Chasing the Scream: The Search for the Truth About Addiction – Johann Hari

A different topic than the last two that we discussed, but a topic I think we should talk about more as a society. All of us have seen the consequences of drugs, whether that is with legal ones (think of alcohol or weed, or even OxyContin for example), or illegal ones (MDMA, Cocaine, Heroin, etc). Yet, not many countries try to have a different approach since the Reagan area of the “War on Drugs”, which is currently still very much ongoing. Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari tries to uncover a different approach, one that lies in tolerance, treatment, and helping others.

There are in reality two drug wars going on: there is the war on drugs, where the state wages war on the users and addicts, and there is the war for drugs, where the criminals fight each other to control the trade.

chasing the scream – johann hari

Maybe ones’ upbringing has a lot to do with how we view drugs. I am half Dutch, with a very liberal mother, which lead me to always view drug prohibition as a contradiction. Therefore, I found reading Chasing the Scream so interesting. Johann Hari lays out the pro’s and con’s of legalising drugs and even gives us several different legalisation paths countries could take. Think of legalising only soft drugs (weed), legalising soft and medium drugs (weed, MDMA/Molly, xtc, etc.), legalising all drugs (cocaine and heroin including). Whether you agree with one of these or none, Hari does give a good overview of all the different options.

It isn’t the drug that causes the harmful behaviour – it’s the environment.

chasing the scream – johann hari

In addition, as he mentions above, the environment we grow up in plays a huge role. Your friends, your parents, family trauma, your education, and the location play a role in how you grow up. Don’t get me wrong, it is not a given, many people grow up differently even if they have very similar backgrounds, but, if you grow up with drugs being more available to you, you are more inclined to take them. If we allow for a society that helps people with addiction, with harmful thoughts, with problems they feel they can’t get out of, we would be able to help a whole lot more people than banishing them to the outskirts and seeing them as filth because of addiction. Addicts do not want to become addicts, they are merely trying to get away from something: feelings, memories, the present. Ensuring we have a society that allows people to get drugs safely, no matter the strengths, would allow people to slowly get out of addiction. Allowing them to have stable housing and a community would lead to less loneliness, it would lead to less theft. Ensuring that people can get the help they need so desperately will help us as a society as a whole.

In a true democracy, nobody gets written off. Nobody gets abandoned. Nobody’s life is declared to be not worth living.

chasing the scream – johann hari

Quotes That Might Make you Read the Book:

The war on drugs makes it almost impossible for drug users to get milder forms of their drug – it pushes them inexorably towards harder drugs.

chasing the scream – johann hari

Addiction is a disease of loneliness.

chasing the scream – johann hari

Prohibition creates a system in which the most insane and sadistic violence has a sane and functional logic. It is required. It is rewarded.

chasing the scream – johann hari

The US government has approached Mexico with the same threat as the cartels – plata or plum. Silver or lead. We can give you economic ‘aid’ to fight this war, or we wreck your economy if you don’t.

chasing the scream – johann hari

Addiction is the psychological state of feeling you need the drug to give you the sensation of feeling calmer, or manic, or numbed, or whether does it for you.

chasing the scream – johann hari