Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs - Softcover

Hari, Johann

4.5

19,019 ratings by Goodreads

9781408857847: Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408857847 ISBN 13: 9781408857847

Publisher: Bloomsbury Circus, 2015

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER It is now 100 years since drugs were first banned. On the eve of this centenary, journalist Johann Hari set off on an epic three-year, 30,000-mile journey into the war on drugs to uncover its secrets - and he found that there is a startling gap between what we have been told and what is really going on. As strange as it may seem at first, drugs are not what we have been told they are; addiction is not what we think it is; and the drug war has very different motives to the ones we have seen on our TV screens. In Chasing the Scream, Hari reveals his startling discoveries entirely through the true and shocking stories of people across the world whose lives have been transformed by this war. They range from a transsexual crack dealer in Brooklyn searching for her mother, to a teenage hit-man in Mexico searching for a way out. It begins with Hari's discovery that at the birth of the drug war, Billie Holiday was stalked and killed by the man who launched this crusade - while it ends with the story of a brave doctor who has led his country to decriminalize every drug, from cannabis to crack, with remarkable results. Chasing the Scream lays bare what we really have been chasing in our century of drug war - in our hunger for drugs, and in our attempt to destroy them. This book will challenge and change how you think about the most controversial - and consequential - question of our time.

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Review:

Wonderful. I couldn't put it down * Noam Chomsky * An absolutely stunning book. It will blow your mind, and blow you away * Elton John * Superb journalism and thrilling story-telling * Naomi Klein * Intoxicatingly thrilling ... It will change the drug debate forever * Russell Brand * This book is, forgive the obvious phrase, screamingly addictive. The story it tells, jaw-droppingly horrific, hilarious and incredible, is one everyone should know: that is all true boggles the mind fascinated and infuriates by equal measure. Johann Hari, in brilliant prose, exposes one of the greatest and most harmful scandals of the past hundred years * Stephen Fry * Johann Hari's book is the perfect antidote to the war on drugs, one of the most under-discussed moral injustices of our time. It combines rigorous research and deeply human story-telling. It will prompt an urgently-needed debate * Glenn Greenwald * Excellent ... Hari affirms the role he has already established for himself: a crucial voice in, as well as commentator on, the urgent cause of not merely "reforming" the way society deals with the drugs crisis but tearing it up completely * Observer * The lack of evidence of the war having worked, alongside massive evidence of failure, are detailed with frightening clarity. As an expert in this field, I was impressed by the details of the historic background to the present situation ... Some of the tales are so horrific as to be scarcely believable ... Chasing the Scream is a remarkable book. It is moving and articulate and impossible to put down. Read it and demand our politicians take note * Evening Standard * Hari has conducted a mass of diligently pursued research for this book, talking to seemingly everybody from poor Mexicans who have lost loved ones amid the psychotic violence of gang warfare to the recently retired president of Uruguay, Jose Mujica ... When the arguments are put, they are powerful and meticulously considered -- Stuart Walton * Review *

Book Description:

This shocking account of the War on Drugs and the alternatives to it is 'superb journalism and thrilling story-telling' - Naomi Klein, author of No Logo

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

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