Chasing The Scream
Johann HariOne of Johann Hari's earliest memories is of trying to wake up one of his relatives and not being able to. As he grew older, he realized he had addiction in his family. Confused, not knowing what to do, he set out and travelled over 30,000 miles over three years to discover what really causes addiction - and what really solves it. He uncovered a range of remarkable human stories - of how the war on drugs began with Billie Holiday, the great jazz singer, being stalked and killed by a racist policeman; of the scientist who discovered the surprising key to addiction; and of the countries that ended their own war on drugs - with extraordinary results. Chasing The Scream is the story of a life-changing journey that transformed the addiction debate internationally - and showed the world that the opposite of addiction is connection.
"Through a smattering of narratives, the author looks at the centennial of the war on drugs from the time it was legislated with the passage of the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act in 1914. Blending sociology, history and reportage with novelistic detail, Hari uses the narratives of the first American drug czar Harry Anslinger, jazz singer and addict Billie Holiday, and drug-dealing gangster Arnold Rothstein as archetypes to point out how the war continually perpetuates itself with shocking intensity and contradiction... A compassionate and humane argument to overturn draconian drug policies." - Kirkus Reviews