Pubdate: Sat, 30 Jan 2016
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Erin Ellis
Page: A9

CHALLENGING ADDICTIVE THOUGHT

Professor Disputes Illegal Drugs a Major Cause of Inner-City Blight

Carl Hart, a Columbia University psychology professor and expert on 
how the brain reacts to drugs, will be speaking in Vancouver on 
Wednesday about addictions and gambling.

Psychology professor Carl Hart: 'What I think you have on the 
Downtown Eastside are mental health problems, serious psychiatric 
illnesses like schizophrenia that really need to be dealt with.'

Hart's work in scientific journals and his 2013 book, High Price: A 
Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything 
You Know About Drugs and Society, dispute the notion that illegal 
drugs are the major cause of inner-city blight. Street drugs are far 
less addictive than most people think, he says, and "addicts" who are 
offered attractive alternatives will choose them instead.

He is also a critic of harsh drug laws that land a disproportionate 
number of African-Americans in U.S. jails.

Hart's own life story speaks to the power of having options.

He grew up in a poor household in a rough part of Miami, dabbling in 
petty crime and drugs.

But he graduated from high school because he wanted to stay on the 
basketball team and ended up in the U.S. air force.

He credits his mentors with encouraging him to earn a PhD in 
psychology and neuroscience. He is the first African-American to have 
a tenured position in a science faculty at Columbia.

The Vancouver Sun spoke with Hart via telephone from New York.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q What does your work on addictions have to do with gambling?

A When you think about the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of 
Mental Disorders) criteria for gambling addiction and drug abuse, 
many of them overlap. It's really about people's inability to control 
a behaviour, whether it's gambling or drug abuse. When we think about 
the reasons underlying why somebody might overindulge in drugs, it 
could be for a variety of reasons, including psychiatric illnesses 
like anxiety or trauma. People may overindulge in gambling for similar reasons.

Q Your research on methamphetamine finds that reports that it damages 
users' cognitive abilities are exaggerated. Are you saying using meth 
doesn't damage your brain?

A That's what I'm saying, but it has to be qualified. If we think 
about any drug - from acetaminophen to alcohol to nicotine - if you 
take a drug in large enough doses you will cause damage to brain 
cells and your brain. But the doses of methamphetamine that people 
take to get high does not cause damage to these cells.

Q You've been to Vancouver and the Downtown Eastside before. Why are 
so many people sick and disabled if it's not the drugs?

A It's amazing to me that people make that leap. You're right, you 
have people who are having extreme problems, and that's clear. But 
there's no evidence or at least I certainly don't know whether drugs 
caused them to have those problems. What I think you have on the 
Downtown Eastside are mental health problems, serious psychiatric 
illnesses like schizophrenia that really need to be dealt with. Many 
of them certainly do use drugs and alcohol, but the extent to which 
that contributed to their mental illness, I don't know. The reason I 
say that is you don't see those problems in the majority of drug users.

Carl Hart speaks Wednesday morning in Vancouver on the final day of 
the New Horizons in Responsible Gambling Conference sponsored by the 
B.C. Lottery Corp. The session is open only to conference participants.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom