Carl L Hart

I am pro-legalization, anti-'war on drugs', and fully cognizant of America's prudish tendencies and hyperbolic media. So I get what he's trying to do in this book. But it ain't working. It's full of circular logic and vague statements that don't help his arguments. He also virtually ignores major factors that contribute to unhealthy dependencies on drugs, like poverty, homelessness, mental health, self-destructiveness, and so on. Drug users in Carl Hart's world are all gainfully employed, in healthy supportive relationships, and have no issues of self-control. I think he tried so hard to view drugs through a positive lens that he developed myopia.… (altro)

I read DRUG USE FOR GROWNUPS before reading this; if I had read this first, I think I would have been surprised to read the second. This is Dr. Hart's memoir. Throughout his youth and young adulthood, we feel him just floating above the surface of drug use - just a little marijuana and alcohol, very little, with his athletic performance as an excuse. And a little cocaine later. He doesn't seem really into any of it. So what a surprise to find him an unapologetic heroin hobbyist in the second book. His overall message is the same - drugs don't ruin lives, people ruin lives; it's just that I really wouldn't have pegged him for a user.

I do love a life story and I enjoyed his memoir. It did give an interesting perspective on life and problems in "the hood". Hart grew up with five older sisters and two younger brothers; an alcoholic father, eventually separated parents. He witnessed crime, addiction, abuse; he shoplifted, he fathered a child he didn't know about for 16 years. He also played basketball and joined the military, and from there it's a story of life turned around.… (altro)