Book Review | High Price by Dr. Carl Hart

High Price by Dr. Carl Hart is a critical examination of the war on drugs as told through a neuropsychopharmacologist’s journey from a teenager who “maintained a complicated relationship with the street” to a tenured professor at Columbia University.

SYNOPSIS | HIGH PRICE

As a youth, Carl Hart didn’t see the value of school, studying just enough to stay on the basketball team. At the same time, he was immersed in street life. Today, he is a cutting-edge neuroscientist–Columbia University’s first tenured African American professor in the sciences–whose landmark, controversial research is redefining our understanding of addiction. In this eye-opening memoir, he recalls his journey of self-discovery, how he escaped a life of crime and drugs and avoided becoming one of the crack addicts he now studies. Interweaving past and present, Hart examines the relationship between drugs and pleasure, choice, and motivation, both in the brain and in society. His findings shed new light on common ideas about race, poverty, and drugs and explain why current policies are failing.

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Hart dispels myths about drugs and the people who use them in a way that challenges the simplistic understanding of pharmacological determinism. That is, our naive belief that the effects of a drug are inherent in the drug itself. Whereas the effects, both beneficial and harmful, are influenced by factors at the intersection of the biological, psychological, social, and cultural.

This book highlights the disparity of the drug war and the way that prohibition disproportionately affects marginalized people and communities and is used as a means of propagating oppression. The laws surrounding drugs are not based on a rational and scientific evaluation of the harms of drugs but instead have continued to fulfil a political agenda. Hart argues for a more rational approach to drug policy informed by rigorous scientific research that accurately models the naturalistic conditions under which drugs are used.

Hart also stresses the importance of having guidance and support from those who recognize the additional complexities race can add to the already challenging environment of academia. I could keep going about how much Dr. Hart has packed into this memoir but I’ll stop here. I really enjoyed this book.

Although it’s a memoir, High Price is not light reading. It is dense and a bit slower paced, but it is a compelling and informative work that challenges us to reevaluate our perceptions of drugs, addiction, and the policies that govern them. With its extensive references section, it provides a wealth of resources for those who wish to delve deeper into this critical subject.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of the war on drugs and the need for a more compassionate and evidence-based approach.I also recommend reading this first before reading Dr. Hart’s more recent book Drug Use for Grown Ups.