Carl Hart

"I share my story in an effort to encourage others, especially successful professionals who are less at risk than people on the margins of society, to get out of the closet about their own drug use. If they did so, more people would see that there are far more respectable drug users than our criminal-justice regime and popular culture would have us know."

"the reefer-madness rhetoric of the past has not evaporated; it has evolved and reinvented itself...with each new generation, the myth of reefer madness is revamped and disguised as empirical evidence rather than as what it is: misinformed rhetoric."

"Would we tolerate children being removed from their mother just because she drank a glass of wine?...Can you imagine being told that your child is better off without you merely because you smoked a joint?...The fact is that many parents who use drugs are good parents, and their children are clearly better off with them."

"The main effects of smoking marijuana are contentment, relaxation, sedation, euphoria, and increased hunger, all peaking within five to fifteen minutes after smoking and lasting for about two hours...very high THC concentrations...can cause mild paranoia and visual and auditory distortions, but even these effects are rare and usually seen only in very inexperienced users."

"I'm now firm in my belief that marijuana is a key ingredient to happiness for a great number of people. What kind of person prevents another's responsible pursuit of happiness? Not a very humane one."

"my conscience will no longer allow me to remain silent about my drug use, nor can I remain silent about the absurdity of punishing people for what they put into their own bodies...The point is that whether I use a drug or not is my decision; it is not the government's decision."

"Contrary to popular media portrayals, most drug users are not addicts. They are responsible members of their communities. They pay their bills and taxes on time; they take care of their families; and they volunteer in their local and global communities. They are artists, engineers, firemen, homemakers, judges, lawyers, pastors, physicians, politicians, professors, schoolteachers, scientists, social workers, truck drivers, writers, and many other types of professionals."

"If our current government-or any government-were genuinely concerned about the health and safety of drug users, it would ensure that free, anonymous drug-safety testing services were widely available. This practical approach informs users of the contents of their substances and decreases the likelihood of people ingesting fatal amounts of unknown substances."

"the first priority of law enforcement should be to keep users safe, not to arrest them."

"If the ideas expressed in this book are embraced, we can get on with the business of treating each other better and enjoying more meaningful and fulfilling lives. And isn't that what we all want?"

"What if I told you that the awfulness of drugs has been wildly exaggerated? The predominant effects of drugs are good. They have beneficial effects, but we get paid to study the negative effects of drugs."

"With every drug, whether it's cocaine, PCP, or marijuana, there's some historical report about the horrors of this drug producing superhuman strength. It provides a rationale to engage in police brutality. This is quintessential American racism."

"Our researchers are from a particular class and they are predominantly white. They don't even think of themselves as being a part of the political machinery, but they help to prop up our drug laws."

"It's not like people are hiding data. It's just that the emphasis is on the negative aspects. I'm highlighting that something's wrong with that. Everybody knows it. But nobody's saying it."