Full transcript
0:00oregon just became the first state in
0:02the u.s to decriminalize drugs
0:04that means that if you're caught with
0:06coke meth heroin
0:08or any other drug for personal use you
0:10no longer risk
0:11jail time instead you pay a small fine
0:14or complete a substance use disorder
0:16screening
0:17meanwhile a new fund raised by taxes on
0:20pot will provide
0:20treatment to people with substance use
0:22disorders
0:23[Music]
0:26carl hart is a professor of neuroscience
0:28and psychology at columbia university
0:30he wants other states to follow oregon's
0:33lead
0:34and go beyond it by making recreational
0:36drugs legal to sell
0:37and safer to use he spent the last few
0:40decades researching meth and crack
0:42and his latest book defends people who
0:45use drugs for
0:46pleasure so you wrote a book called drug
0:48use for grown-ups
0:50yes so why should grown-ups use drugs
0:54well the full title was drug use for
0:56grown-ups chasing liberty
0:58in the land of fear and the subtitle is
1:01uh related to this issue of who we are
1:04as americans um
1:05we say that we believe that each of us
1:08have
1:09this these rights life liberty and the
1:11pursuit of happiness
1:13meaning that we can live our life as we
1:15see fit
1:16that's not true in this country like why
1:20if you are a responsible adult should
1:23your government
1:24be telling you that you can't alter your
1:27consciousness as you see fit
1:29you're saying that people have a
1:30fundamental right to use drugs
1:32adults have a fundamental right to
1:36behave or pursue whatever behaviors they
1:38like as long as they're not
1:40bothering anyone else absolutely i ask
1:42people particularly
1:44middle class privileged people because i
1:46know
1:47they're using drugs because i've used
1:49drugs with a number of these people
1:51who are politicians who are famous
1:54people who are captains of industry
1:57i asked them to come out of the closet
1:59so they could stand up on behalf of the
2:01people
2:02who have been persecuted vilified
2:06and so forth in this book you talk about
2:08using heroin
2:10heroin has a big stigma around it was
2:12that
2:13hard to do i talked about it to make a
2:16point
2:16to show that i'm not addicted never had
2:19had any of those problems related to
2:21addiction
2:22but i wanted people to say see look at
2:24my productivity
2:26look at the fact that i contribute to my
2:28community look at the fact that
2:30i'm a good spouse i'm a good father and
2:33i decided to come out of the closet
2:34because
2:35i felt less than honorable i felt
2:39like a coward and i felt
2:42like i wasn't standing up on behalf of
2:44people who were being
2:46persecuted you talk about using heroin
2:50responsibly in your words how does one
2:52do that
2:54the same way one might do alcohol
2:56responsibly
2:58like today you and i are sitting here
2:59meeting i know we had this meeting
3:01i know i couldn't have a drink of
3:03alcohol just like i would decide
3:05not to have do heroin before you and i
3:08meet
3:08and besides i wouldn't want to blow my
3:09highlight that right so you say
3:12a responsible heroin use would be um
3:15at the end of the day when you have time
3:19set aside to do an activity that
3:22for you just like you might decide to go
3:24see a concert
3:25we mainly hear about drugs uh when
3:28something goes wrong because that's sexy
3:30that's
3:30drama nobody wants to hear about some
3:33woman who uses heroin on the weekend
3:36goes to work and meet her obligations
3:38through the week
3:39that's the typical experience of drug
3:41use
3:43not addiction no addiction
3:46is an aberration and addiction has
3:49almost nothing to do with drugs
3:51but isn't heroin inherently dangerous
3:54the dangers of heroin
3:56becomes increased by making it illegal
4:00because we have people selling tainted
4:02heroin if we legally regulate these
4:04drugs we will have
4:06less death less carnage just like we saw
4:09without all
4:14did you start to study drugs in the
4:15first place i wanted to solve
4:18the drug addiction problem i thought
4:20drug addiction was
4:22uh causing all of these disruptive
4:24effects in my
4:25community where are you from i'm from
4:26miami i'm from a
4:29predominantly black neighborhood a
4:31neighborhood that was considered
4:33resource poor
4:34so i thought that crack cocaine for
4:36example was
4:37the enemy and i thought that studying
4:40drugs in the brain
4:42i could figure out how to solve drug
4:45addiction by manipulating
4:47brain cells over my 30-year career i've
4:50learned that the problem is not
4:53never was drug addiction the problem was
4:56all of these other
4:57psychosocial factors lack of employment
5:00lack of health care
5:02poor education all of the same things
5:04that have always been the problem
5:06so i think a lot of people are afraid
5:09when you say
5:10well we're going to legalize all drugs
5:13because drugs do cause problems and
5:15what happens if they're more accessible
5:17we won't say legalization we'll say drug
5:20regulation so we regulate alcohol
5:23we regulate tobacco we regulate these
5:25things
5:26that means that there's a quality
5:29control
5:30there are controls in terms of who can
5:32purchase
5:33substance we can also implement new
5:36controls like restrictions such as
5:39maybe you have to pass a test before you
5:41actually get the license to purchase
5:43this substance and not
5:44like legalization and people think like
5:46it's a free fall
5:47i'm saying that drug use should not be
5:49punished and i'm also saying
5:52how about we live up to the principles
5:54that we claim
5:55to be so dear to us
6:10you