Book Review: "Drug Use for Grown-Ups" by Dr. Carl Hart

When I first heard of this book I expected it to be someone simply teaching us how marijuana can help and heal us like many other people are trying to teach us. CBD, weed etc. But I was so very wrong. Instead, this is a book about how the history of drugs is so very different to the modernisation of drug culture. How it was once a free choice and now is overtly policed. It is about how 'drug' has been turned into a derogatory term and how the socio-economic factors surrounding 'junkie culture' has impacted the overall view of drugs. The argument: should adults with their own choices, with their own human rights, be allowed to put something into their body that they choose? The answer in terms of alcohol and cigarettes is 'yes'. But if we are to look at drugs, the answer is exclusively 'no'. This book is mainly about this argument and its history.

He goes through everything from the historical context of drug use and how it is associated with freedom all the way through to the chemical structures of the drugs themselves. When it comes to addiction as well, Dr. Carl Hart goes through the difference between people who use drugs and people who are addicted to drugs. People who take drugs are normally regular adults with jobs, with families who would just like the experience once in a while for whatever reason. They are completely in control and they have chosen to take this. However, someone who is an addict has a ton of socio-economic factors that also the lack of help available to the addicts would have a hand in the fact that these people often end up dead from their addictions and problems. Leading us into the fact that addicts do not start off with a problem of drugs, but often start off with a problem involving something else entirely that leads to a drug addiction.

Dr. Carl Hart uses the opiod crisis happening in the USA as his evidence for this. The deaths are most commonly people who have other psychological problems, are stuck deep into various problems financially, physically or are compromising their own lives for someone else. In reality, it is not actually the drugs that kill them but the addiction and the nature of the addiction itself. This has already been proven with people's relliance on alcohol - there are a far greater number of people who die from alcohol addictions than from drug addictions. But because the opiod is considered a 'drug' then this means it comes associated with the social factors of those more likely at risk of addiction when they die. Whereas, alcohol does not.

The one part I found was really interesting is where Dr. Carl Hart explains why more Black people are locked up in prison on drug charges than their White counterparts when it has been proven that Black and White people use drugs at approximately the same rate. I thought the research he had done into this including: studies, anecdotes from himself and others, historical and social context provided through secondary sources, was intense, amazing and I think that he basically just proved that the system of law enforcement when it comes to drug charges has an inherant problem. It is not only destroying lives but it is also killing people.

In conclusion, there are few nonfiction books as important as this one at the moment and I would appreciate more people reading it. It is not very well know but I can honestly say that it will entirely change the way you think about drug culture. Especially if you think people who do drugs are just 'bad people' who make 'bad choices'. It will entirely change your perspective and bring it all into the bigger picture. I am looking forward to reading more of Dr. Carl Hart's work in the future.