Carl Hart, a Columbia University psychology professor known for his research in drug use, criticized contemporary American drug policy as inconsistent with America’s founding principles and current realities.
“Why are drugs illegal in the first place in a country where the founding documents say that you have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as one of your inalienable rights?” Hart asked.
Hart addressed Stackhouse Theater on Oct. 16 during a lecture called “Drug Use, Misuse and Science-based, Rational Drug Policy.” The university’s Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Science brought Hart — considered one of the world’s preeminent experts in neuropsychopharmacology — to campus for the Robert W. Root Endowment Lecture.
While full decriminalization of drugs may seem controversial, Hart advocated for establishing legal regulations to better promote public health, education and individual liberties.
Hart said that much of the past five decades of dialogue around drugs from scientists and lawmakers is inconsistent with drug-use data.
Hart cited the 1986 Crack Powder Act as an example. Hart said the chemical base that gets users high is the same in crack cocaine and powder cocaine. However, the act punished them unequally. Possession of only five grams of crack cocaine triggered a five-year prison sentence, while it took the possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine to receive the same sentence.
The sentencing provision remained in effect until 2010.
Hart said that after the media blamed NBA draft star Len Bias’ death on crack in 1986, people began to panic about the dangers of crack cocaine. This led Congress to more harshly punish crack, he said, while powder use was viewed in a more fashionable light due to its associations with the white upper class.
In reality, “the only difference is the route of administration,” he said.
The Center for Disease Control estimated that around 30,000 people died from cocaine use in 2023. But Hart argued that bias-driven drug policies and stereotypes extended beyond cocaine.
For example, he said, the compound that gets users of PCP and ketamine high is nearly identical, despite vastly different discourses around the drugs.
While medical professionals administer ketamine to people with depression, Hart said PCP is viewed as dangerous — so dangerous that, in 2014, a police officer justified shooting a teen 16 times because the officer claimed PCP made him threatening.
Hart argued that exaggerating risks from drugs in this way puts lives at risk.
Hart also proposed that the government should run drug checking to avoid deaths from people taking drugs tainted by deadly substances like fentanyl. He said the policy could help lower the number of fentanyl-related deaths, which reached 74,000 in 2023, according to the CDC.
“People can submit small samples of their substances anonymously and get a complete print-out of the proportions of substances in that substance,” said Hart.
Countries including the Netherlands, Austria and Spain have adopted drug checking, he noted.
Hart said that he finds inaction from government and everyday citizens frustrating.
“This is one of the reasons why I struggle to be human in this society,” Hart said. “When people are aware, and they don’t do anything about it.”
