Drug use for grown-ups : chasing liberty in the land of fear / Dr. Carl L. Hart.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue: Time to grow up -- 1. The war on us: how we got in this mess -- 2. Get out of the closet: stop behaving like children -- 3. Beyond the harms of harm reduction -- 4. Drug addiction is not a brain disease -- 5. Amphetamines: empathy, energy, and ecstasy -- 6. Novel psychoactive substances: Searching for a pure bliss -- 7. Cannabis: Sprouting the seeds of freedom -- 8. Psychedelics: We are one -- 9. Cocaine: Everybody loves the sunshine -- 10. Dope science: The truth about opioids -- Epilogue: The journey -- Appendix: Death investigation systems by state -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index.

Columbia University Professor Dr. Carl L. Hart draws on both decades of research and his own personal experience to argue definitively that the criminalization and demonization of drug use is itself far and away the greatest scourge drugs inflict on America. His initial work as a researcher was aimed at proving that drug use caused predominantly bad outcomes, but the evidence from his research did not support his hypothesis. Here he challenges head-on some of our strongest moral reflexes about drugs and citizenship. In every country with a more permissive and humane drug regime he shows human outcomes are better, from mortality to addiction, to overall quality of life. Countries with the most permissive regimes, however, have the best outcomes. -- cover.