This is an extraordinary book. If there is any part of you that still thinks prohibition and the drug war was a good idea, this book will forever convince you otherwise. It is a fast read, difficult to put down. You will learn fascinating info that you probably have never heard before, told through the lives of people.
The info on the true nature of addiction is, by itself, worth the read. This is info that has been effectively suppressed in the war on drugs. It is not just that we have been lied to, it's that the warriors have lied to themselves. When the author interviews them and asks them about the surprising results of these addiction studies, he is met by blank faces.
The book reads like a novel, as we meet the likes of Harry Anslinger, who is forgotten today but is the person most responsibile for the prohibition and the drug war of the last 100 years. He is responsible for the lingering "reefer madness" propaganda and disinformation that is still in our collective conscious today.
Many of the stories will make you angry. Anslinger's racism, and those of his agents, is horrendous. When Anslinger first took over the Narcotics Unit in the Treasury Dept, the unit was in danger of being eliminated - it was right after the repeal of alcohol prohibition. These agents needed a new war, to keep their paychecks coming. They zeroed in on cannabis and used pure racism to scare the public. The chapter on how Anslinger went after the singer Billy Holiday and arguably caused her death is sad - and again, it makes you mad.
These authorities are not all in the past. They continue to this day. Prohibition handed over the drug industry to criminal enterprises, where violence is the go-to tool, just as it was in 1920's Chicago. In the book, we visit a city in Mexico that has been turned into a war zone. The author Johann Hari describes how being arrested for 1.5 grams of marijuana in Sheriff Arpaio's Maricopa County, Arizona can get you killed.
Finally, the author visits places that are coming out of the fog of the drug war - Switzerland, the Netherlands, Uruguay, Portugal, and finally US states like Colorado and Washington. In Portugal, after drug use was decriminalized, heroin use decreased by 50%. During the same period, in the US - still in its drug-war model - heroin use doubled.
In my opinion, there is one topic that should be included in the book, but is missing - cannabis as a medicine. Cannabis is, we are learning, perhaps the most medicinal plant on Earth. To this day, the argument is that MJ is safer than alcohol. But there really is no comparison.
At the end of the book, you will learn a couple of surprising facts about the warrior Anslinger, a coda to his story, and perhaps to the 100-year story of this failed war.
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Reviews with images
Nation-changing, historic book
This is THE BEST BOOK on the true reason for America's "war on drugs" and the devastation its policies are inflicting on our citizens, government, and world. I wish it had been published before my husband and I wrote our book, Felonism: Hating in Plain Sight, because we would have referred to it MANY times to substantiate our proposals. Please share this book with every policy maker, redneck, and drug user you know. If they read it with an open mind, it will change their/our world.
Top reviews from other countries
This garden bed is nice. The sides are a little floppy so I had to use bricks to keep them from losing dirt. The first bed I ordered came very quickly so I placed an order for two more and have been waiting for almost two weeks even though it says they can be delivered in one day. Unfortunately, since they've been picked up and ignored for the past two weeks I am only giving 3 stars.
Powerful, thought provoking, and life changing. A must read!
Reviewed in Canada on January 7, 2024
Oscar Del Santo
The most addictive book about addiction you will ever read
Reviewed in Spain on March 3, 2020Laura G
THE BEST BOOK ON DRUG PROHIBITION HISTORY EVER
Reviewed in Mexico on October 2, 2017
Coby
Compelling, easy read that shines a new light on addiction
Reviewed in Australia on May 16, 2019