https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/06/meet-carl-hart-parent-columbia-professor-and-heroin-user

Meet Carl Hart: parent, Columbia professor – and heroin user

Andrew Anthony

In a startling new book, Drug Use for Grown-Ups, the Ivy League professor argues that the dangers of recreational drug use have been wildly overstated

Andrew Anthony

Sat 6 Feb 2021 12.00 EST

Shares

330

Neuroscientist Carl Hart

“I am now entering my fifth year as a regular heroin user,” writes Carl Hart in his revelatory new book, Drug Use for Grown-Ups. Fifty-four-year-old Hart is the Ziff professor of psychology at Columbia University. Regular heroin use and high academic achievement are not two pursuits that we expect to see in the same life story. At least not openly. Heroin is by popular consensus the worst of drugs, the one that leaves users hopelessly strung-out and slavishly addicted. How can you be a regular user and hold down a prestigious Ivy League professorship? And why would you admit to it?

As Hart continues: “I do not have a drug-use problem. Never have. Each day, I meet my parental, personal and professional responsibilities. I pay my taxes, serve as a volunteer in my community on a regular basis and contribute to the global community as an informed and engaged citizen. I am better for my drug use.”

It’s hard to recall a more unapologetic defence of hard drug consumption. What’s particularly powerful about Hart’s testament is that it’s not written by a beat poet or avant-garde artist, but a highly regarded research scientist whose area of expertise is neuropsychopharmacology – the study of the neurological and behavioural effects of drugs on people.

Get Society Weekly: our newsletter for public service professionals

Read more

There are few areas of modern life that are shrouded in quite so much misinformation and hypocrisy as recreational drug use. There seems to be a never-ending criminal justice battle to thwart ever more sophisticated and ruthless drug dealers, while at the same time the appetite for recreational drugs increases across all sectors of society.

But beneath the social and moral debate is a vital scientific question: are recreational drugs harmful in themselves? If skunk, MDMA, cocaine and heroin are dangerous to the individual and ruinous to the community at large, then the case for banning them is strengthened. But what if they aren’t as harmful as the authorities maintain and what if the damage done to communities should be attributed to poverty and criminalisation of drugs, rather than the psychoactive effects?

American police officer arresting a black man

In his book, Hart examines the racism that underpins drug legislation in the US, which had led to a system that disproportionately punishes black drug users. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Hart cuts to the chase in his prologue: “Here’s the bottom line: over my more than 25-year career, I have discovered that most drug-use scenarios cause little or no harm and that some reasonable drug-use scenarios are actually beneficial for human health and functioning.”

On a Zoom call to him in his home in New York, I ask Hart what the likely effects of his admission of heroin use are.

“I can live more honestly,” he replies. “I can look in the mirror. My children can have an example of what courage looks like in real time, not in history. It’s possible I’ll get some flak from my university, my employers. Such is life. Anything worth having in my mind, particularly something important, there is risk attached to it. When the dust has cleared, my public record is there in the book and the evidence will exonerate me.”

Medicine is conservative and errs on the side of caution… but the cost is immense

Behind him in his office is a photograph of Malcolm X. Among many other things, Hart’s book is an examination of the racism and scaremongering that have long underpinned drug legislation in the US, leading to a system that disproportionately punishes black drug users. While most crack users in the 1990s were white, 90% of those sentenced under harsh anti-crack laws were black.

African Americans remain far more likely to be incarcerated for drug crimes than white Americans. And they are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than their white counterparts. In the UK, while the inequality is not so extreme, racial bias in sentencing still exists. Last week, it was reported that black drug dealers are 1.4 times more likely to be handed immediate custodial sentences than white people convicted of similar crimes.

Hart displays the passion of the convert in attacking misconceptions of African American drug use, because, as he confesses in the book, he once “wholeheartedly believed that drugs destroyed certain black communities”.

