Inside Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days Of The War on Drugs

Author of Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days Of The War on Drugs, Johann Hari, aims to find a better way to fight addiction, because according to him – what we are doing isn’t working. The book delves into the War on Drugs and what we are really fighting about after all. He proposes a multitude of other ways to deal with the crisis at hand, that are completely different than any of the tactics tried thus far.

According to Hari, “drugs are not what you think they are. Addiction is not what we think it is. The drug war is certainly not what we’ve been told it is. And the alternatives aren’t what we think they are.” He explains in his book how addiction is viewed in present day is widely outdated, based on antiquated studies of rats having to choose between drug-laced water or not.

He argues that this study not only does not apply today, but was also incorrect to begin with, especially because the study did not focus on environment, but instead gave the rats no choice but to keep “using.” Pointing out that the rats were set up to fail from the beginning, because they did not have the option of leaving their cage or making a change for themselves; then, in reality, were forced to keep doing more and more of the drug.

In lieu of the efforts already enacted to deal with addiction in society, Hari proposes a new concept. Regarding the ongoing War on Drugs, he argues that, “the drug war is based on the idea that the chemicals cause the addiction, and we need to physically eradicate these chemicals from the face of the earth. If, in fact, it’s not chemicals, if, in fact, it’s isolation and pain that cause the addiction, then it suddenly throws into sharp contrast the idea that we need to impose more isolation and pain on addicts in order to make them stop, which is what we currently do.”