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poverbaugh's review
5.0
I read this as a follow up to “Chasing the Scream” and they are both well worth the read, especially if you may not know that much about drug policy in the US. This is an excellent book about Dr Hart’s life - his journey from under privileged youth to tenured, Ivy League Professor and doctor researching addiction. His experiences and research are a must read for anyone wanting to learn more about how society demonizes addicts and how most drug policies are based on anecdotal evidence rather than actual science. Basically, for the past hundred years, certain drugs are demonized because a marginalized group is the stereotype for using said drugs, and then strict drug related policies are created around this (crack cocaine, Meth). His research shows that most of what we (as in the typical American) are fed from the news and media is way overblown and we should revise these policies to treat addicts with actual help instead of punishment. Please please please read this book!!!!
djoshuva's review
4.0
"The major point here is that psychoactive drug effects are not determined by pharmacology alone, it is the interaction between biology, the drug effects in the brain, and environment that determine drug effects on human behavior."
letitiaharmon's review
3.0
It is rare that the first paragraph of a nonfiction book is riveting enough to draw you in, and yet Dr. Hart's introduction immediately captured my attention. As it continued, I realized to my disappointment that it was much more memoir than it was scientific discourse or social science critique, although that is certainly in there. And you can blame my rating primarily on my dislike of the memoir genre. I find that Hart, like most auto-biographers, does not know what to share and what to leave off, pulling me into stories about his childhood and sexual exploits that don't interest me. What I wanted was more of that first paragraph.
But here's what is really fabulous about the book: Hart is an extremely clear and talented writer, who weaves social science and physical science into an understanding of systemic oppression and injustice. He is able to clearly discern social patterns and rules of status that set people apart, including how he was able to achieve status within his own community, and then utilized that skill to enhance his status in a white-dominated scientific field. That was incredibly interesting and self-aware.
I'm 100% on board with Hart concerning the necessity to change drug laws, and that enforcement is biased, inequitable, and the "War on Drugs" resulted in a school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately affected black teenagers, even though white ones use and sell with greater frequency. I agree the laws and entire justice system need to change. Where he loses me in his arguments, is when he almost seems to brush aside any attempts at substance abuse prevention, calling them misleading and uninformed. He also leans heavy against the idea of substances as being addictive at all. And while we in the social sciences also know that the environment of a user is the biggest indicator for substance abuse, I find his assertion that addiction just doesn't generally happen hard to swallow. I don't know how you explain the opioid crisis, for example. Here is a narcotic dependency that affects people from all walks of life, which is one of the reasons it's getting so much attention. Poverty, behavior modeling, lack of education, do not cause opioid addiction; chemical dependency causes it. At least, that is the only conclusion I can see given the evidence.
My other beef with this book is that I don't think Hart has completely acknowledged or eradicated his own attitudes of toxic masculinity. He seems a little too interested in recounting his sexual prowess. He even uses the term "conquests" for women he slept with. At no point in his writing do I see him regretting his attitudes toward women, or speaking of them with any credible respect. Even when he confronts the reality that he conceived a child as a teenager, all of his sympathy is reserved for the child that resulted, not for the life of the mother. A life he undoubtedly altered through impregnation. Yet he never mentions her or the hardships she would have faced.
What I do love, once I get past his misogynistic tone, is his challenge to traditional thinking, and an explanation of science that throws previous understandings of addiction into question. I also very much appreciated his insightful explanations of cultural capital and his understanding of access to power and status. For a physical scientist, he understands social dynamics extremely well, and I am impressed with his ability to draw these aspects of life together into one important discussion about racial discrimination.
In general, I do recommend this book. I think it gives very interesting topics for discussion. However, I would hesitate handing it out indiscriminately. I think that people who already have some racist ideologies will see their prejudices confirmed and be unable to read this book's insightful content as it is intended. But I think that scientists and medical professionals would greatly benefit from a look at the arguments that Hart offers.
But here's what is really fabulous about the book: Hart is an extremely clear and talented writer, who weaves social science and physical science into an understanding of systemic oppression and injustice. He is able to clearly discern social patterns and rules of status that set people apart, including how he was able to achieve status within his own community, and then utilized that skill to enhance his status in a white-dominated scientific field. That was incredibly interesting and self-aware.
I'm 100% on board with Hart concerning the necessity to change drug laws, and that enforcement is biased, inequitable, and the "War on Drugs" resulted in a school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately affected black teenagers, even though white ones use and sell with greater frequency. I agree the laws and entire justice system need to change. Where he loses me in his arguments, is when he almost seems to brush aside any attempts at substance abuse prevention, calling them misleading and uninformed. He also leans heavy against the idea of substances as being addictive at all. And while we in the social sciences also know that the environment of a user is the biggest indicator for substance abuse, I find his assertion that addiction just doesn't generally happen hard to swallow. I don't know how you explain the opioid crisis, for example. Here is a narcotic dependency that affects people from all walks of life, which is one of the reasons it's getting so much attention. Poverty, behavior modeling, lack of education, do not cause opioid addiction; chemical dependency causes it. At least, that is the only conclusion I can see given the evidence.
