Columbia Neuroscientist calls for decriminalization of ALL drugs

[Supersonic 49,376]

Carl Hart is a professor at Columbia University who explores how people use d--gs and the ways they can be treated. 

His path to the Ivy League wasn't always certain. As he explains in a recently uploaded TEDMED talk highlighted by the Washington Post, he was raised in a poor neighborhood in Miami. Growing up, he used and sold d--gs. He carried a gun in his car, and he committed small crimes. Along the way, he developed the conviction that the prevalence of crime and dysfunction in his community was a product of widespread d--g abuse.

Hart's life took a turn after he joined the Air Force. He studied neuroscience, and went on to professionally study the d--gs that he was convinced were the source of his neighborhood's social ills. Throughout the course of his research, his views on d--gs — and how society should treat d--g users — dramatically changed.

Hart's study of d--g abuse eventually led him to overturn the beliefs he held as a young man. He doesn't think d--gs are the problem. He thinks virtually every way in which we choose to handle them is. 

Follow the science: During the statistics-heavy talk, he first focuses on dispelling the myth that people are unable to use illicit d--gs recreationally without succumbing to addiction. 

The reality is that a vast majority are able to use d--gs casually, even ones that have a strong potential for physiological addiction.

Addiction is about circumstance: Of course, for some people, d--g addiction is a serious, devastating problem. But addiction doesn't exist exactly as most proponents of draconian anti-d--g laws think it does. As Hart describes, the popular notion that one hit of crack c-----e can lead to an all-consuming addiction is rooted in a series of experiments in the 1960s and '70s where scientists gave animals the option to self-administer intravenous doses of hard d--gs. When given free rein to consume the d--g by pushing a lever, they would typically end up injecting themselves until they died of an overdose. 

But when those experiments were later conducted to include an alternative to a hit of the d--g, such as a s-xually desirable mate or desirable food, animals often opted for the non-d--g alternative over the d--g. Hart tested this idea with human crack c-----e addicts, and found that addicts chose $5 over a hit of crack c-----e worth more than $5 about half of the time. He found the same with as did methamphetamine addicts. With methamphetamine addicts, he found that when he raised the monetary reward, the choice shifted dramatically.

The same but unequal: Hart also discusses how the absence of a thoughtful, scientifically based understanding of d--g use has served as a pretext for senseless disparities in the way the criminal justice system has treated different d--gs. In the 1980s, possession of crack c-----e was assigned federal penalties 100 times harsher than powder c-----e, ostensibly because as a d--g that produced a more intense high, it was considered more dangerous. 

But they are ultimately the same d--g. Hart describes how injecting powder c-----e dissolved in water "produces the identical intense effects as smoking crack c-----e." Despite this reality, the U.S. criminal justice system embraced the idea that crack was more dangerous, and used it as a pretext for its discriminatory treatment of African-American communities, where crack c-----e was most prevalent.

Decriminalization is smart policy: Hart then goes on to lay out his belief that all d--gs should be decriminalized and should be treated more like traffic fines than serious crimes.

He details how low-level d--g offenses have led to a staggering boom in incarceration, which has had a particularly cancerous effect on the black community:

The critical assumption of the war on d--gs as it is currently waged is that d--g use can be eradicated. Hart argues that the sooner that this assumption is put to rest, the sooner the country can move toward smart d--g policy. Abstinence-focused approaches aren't typically used for other pleasurable and risky activities like having s-x or drinking alcohol, so why should they be used for d--gs?

Hart invited the audience to consider the success of the Portuguese model. Nearly a decade and a half after decriminalizing all d--gs, the country has seen d--g use decrease by most measures, and dramatic declines in overdose and disease transmission. All the while, they've saved an enormous amount of money by not pursuing criminal charges against people for low-level uses, and protected a significant percentage of their population from the life-altering stigma that accompanies incarceration.

"The d--gs themselves are not the problem," Hart said. "The real problems are poverty, unemployment, selective d--g law enforcement, ignorance and the dismissal of science surrounding these d--gs."

A powerful message: Hart's presentation derives its power from two main sources. The first one is his insistence that the way we understand d--g use as a social challenge should draw from a scientific understanding of how they work. The second one is that the discomfort that society feels with the risks of d--g use shouldn't cause us to retreat into a kind of puritanism against their use. Instead of waging unwinnable wars against them that ravage society, he argues in favor of education, and changing the circumstances that make most people inclined to become dangerously reliant on them.

Watch Hart's full presentation here:

 

source: http://mic.com/articles/118942/watch-this-neuroscientist-perfectly-tear-down-the-biggest-myths-about-the-war-on-d--gs?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social

[Dangerous Man 9,245]

You might say I'm close minded, but I don't want to live in this world if that happens.

 

[Xgongiviguess 396]

here for it

 

[Supersonic 49,376]

You might say I'm close minded, but I don't want to live in this world if that happens.

 

​He basically just said that 90% of the people using d--gs are not addicted to them according to his extensive research and that while addiction is a serious problem for some people there is a LOT of fear mongering from the media/governments that make d--gs sound much worse than they actually are. Also he says that d--gs will ALWAYS be around and consumed irregardless of whether they are forbidden or allowed.

[Ray of Light 8,134]

I need you more than Dope tho 

[lego 44,165]

Luiz likes this.

 

 

[Supersonic 49,376]

Luiz likes this.

 

 

​I thought the same thing

[Economy 52,844]

​He basically just said that 90% of the people using d--gs are not addicted to them according to his extensive research and that while addiction is a serious problem for some people there is a LOT of fear mongering from the media/governments that make d--gs sound much worse than they actually are. Also he says that d--gs will ALWAYS be around and consumed irregardless of whether they are forbidden or allowed.

​plus, illegal isnt what stops people from suing

 

Pot is illegal where i live cigarets fromt abaco are not. guess which one mroe young people smoke? yes pot!

[PEDRO98 1,003]

Portugal been there, done that 

[LePetitGAGABLover 21,234]

​He basically just said that 90% of the people using d--gs are not addicted to them according to his extensive research and that while addiction is a serious problem for some people there is a LOT of fear mongering from the media/governments that make d--gs sound much worse than they actually are. Also he says that d--gs will ALWAYS be around and consumed irregardless of whether they are forbidden or allowed.

​Stupidest argument ever. Its like saying: "Murder will ALWAYS be around, regardless if its illegal. So we should legalize it."

[Vernier 3,786]

Yes, legalize bath salts please  

[Goosey 3,017]

He's wrong!

[Supersonic 49,376]

​Stupidest argument ever. Its like saying: "Murder will ALWAYS be around, regardless if its illegal. So we should legalize it."

​But that's the point. Recreationally using d--gs is not the same thing as murdering people and because d--g usage is criminalized so heavily there's an enormous social stigma that goes along with it which triggers people into feeling extremely sh*tty about doing d--gs which statistically drives them into depression and makes them more prone to falling into actual addiction.

[Dangerous Man 9,245]

​He basically just said that 90% of the people using d--gs are not addicted to them according to his extensive research and that while addiction is a serious problem for some people there is a LOT of fear mongering from the media/governments that make d--gs sound much worse than they actually are. Also he says that d--gs will ALWAYS be around and consumed irregardless of whether they are forbidden or allowed.

As of I didnt read the article. Whatever, illegal d--gs are still harmful. You can have your opinion, I'll have mine.

 

 

[zexion_armando 241]

Nope. in fact, we should re-criminalize everything.

 

The Giver, here we come!