Abstract
Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs offers a compelling argument to end the over 100-year-old War on Drugs that has been waged by numerous nations at the cost of thousands of lives and billions of dollars. Written by Johann Hari, a British journalist, the book follows his travels across nine countries to interview individuals on the front lines of the War on Drugs. From the start, Hari makes clear that one of his goals is to have a greater understanding of the addicts in his own life. In order to answer his personal questions and have a greater understanding of the effects of this war, he interviews a wide range of people involved, from addicts in Vancouver to former President Mujica of Uruguay. The book is well written and does a thorough job tying in people and ideas from earlier chapters when they become pertinent again. Each chapter focuses on one person or concept and how the prohibition of drugs has affected their lives. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in drug prohibition in the United States.
The book’s 19 chapters are split into five parts, where each section is distinct but still related. The first part includes a history of three prominent figures and how the War on Drugs overwhelmed their lives: Harry Anslinger, first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics; Billie Holiday, famed jazz musician; and Arnold Rothstein, infamous drug kingpin. It highlights Anslinger’s intense focus on enforcing drug prohibition, despite resistance to the idea from the start, as well as his obsession with Billie Holiday and her drug use. Hari contends that Anslinger was a racist who used various strategies to coax other nations to adopt the United States’s prohibition agenda. At the same time, Rothstein was making his name in New York City as a drug lord who was willing to use violence as needed. Rothstein’s death marked the start of the violence-ridden war to control the drug trade. Part II starts by focusing on the violence that marks today’s illicit drug trade. It offers the perspectives of a drug dealer, a former police captain, and a victim. This part highlights the various participants in the war and how others get pulled into it with no choice. Just as in Part II, Part III focuses on stories of people trying to be the Anslinger and Rothstein of today’s world. For example, Sheriff Arpaio in Arizona, who runs severely strict and dangerous work camps for female drug offenders in the middle of the desert, models his behaviors off of Anslinger. Additionally, Hari talks about three teenagers caught up in the war in Mexico: one who protests the violence, another a murder victim to the violence, and the last a former member of the infamous Zeta drug cartel, each of whom portrays parts of Rothstein’s drug world. The fourth part focuses on the possible causes of drug addiction. Through interviews with Gabor Maté, a doctor, and Bruce Alexander, a university professor, Hari focuses on childhood trauma and a lack of positive life circumstances as the main reasons why people turn to drug use. In this part he really struggles with what these findings mean and whether one should be waging a war on these causes of addiction and not the users themselves. The last part underscores that other places in the world have had success with different models of drug prohibition. Hari travels to Britain, Portugal, Switzerland, Vancouver, and Uruguay because each offers examples of how to manage drug use in a way that reduces harm. He even highlights the changes taking place here in the United States with marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington. In the end, Hari seems to personally have a better understanding of the addicts in his life, but he struggles with the difficulty of ending the massive War on Drugs, especially now that he has seen how many people are wrapped up in it.
Chasing the Scream could certainly be incorporated into both undergraduate and graduate sociology and criminal justice courses. It would be particularly useful in a graduate seminar on drugs and American society because it covers a range of perspectives on the War on Drugs. For this course, instructors could assign sections of the text throughout the semester and assign students to run discussions relating to various theories of drug use and perspectives on the criminal justice system and the War on Drugs. Similarly, it could be used in a graduate sociology course that focuses on the social construction of social scares and movements. It may be useful to pair this book with readings like Reinarman’s (1994) The Social Construction of Drug Scares in order to see whether Hari’s observations align with Reinarman’s. Because each chapter addresses a different topic, specific chapters could be assigned as reading to an undergraduate course. For example, chapter 16, titled “The Spirit of ’74,” focuses on Portugal’s decision to decriminalize drugs and whether it has been successful. This particular chapter offers an example of a nation that has done almost exactly the opposite of the United States, so it would hopefully open students to the idea that as a nation, we have decided to criminalize drug use, but it does not have to be this way. Additionally, chapter 18, titled “High Noon,” centers on marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington and would be beneficial to show students how social movements begin. Also, it is useful to show that despite similar end goals, in this case, legalization, there may be varying opinions of how and why to reach the goal.
While this book certainly has its strengths, it is not without weaknesses. At points throughout, Hari seems to offer a simplistic view of a broad range of events within the War on Drugs. For example, when discussing why drug cartels are able to operate with impunity in Mexico, he contends that it is because Mexico lacks a strong foundation in law and democracy, which is washed away by the flood of money that drug sales brings to the country. While the government most certainly matters, I think it would be important to give students further information about the War on Drugs within Mexico so they are not left with this minimal understanding. For example, there are numerous chapters in Rethinking the “War on Drugs” through the US-Mexico Prism (Zedillo and Wheeler 2012) from the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization that provide relevant reports about the war’s effects across our border. Furthermore, when tackling why people use drugs, Hari offers a thorough explanation of the relationship between childhood trauma and addiction. Importantly, though, he never addresses the idea that there is a genetic component to addiction. In order to show students that there are varying opinions on this, it would be helpful to give students information supporting a strong link between genetics and addiction. A thorough resource for this comes from the University of Utah Health Sciences and can be found online from the Genetic Science Learning Center (Genetic Science Learning Center n.d.). Overall, the limitations with this book can be balanced by using supplementary information.
On the whole, this text does offer an engaging account of the War on Drugs as told by many different actors within it. Hari’s writing style is fluid and easy to read and therefore will appeal to a broad range of students. The time and effort it took to seek out all of the players in the text should be commended. While at times the book offers basic understanding of theories of addiction or causes for the War on Drugs, these deficits could certainly be made up with supplementary information. The sheer range of topics covered in this book make it useful and informative. Therefore, I highly recommend incorporating Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs into graduate and undergraduate sociology and criminal justice courses.