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''Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs'' is a book by British writer and journalist Johann Hari examining the history and impact of drug criminalisation, collectively known as "the War on Drugs." The book was published simultaneously in the United Kingdom and United States in January 2015. ==Background and synopsis== In January 2012, Hari announced on his website that he was writing his first book, focusing on the "war on drugs." The release of the book coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act in the United States, which was the world's first drug control legislation when it passed in December 1914. In ''Chasing the Scream'', Hari writes that two global wars began in 1914: World War I, which lasted four years, and the war on drugs, which is ongoing. In the introduction to the book, Hari writes that one of his first memories was of trying and failing to wake up a relative from a "drugged slump," and that he has always felt "oddly drawn to addicts and recovering addicts—they feel like my tribe, my group, my people." He also discusses his history of abusing anti-narcolepsy medication, a class of prescription drugs sometimes taken by people without the disease in order to stay alert. Hari questions his own status on whether or not he is an addict and decides to go searching for answers to questions he has. "Why did the drug war start, and why does it continue? Why can some people use drugs without any problems, while others can't? What really causes addiction? What happens if you choose a radically different policy?" Hari writes that he spent the next three years in search of answers, traveling across nine countries (United States, Canada, Great Britain, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, Uruguay and Vietnam). He profiles early figures in the drug war like jazz musician Billie Holiday, a long-time heroin addict; racketeer Arnold Rothstein, an early drug trafficker; and Harry J. Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (who himself had a daily morphine habit).〔 He also interviews drug addicts, dealers, police and lawmakers today, as well as scientists, drug addiction specialists and drug reform advocates like Danny Kushlick and Steve Rolles, as well as João Goulão, a doctor who has helped steer Portugal's drug policy.〔 One of his interviewees is Bruce K. Alexander, the researcher behind the "Rat Park" drug addiction experiments done in the 1970s. Alexander's hypothesis is that drugs themselves do not cause addiction, which is largely in contrast to current popular beliefs about drugs and drug addiction. Hari writes, “Many of our most basic assumptions about this subject are wrong. Drugs are not what we think they are. Drug addiction is not what we have been told it is. The drug war is not what our politicians have sold it as for one hundred years and counting.” 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chasing the Scream」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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