My other beef with this book is that I don't think Hart has completely acknowledged or eradicated his own attitudes of toxic masculinity. He seems a little too interested in recounting his sexual prowess. He even uses the term "conquests" for women he slept with. At no point in his writing do I see him regretting his attitudes toward women, or speaking of them with any credible respect. Even when he confronts the reality that he conceived a child as a teenager, all of his sympathy is reserved for the child that resulted, not for the life of the mother. A life he undoubtedly altered through impregnation. Yet he never mentions her or the hardships she would have faced.
What I do love, once I get past his misogynistic tone, is his challenge to traditional thinking, and an explanation of science that throws previous understandings of addiction into question. I also very much appreciated his insightful explanations of cultural capital and his understanding of access to power and status. For a physical scientist, he understands social dynamics extremely well, and I am impressed with his ability to draw these aspects of life together into one important discussion about racial discrimination.
In general, I do recommend this book. I think it gives very interesting topics for discussion. However, I would hesitate handing it out indiscriminately. I think that people who already have some racist ideologies will see their prejudices confirmed and be unable to read this book's insightful content as it is intended. But I think that scientists and medical professionals would greatly benefit from a look at the arguments that Hart offers.
sperryha's review
5.0
Carl Hart does a phenomenal job of weaving facts and personal anecdotes in this book. I was constantly intrigued and feel as though I learned a ton from this book. I would definitely read more of his work.
fevi's review against another edition
4.0
#BingoLitNegra #LeiaNegros
O livro tem a abordagem diferente que eu imaginei que teria. O livro tem muito de memória e biografia. Acredito que Hart tenha utilizado essa abordagem para fazer com que o leitor ficasse mais próximo de um assunto que ele defende: a descriminalização das drogas hoje ditas ilegais nos EUA e o seu ponto de vista não tão estarrecedor sobre vício nessas drogas.
Carl Hart dá sempre um panorama sobre a sua vida no início de cada capítulo e mais para o final discute assuntos relacionados às drogas. Da infância pobre em Miami até professor-cientista em uma das universidades mais importantes e famosas do mundo. Ele também, como pessoa negra, faz inúmeros recortes de raça e mostra o quanto a justiça e a política americanas são racistas.
É um bom livro, só não é tão profundo como eu imaginei que poderia ser quanto a opinião do autor sobre a descriminalização. Mas é o suficiente para ser introduzidos ao assunto e ter uma visão diferente daquelas difundidas pela impressa e pelos governos e campanhas de tolerância zero às drogas.
Fica a recomendação, mas vá ciente que é um livro de memórias com discussões sobre drogas.
O livro tem a abordagem diferente que eu imaginei que teria. O livro tem muito de memória e biografia. Acredito que Hart tenha utilizado essa abordagem para fazer com que o leitor ficasse mais próximo de um assunto que ele defende: a descriminalização das drogas hoje ditas ilegais nos EUA e o seu ponto de vista não tão estarrecedor sobre vício nessas drogas.
Carl Hart dá sempre um panorama sobre a sua vida no início de cada capítulo e mais para o final discute assuntos relacionados às drogas. Da infância pobre em Miami até professor-cientista em uma das universidades mais importantes e famosas do mundo. Ele também, como pessoa negra, faz inúmeros recortes de raça e mostra o quanto a justiça e a política americanas são racistas.
É um bom livro, só não é tão profundo como eu imaginei que poderia ser quanto a opinião do autor sobre a descriminalização. Mas é o suficiente para ser introduzidos ao assunto e ter uma visão diferente daquelas difundidas pela impressa e pelos governos e campanhas de tolerância zero às drogas.
Fica a recomendação, mas vá ciente que é um livro de memórias com discussões sobre drogas.
rafibarash's review
3.0
Very interesting and educational book that ties together Carl Hart's knowledge of the brain with his personal experience with drugs. However, man does this guy boast about things! From talking about how some would consider him a sex addict because he got with so many women, to talking about how smart he was, to gloating about his accomplishments, I couldn't take this book seriously at times. But very interesting read if you can put up with his bragging.
arachne_reads's review
4.0
Clear and concise. I deeply appreciated Dr. Hart's straightforward approach to the topic of racism, and his commitment to scientific evidence. In many books I've read in the past, authors have not clearly disentangled anecdote from data, and it was refreshing to encounter a text that so clearly distinguish between them and situates a personal narrative within the context of a career's worth of data. It was powerful. And it made me (even more) angry at the way that the US approaches drug law.
kimberwolf's review
2.0
I saw Dr. Carl Hart speak in Grand Rapids, Mich., and was impressed by his thoughtfulness about how our drug policies impact the poorest and most under-served in our population, and completely agreed that the drug policy that leads to mass incarceration for non-violent offenders needs to change. Dr. Hart is a neuro-psychologist who pulled himself up out of a risk-laden environment and who is succeeding wonderfully as the first African-American tenured neuroscientist at Columbia University. I applaud that. I did feel that the science part of the discussion was missing from his talk, and then found that his book was shelved in the biography section of the library, when I was expecting to see it in the science area. After reading it, I agree, it belongs in the biography section. It's mostly memoir, with some discussion of Dr. Hart's studies and behavioral experiments thrown in. While I agree with his social premises, I was underwhelmed with the writing and the content of the book. I'm going to try some other books that address the topic of mass incarceration to try and figure out if it's just me, or if there are more clear and commanding arguments out there. 2 1/2 Stars.