It was visiting white friends in pleasant neighbourhoods who were engaging in the same drug use he believed led to community dysfunction that made him realise it wasn’t the drugs but the context in which they were taken that harmed people. All the same, he says it took him a long time to acknowledge to himself what his scientific research and personal experience were telling him. So why did he resist for many years the logic of his own findings on drugs such as heroin?

“It wasn’t that I was opposed to it,” he explains. “It was that I was incentivised to find a certain thing. And when you are incentivised to find a certain thing, you are blinded. I needed to keep my lab running. I needed to support these salaries. I didn’t have to defend my position as strongly as I do now – I always have to be thinking about the other position. Whereas as long as you toe the party line you don’t have to think about that. You have all of this support and machinery built up to prop up that perspective.”

He is highly critical of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Nida), which according to Hart funds 90% of the world’s research on recreational drugs, and in particular of its director, Nora Volkow. As he writes:

“Many scientists who study drugs, including some at Nida, believe that she routinely overstates the negative impact that recreational drug use has on the brain and that she essentially ignores any beneficial effects drug use may have. But these scientists don’t dare share this perspective with her for fear of repercussions that might negatively impact their ability to obtain grant funding, among other professional perks, from her institute.”

Cannabis

‘There is no evidence to say that cannabis causes schizophrenia or psychotic disorder,’ says Hart. Photograph: Getty Images/iStockphoto

He repeats the same charge in our call, noting that it’s a question of emphasis rather than empiricism. If you only focus on the harm that drugs cause, he says, then you will come away with a distorted picture of drug use. He compares the situation with driving a car. If the only discussion about cars was devoted entirely to car accidents, then the general impression about cars would be that they are dangerous and to be avoided. However, most people drive cars in a manner that gets them quickly and satisfyingly from A to B.

This is essentially Hart’s perspective on drugs. Used in an informed and responsible manner, they fulfil a purpose with only the smallest risks. When not promoting his book, he says, he likes to be able to have an opioid whenever he wants. And at parties and receptions, “it’s nice to have a stimulant like an amphetamine or cocaine”. Most of all, he likes taking drugs with his wife: “It’s great to take MDMA with her and reconnect.”

Another example he uses is alcohol. As well as alcoholism, a great deal of illness and premature death is attributed to alcohol use and abuse, but most people who sip a glass of wine with their evening meal don’t see alcohol in those terms.

In any case, even the harm that drugs do, he believes, has been wildly overstated. I note that the widespread medical advice is that cocaine, even in small doses, can cause heart damage and sometimes cardiac arrest. Does he think that it’s true?

He doesn’t feel the need or desire to take more heroin and never feels in any real danger

“False,” he declares. “We give thousands of doses in our laboratories here at Columbia every year – snorted cocaine, smoked cocaine – and we have never seen anything like a heart attack. I think that in general, medicine is conservative and errs on the side of caution. But the thing they have not taken into consideration is that there is a cost to erring on the side of caution and that cost is immense.”

What about hallucinogens and strong cannabis such as skunk – can they trigger psychosis?

“I know that large doses of cannabis given to inexperienced people can trigger anxiety and paranoia that looks like psychosis but there is no evidence to say that cannabis causes schizophrenia or psychotic disorder.”

In the book, Hart wonders why people go on about heroin withdrawal when, despite his own use and occasional breaks, he has never experienced anything like the horror stories they describe. So he decides to up the strength and frequency of his intake to put withdrawal to the test. When he stops, he goes through an extremely uncomfortable night, which he says he’d be in no rush to repeat. But he doesn’t feel the need or desire to take more heroin and never feels in any real danger (he notes that, by contrast, alcohol withdrawal is potentially lethal).

So I ask him about reports of far more extreme withdrawal experiences and cite the example of Miles Davis, who said he went through seven or eight days of hell in attempt to kick heroin.

