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A review by ironi
High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know about Drugs and Society by Carl L. Hart
4.0
It seems that the drug conversation is getting bigger and bigger nowadays. At least in Israel, legalization is taking up a lot of room in the elections discussions now. It feels like our generation will be the one that will legalize, at least marijuana but perhaps more.
So I found this book pretty good. It goes both into his own biography and into his research on drugs. I wanted him to dig deeper into the race issue but yeah, it wasn't quite the topic of the book. It's a broad book though, he goes into a lot of parts of his life.
I was in a party in Berlin a few weeks ago and it was my first time being around people who were using things more serious than weed. It was fascinating for me because I found myself challenging a lot of what I had thought about the influence of drugs. I enjoyed the conversations with the people there and it was eye opening. Quite humorous too, they kept teasing me for being sober and saying that they could never imagine going to a party like this sober.
Within an American context, it seems somewhat obvious that the black neighborhoods need education and social help more than anything else. That by being a closed off area, the youth don't have options and automatically join the narrative.
All in all, this book is well written. I wouldn't say it challenges everything but it's definitely insightful, especially if you're very against drugs. I appreciate science that goes against the mainstream thought. The conversation about how politics and social context influence research is an important one.
What I'm taking with Me
• Much of the research done with animals is irrelevant because they are in isolation or they are given huge amounts of the drug. Of course this influences how much they use and the impact on the brain.
• Having a stake in the society is in many ways more important than simply fighting against drug use.
• In Portugal, if you get caught with any drug, you simply have to pay a fine and go to a meeting with various professionals (but no police) who are there to help you if there's a drug abuse problem. If not, you just pay the fine and that's it.
So I found this book pretty good. It goes both into his own biography and into his research on drugs. I wanted him to dig deeper into the race issue but yeah, it wasn't quite the topic of the book. It's a broad book though, he goes into a lot of parts of his life.
I was in a party in Berlin a few weeks ago and it was my first time being around people who were using things more serious than weed. It was fascinating for me because I found myself challenging a lot of what I had thought about the influence of drugs. I enjoyed the conversations with the people there and it was eye opening. Quite humorous too, they kept teasing me for being sober and saying that they could never imagine going to a party like this sober.
Within an American context, it seems somewhat obvious that the black neighborhoods need education and social help more than anything else. That by being a closed off area, the youth don't have options and automatically join the narrative.
All in all, this book is well written. I wouldn't say it challenges everything but it's definitely insightful, especially if you're very against drugs. I appreciate science that goes against the mainstream thought. The conversation about how politics and social context influence research is an important one.
What I'm taking with Me
• Much of the research done with animals is irrelevant because they are in isolation or they are given huge amounts of the drug. Of course this influences how much they use and the impact on the brain.
• Having a stake in the society is in many ways more important than simply fighting against drug use.
• In Portugal, if you get caught with any drug, you simply have to pay a fine and go to a meeting with various professionals (but no police) who are there to help you if there's a drug abuse problem. If not, you just pay the fine and that's it.