In this groundbreaking and controversial manifesto, we join Johann Hari on his three-year investigation — a kind of “trail of tears” that traverses nine countries, covers 30,000 miles and tracks the lives of countless individuals whose lives have been caught up in the maelstrom of the so-called “Drug War.” It’s a journey beyond the daily headlines that tells the intimate stories of prosecutors, drug kingpins and junkies everywhere. But unlike other “drug war” chronicles, Hari presents a radical, convincing proposal to end the madness of drug addiction and finally squelch the scream.
Hari begins by identifying three archetypal figures in the prohibition of narcotics: Harry Anslinger, the relentless drug prosecutor; Arnold Rothstein, the original drug gangster; and Billie Holiday, the victim of a lifetime of racist drug stings. However, Chasing the Scream burns brightest telling an array of intimate life stories of characters like Chino, a transsexual crack dealer in Brooklyn, or Marcia, an imprisoned junkie who literally “cooked to death” when left in a prison cage in the Arizona sun. Most disturbingly, we travel to Juarez, Mexico, where drug lords rule through unspeakable acts of violence and death every single day.
Chasing the Scream argues that only through progressive levels of legalization can we stop the escalation of drug addiction and violence. He points to programs from Portugal to Vancouver as examples of success. “Legalization slightly increases drug use,” Hari writes, “but it significantly reduces drug harms.”
And when you consider the “piling up of corpses” that Hari illuminates, this seems like a good trade. Grade: A-
