Is Recreational Drug Use a Human Right?
/By Roger Chriss, PNN Columnist
The book “Drug Use for Grown-Ups” by Carl Hart, PhD, is garnering a lot of attention. Hart argues that recreational drug use is a fundamental human right, while also describing the harms of drug laws and policy on people of color. His book is a mixture of anecdote and analysis that raises a lot of important issues about drugs and society.
Hart is unapologetic about his own drug use and that of others, saying that "Adults should be permitted the legal right to sell, purchase, and use recreational drugs of their choice." He sees drug use as “beneficial for human health and functioning” and causing ‘little or no harm” in most instances.
Specifically, Hart states that drug use is an "act that the government is obliged to safeguard” because it is a part of the “pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence. He claims that Thomas Jefferson, one of the authors of the Declaration, was “a long-term avid drug user.”
Hart, who is a psychology professor at Columbia University, raises numerous questions in a blunt and sometimes brusque fashion, asking “Why is it that guns can be legally purchased but heroin cannot?”
He challenges his readers with remarks like: “Few would balk at using Viagra or Cialis to enhance sexual performance, but many more find it objectionable to use drugs such as amphetamines to improve the sexual experience.”
Hart doesn't mythologize or romanticize drugs or their users, and questions why advocates of the psychedelic movement call themselves “psychonauts.”
“The term psychonaut in itself is another attempt to dissociate middle-class psychedelic users from users of drugs such as crack and heroin, who are disapprovingly called ‘crackheads’ or ‘dope fiends’.”
Hart defends this position by pointing out that nearly 80 percent of illicit drug users don’t have problems such as addiction. He explains that his own heroin use is rational: “Like vacation, sex, and the arts, heroin is one of the tools that I use to maintain my work-life balance.”
As for overdose deaths, Hart contends that contaminated drugs are the issue. “A regulated market, with uniform quality standards, would virtually put an end to contaminated drug consumption and greatly reduce fatal, accidental overdoses,” he writes.
Further, Hart states that drug addiction is not a brain disease, writing that there is no evidence indicating that “responsible recreational drug use” causes brain abnormalities. He says obsessing over addiction has caused harm by stigmatizing drug users as unworthy of social support or rehabilitative care. Hart sees the opioid crisis as overblown and rooted in racism.
“All the evidence from research clearly shows that most heroin users are people who use the drug without problems, such as addiction; they are conscientious and upstanding citizens,” he writes. “The new ‘get tough on opioids’ policies have been fueled by the mistaken perception that most illegal opioid dealers are black or Latino.”
Legalization, Hart claims, is the key to changing all this. Prohibition of alcohol gave birth to criminal gangs and a thriving underground market in booze, some of it so contaminated with impurities it made people sick or even killed them. “This problem went away when Prohibition was repealed,” he points out.
But not all of this holds up so well. Hart argues that a legalized market with regulated substances would keep people safe, but he himself chooses to use an illicit substance called “hex” of unknown provenance and effect while at a drug festival.
“I now include hex among the drugs I might want to take immediately before attending some awful required social event, such as an academic reception or an annual departmental holiday party,” he wrote.
Hart’s book is also notable for what it lacks. He doesn’t look at public health data or long-term studies on drug risks and user outcomes in the U.S. or other countries, and ignores animal research on drug risks and harms.
Hart also omits recent discouraging research on drug legalization and social justice. According to the University of Washington’s Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute, legalization of cannabis has had no impact on reducing racial bias in policing and other disparities in the criminal justice system.
He also doesn’t discuss the under-treatment of pain in people of color due to myths about higher pain tolerance, lack of nerve endings, or greater abuse and addiction risk.
Hart clearly shows the harms of current drug policy, but arguably overstates the potential benefits of legalization. And his blunt style sometimes diminishes his own credibility. Overall, the book “Drug Use for Grown-Ups” adds to the discussion of drug policy in the U.S. by asking some challenging questions, but doesn’t resolve many important issues.
Roger Chriss lives with Ehlers Danlos syndrome and is a proud member of the Ehlers-Danlos Society. Roger is a technical consultant in Washington state, where he specializes in mathematics and research.
“Drug Use for Grown-Ups” is featured in PNN’s Suggested Reading section, along with other books on pain treatment and drug policy.
