When Getting High Is a Hobby, Not a Habit

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DRUG USE FOR GROWN-UPS
Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear

By Carl L. Hart
It doesn’t take long to get to what is perhaps the boldest and most controversial statement in Carl Hart’s new book, “Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear.” In the prologue, he writes, “I am now entering my fifth year as a regular heroin user.” In all honesty, I don’t know how to feel about this admission. It’s not easy to square all that I’ve learned about this drug with the image I also hold of Hart: a tenured professor of psychology at Columbia University, an experienced neuroscientist, a father.
Hart knows this. He knows about the discomfort his readers might feel when they encounter his full-throated endorsement of opiates for recreational use. He offers the information in a spirit of radical transparency because he believes that if “grown-ups” like him would talk freely about the role of drugs in their lives, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in, a mess brought about by our ruinous drug policies, which have had such profound — and profoundly unequal — consequences for those who fall afoul of them.
For Hart, it wasn’t always so. Coming up in hard circumstances in Miami, Hart too bought into the widespread belief that “smoking crack is like putting a gun in your mouth and pulling the trigger,” as one particularly memorable public service announcement put it. In 1986, he listened in “disbelief” as James Baldwin, his intellectual hero, argued for the legalization of drugs, believing that the recently passed Anti-Drug Abuse Act would be used disproportionately against poor and Black people.

 
Interesting guy and I will definitely check the book out.

Not sure if he ends up tackling this in his book, but as with most things, a select few ruin it for the rest of us. In other words, drugs get a bad name because a lot of people lack self control.

I don't want to get into it on here, but I have tried nearly every drug under the sun and would be perfectly fine doing none of them again. Where as I have several friends who I wouldn't advise even drink coffee. I am sure there is some hereditary and mental levers that make some more susceptible to addiction.
 
I get the concept, but Americans don't even wear masks in a pandemic, imagine them showing purposeful restraint to hard drugs.

I know we still page one but say it again for the people who didn't hear you. :lol:

That said, I do think we should legalize all drugs, one important reason, to expand permitted trials and research on controlled substances so we can have these kind of discussions without effectively swinging at the unknown in the dark, guessing at effects on physical and mental health. We need trials accounting for all kinds of context.

Stopping the intentional ravaging of black communities (and by extension/evolution harming other POC) by federal, state and local law enforcement through prosecution and the consumption of the prison industrial complex is obviously reason #1.

But we need do to be very careful talking about recreational drug use of any kind, like it's a hobby, or a play thing, or something to be taken lightly given a **** ton of factors present in our society.
 
some quick thoughts:

-the irresponsible drug users tend to also be pack a day cigarette smokers. They're already spending $200/mo then you add in the drug habit and all the sudden they have to commit crimes to sustain both habits.

-low income people get into drugs because of physical pain - bad back, knees, rotator cuffs. Whereas an affluent person will go to chiropractors, physical therapists, and go to the gym to address the root cause of their issue.

-people in the hood tend to have poor nutrition - they dont get enough omega 3 fatty acids in their diet, are overdosed om caffeinated beverages (that usually have too much sugar) and are deficient in most vitamins and minerals. Drugs for them are a necessity to stimulate their brains to functioning levels.
 
Aside from da politics of drugs

🔥 🔥 :pimp::nthat::nthat::pimp::nthat: At him for his success and accomplishments in life while on that :nthat::smokin

he’s an anomaly cuz it’s not an easy task to pull off for five decades.

imma gonna check out da book
 
opiates are a fun trip.. especially when things are going right, bills are paid, the sun is shining and it’s 80degress outside.. ****, I’d have the whole house smelling like fabuloso from cleaning after popping 3 percs. Throw on some Bob Marley or hall & Oates and have you a good time..
 
opiates are a fun trip.. especially when things are going right, bills are paid, the sun is shining and it’s 80degress outside.. ****, I’d have the whole house smelling like fabuloso from cleaning after popping 3 percs. Throw on some Bob Marley or hall & Oates and have you a good time..
this doesn't sound like fun
 
This guys mannerisms scream addict
Yeah this dude just seems like a really intelligent addict to me. Just cause he can put together insightful coherent responses doesn’t make him not an addict. Just a really smart one.

Didn’t watch a lot of the interview. Did he say anything about being able to quit like KHUFU KHUFU alluded to in the other thread?
 

Haha yeah. Even though jordan gambling wasn’t a problem. Dude like to bet, so what? American Christian values said gambling was the devil during those days but now fight to make it legal. Another topic for a different time :lol:
 
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