Carl Hart on Where the Real Crack Problem Lies

Substance-abuse expert Carl Hart, PhD, has serious questions about how issues of substance abuse are presented—marketed, if you will—to the public. In a New York Times Magazine interview posted online on June 27, he questions common assumptions about the addictiveness of crack cocaine and who benefits from the “war on drugs.

The real problem [is] unemployment, lack of education, lack of skills. Politicians are happy not to have to focus on those larger issues. You can just focus on crack cocaine, put more cops on the street and make tougher laws.

Dr. Hart is associate professor of psychology (in psychiatry) at Columbia University Medical Center and director of the Residential Studies and Methamphetamine Research laboratories at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Read the full interview here.