“I don’t know what kind of quality Miles had,” he says. “You know, Miles had a lot of free time because he put out these great albums and he got a lot of money at certain times. Maybe he was so irresponsible in his heroin use that he needed to take that long. Maybe, but that’s an extreme example. It would be like talking about someone who gets in multiple car accidents. Most of us don’t do that kind of thing.”

If drug authorities such as Nida focus too much on harm, Hart gives the impression of neglecting or downplaying it. He takes issue with the phrase “harm reduction”, common in drug treatment, because it emphasises negative outcomes. His suggestion for an alternative is “health and happiness”.

The pursuit of happiness, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, is what really galvanises Hart. For him, drugs are a civil liberty issue. Just as he believes, as a self-professed gun hobbyist, in the right to bear arms, he also believes in the right to take drugs. Neither, he contends, is harmful if done responsibly.

The problem, of course, in both cases is irresponsible use and what to do about it.

“Obviously, we’ll have an age requirement,” he says, “and we may have to have a competency requirement for these drugs, like a driver’s licence. You may have to take a test or an exam in order to get the licence for permission to purchase individual drugs such as heroin, MDMA, cocaine.”

I’m not sure how that would play out in the real world, but there’s a great deal to respect and admire in Hart’s outspoken stand. He is taking on an orthodoxy, one that involves a multibillion industry of law enforcement and incarceration and that can be a lonely place to be.

He tells me before we say goodbye that he is moving to Switzerland, which he says has the most progressive drug policy. “The thing I really like is that they take care of their people. I just want to be left alone in a quiet, boring place. That’s the appeal.”

After this book, I doubt that he’ll be left alone for long.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4759650&forum_id=2)#41899273)

“It was that I was incentivised to find a certain thing. And when you are incentivised to find a certain thing, you are blinded. I needed to keep my lab running. I needed to support these salaries. I didn’t have to defend my position as strongly as I do now – I always have to be thinking about the other position. Whereas as long as you toe the party line you don’t have to think about that. You have all of this support and machinery built up to prop up that perspective.”

This is exactly what professors I have dealt with from universities like Columbia and university of Minnesota have said to me on the topic of global warming

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4759650&forum_id=2)#41899292)

Honestly, I’m not even sure if he has a serious habit; this could just be an attention grabbing ploy to sell books.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4759650&forum_id=2)#41899406)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4759650&forum_id=2)#41899373)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4759650&forum_id=2)#41899394)

It doesn’t delve into the science of heroin usage at all. It doesn’t really go far into this guy’a use of it. If he’s highly productive, how does he find the time to use heroin? How much does he use. Etc.

It just focuses on...race. Which is a factor in the drug war but not the only one.

Complete shiitlib writing.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4759650&forum_id=2)#41900568)

That's one hell of a midlife crisis. Most doods get a convertible or a mistress or something. He decides to take up a chill fratty heroin habit.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4759650&forum_id=2)#41901505)

In Canada and the UK, they've done pilot programs where addicts who have repeatedly failed on methadone receive heroin or dilaudid two to three times per day and these people can hold jobs.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4759650&forum_id=2)#41904753)

🤔

African Americans remain far more likely to be incarcerated for drug crimes than white Americans. And they are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than their white counterparts.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4759650&forum_id=2)#41904768)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTt52-1zn38

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4759650&forum_id=2)#50045405)

I suspect most addicts "know" that they're overdoing it and that they have to slow down or quit at some point. That's how I felt about my drinking. This guy has staked his professional success on the idea that having a heroin addiction is totally fine. I suspect he doesn't possess the idea that he has to put the brakes on this if he wants to live.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4759650&forum_id=2)#50045563)

Judeo-American capitalism is the Great Satan and the destroyer of all that is good natural or sacred ime

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4759650&forum_id=2)#50045453)

So he was a "high-functioning" heroin user in the thick of the pandemic, when all he needed to do was keep one Zoom office hour per week and have a TA do all of his grading?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4759650&forum_id=2)#50045574)