable on talking about the role of scientists in perpetuation this
untruth.. politicians..
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it. – Upton Sinclair
could up to 38 caliber gun – because 36 caliber wouldn’t work on high black person.. et al.. 1914… first drug laws… mckinney
similar arguments made for cocaine in 1986 – punished crack cocaine 100 times more harshly than powder cocaine.. 5 yrs for 100 times less crack… 80% of those convicted were black..
even today with drug laws.. time magazine cover.. 1968 crossed out and 2015 written in
2007 on obama… saying we know the cocaine issues are wrong… saying that will change when i’m president… kind of changed 2010 – act to decrease disparity 100 to 1 to 18 to 1… there is no other law that we punish one route of admin than another admin
if you stick a knife in my back 9 in and pull out 6 in there is no progress the progress is in the healing – malcolm x
more than 80% of people convicted under these laws are still black.. even today…
in twin cities.. black people 11 times more likely to be arrested..
building resilience in black boys when you have a f%#d up society.. focusing on things that aren’t important.. regurgitating misinfo.. sincerity not enough.. we need to be thinking people… know the science
cognition changes.. change minds et al
this is not a formula for popularity but for taking care of your citizens..
q&a
oh my.. the words: there’s tons and tons of evidence and we know..
on petrification keeping us from the convos we need to have – @michaelpantalon
on changing the frame of saying drug/alcohol destroying people.. rather than figuring out what’s really going on.. look beyond drug at the person
2 needs ness
we talk about genetics as if it’s the wastebasket we don’t understand
what @dr hart has done for us is help us realize we need to rethink what we have thought about drugs – Murphy – and the politics of what research questions get funded… Sheigla B. Murphy
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nov 2015 – on interview w Amy Goodman – on heroin/addiction becoming presidential debate:
http://www.drcarlhart.com/vast-majority-people-use-heroin-dont-need-treatment/
amy on the two white states running the political debate..
vast majority don’t need treatment/jail
we have to be careful how we’re framing this whole issue
i don’t know if people are escaping necessarily… use to make things more interesting and people more tolerable.. not so diff than use of alcohol
drug policy is just an extension of all policies… used to further marginalize groups…
the body does not see heroin as diff than alcohol.. that’s us constructing that not the body
amy – on the success of injection sites.. only one in n america..
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Carl Hart (@drcarlhart) tweeted at 6:11 PM on Tue, Dec 22, 2015:
Our new drug czar is incorrect about drug addiction. Get the facts here…. https://t.co/WUhqAwcB1b
(https://twitter.com/drcarlhart/status/679469427088343041?s=03)brain disease.. when you image the folks that have brain disease.. you can see it… when you compare to addicts brain – you can’t see it..
the notion that it’s a brain disease.. distracts us.. it pretends to be compassion..
distracts us from focusing on the real issue…
8 min – on admin trying to move away from the language of incarceration.. pretending to have a diff focus.. without changing any policy that’s meaningful.. their focus is treatment.. when most people don’t need treatment … or jail.
10 min – addict vs user… 11 criteria.. people need 3 or more to be classified as addict.. vast majority of users don’t have these..
11 min – i don’t really care about the distinction.. if people say it’s a disease.. it’s a disease… when we think about 12 steppers.. that’s for.. plugging people in socially.. but … other type of treatments for drugs…. it’s pretty important that people are plugged in socially….
12 min – i don’t know if long term sobriety should be the focus.. healthy lives should be the focus..
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Please listen to this podcast. Well done, Lynn! https://t.co/yvRc9FhD4A
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/drcarlhart/status/676927566444367872
In this episode we talk with Lynne Lyman of the Drug Policy Alliance about the failed war on drugs and what we can do about it.
Lynne’s book recommendations:
New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander
High Price – Dr. Carl Hart
Just Mercy – Bryan Stevenson (UW Alum!!)
Chasing The Scream – Johann Hari
Find more info on their website:
hero of 2015 – Bryan
fav ted – her boss – Ethan
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Pls read this informative interview by @thor_benson on meth and Adderall. https://t.co/BmnypE2kqF
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/drcarlhart/status/699040745093783554
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@drcarlhart
Are you concerned about K2 & heroin use? In this video I state what we should do about both. Pls Watch & Share…. fb.me/2TNzo6hEb
it would be nice to know what’s in the packet and what was in their system.. more helpful than simply frightening people..
we can simply test packet & get blood levels..we should request that..
that would be more responsible journalism.. the service the public needs..
those images do nothing to keep people safe..
read blood from people sick and test packet..
would increase trust for people for public health officials..
heroin use in u.s. has always been relatively low…
by us getting hysterical about issues.. we miss the opp to ed people about how to stay safe
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Johann Hari (@johannhari101) tweeted at 8:39 AM – 3 May 2017 :
The great @drcarlhart is one of the most important voices exposing myths about drugs. Read this https://t.co/i9LTmxIYGj (http://twitter.com/johannhari101/status/859779402212802565?s=17)
if you give people attractive alt’s to drugs…
ie: hlb via 2 convos that io dance.. as the day..[aka: not part\ial.. for (blank)’s sake…].. a nother way
based on maté basic needs
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books..
Bryan Stevenson – just mercy
Carl Hart – high price
Johann Hari – chasing the scream
Matt Taibbi – the divide
Shaka Senghor – writing my wrongs
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Columbia Neuroscientist Receives Death Threats for Speaking Out Against Deadly Philippines Drug War
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/5/15/columbia_neuroscientist_receives_death_threats_for
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Carl Hart (@drcarlhart) tweeted at 5:16 AM on Wed, Sep 13, 2017:
In my most recent visit to Brazil, I recent time with an impressive group of youth who had spent the past year… https://t.co/50YgEFmFxL
(https://twitter.com/drcarlhart/status/907925907293143040?s=03)
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Carl.. on hari rat park law
Here’s clip of my recent appearance on Brazil’s favorite TV talk show. #ConversaComBial
https://t.co/RR2v2GFvzLOriginal Tweet: https://twitter.com/drcarlhart/status/910129995993030656
we did – (rat park) – w humans in the lab.. gave them a choice
when provide people w attractive alt’s.. they will choose attractive alt’s over drugs..
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The great @drcarlhart explains people are dying of ignorance not opioids https://t.co/T48CyiIVgC
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/johannhari101/status/920334395143348226
Throughout Europe and other regions where opioids are readily available, people are not dying at comparable rates as those in the U.S., largely because addiction is treated not as a crime but as a public health problem.
One simple solution is to offer free, anonymous drug-purity testing services. If a sample contains adulterants, users would be informed.
The vast majority of opioid users do not become addicts.
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People Are Dying in Opioid Crisis Because of Politicians’ Ignorance
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/10/27/neuroscientist_dr_carl_hart_people_are
let’s not get crazy; let’s just focus on the real problems
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.@NIDAnews (1 of 2): Want to decrease the number of drug-related fatal overdoses? You can start by pushing for anonymous drug-purity checking services. Read my latest piece (700 words); it shows how drug-checking services saves lives.
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/drcarlhart/status/1008342793301970944
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be you. 