Carl Hart

Carl Hart
Hart in September 2012
Born	(1966-10-30) October 30, 1966 Miami, Florida, U.S.
Residence	USA
Citizenship	United States
Fields	Psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience
Institutions	Columbia University
Alma mater	University of Maryland University of Wyoming
Spouse	Robin Hart
Website DrCarlHart.com

Carl Hart (born 1966) is a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Columbia University.^[1] Hart is known for his research in drug abuse and drug addiction. Hart was the first tenured African American professor of sciences at Columbia University.

Early life

Hart grew up in an impoverished Miami neighborhood, engaging in petty crime and the use and sale of drugs. His parents were divorced during his childhood, and he was raised by a single mother.^[2] Growing up in this environment influenced his world view, and he came to believe drugs were the reason for poverty and crime in most neighborhoods.^[3] After high school, he served in the United States Air Force,^[4][5] which became his path to higher education.

Education

Hart earned a bachelor of science and a master of science from the University of Maryland. He earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Wyoming. Hart attended UNC Wilmington where he worked with Robert Hakan before attending University of Wyoming.^[6]

Career

Hart is an associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Columbia University. His research is focused on understanding factors and circumstances that lead to decisions about whether or not to self-administer drugs.^[7]

In September 2014, Hart was featured in an article ^[8] and a video of a discussion he presented at a TEDMED event.^[9] He is also featured in the documentary The House I Live In.

Carl Hart has given testimony to the United States Congress' Committee On Oversight and Government Reform.^[10] He has been featured as a guest speaker at Talks@Google,^[11] The Reason Foundation,^[12] and The Nobel Conference.^[13] Hart has also been interviewed or otherwise featured on CNN, "Stossel"^[14] and "The Independents" on Fox Business, "All In with Chris Hayes" on MSNBC, Reason TV,^[15] "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News, "Democracy Now!", and the "Joe Rogan Experience".^[16]

Research

Hart's research focuses on the behavioral and neuropharmalogical effects of psychoactive drugs. He is particularly interested in what social and psychological factors influence self-administration of drugs.^[17] He also works and presents extensively on the importance and scientific basis of decriminalizing illicit drugs. He cites the criminalization of crack cocaine (which is typically associated with Black communities) and lack of similar criminalization of powder cocaine (traditionally associated with White communities) as an example of how drug criminalization has been based on social problems rather than scientific fact.^[9] His work provides the scientific evidence to debunk the myths about hard drugs, and to work towards more lenient and humane policies.

Although Hart’s research acknowledges the structural injustices that exist, it also plays into an oppression analysis perspective of psychology. Seligman produced similar animal research, which was later used as a human model, that mice placed in an oppressive learn helplessness and lose the ability to help themselves.^[18] Hart’s research has similar tones, in that he indicates a lack of positive outlets and activities is a reason for drug use in communities. However, he also acknowledges the extreme structural injustices that were created to further oppress and imprison black bodies. While the overwhelming majority of cocaine users are white, 80% of the cocaine related arrests have been of African Americans. Hart argues that laws intended for a safer society based on empirical evidence, rather than an oppressive legal system which forwards white supremacy, will move us closer to justice.^[9]

Predictors of Drug Use in Prison among Incarcerated Black Men

In 2012, Hart co-published research on the use of drugs within prisons in the United States.^[19] This is of particular relevance, as 37.8% of prisoners are Black.^[20] The findings indicated the drug use continues to occur in prisons, and those with more extensive drug histories tend to use more in prison than those with smaller drug histories. This research falls in line with Hart's overarching research which supports the decriminalization of drug use. This study provides evidence that incarceration is ineffective in decreasing drug use, so other alternatives should be considered.^[19]

High Price

In 2013, Hart published the book High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society.^[6] In the first chapters of his book, Hart discusses his upbringing, time in the military, and years in college and grad school. He chronicles his journey to his PhD and his tenured professorship at Columbia, and discusses the sacrifices and challenges he had to make. An extremely difficult aspect of succeeding in academia for a Black man was, to some extent, assimilating to white cultural standards. He discusses the challenge of learning white cultural norms and language, and then returning to his family and feeling alienated and unable to connect.^[6]

Hart discusses how Fordham and Ogbu's idea of "Acting White" played into his early education.^[21] In high school, he understood "Acting White" as students treating their communities with disdain. He argues that experts, to some extent, missed the mark with their claims that acting intellectually is a rejection of blackness. He argues that although they are associated, it is removing ones self from their own communities, or as Fordham and Ogbu explained, disregarding the fictive kinship that exists between Black people, that leads to the label of "Acting White." (52) He discusses in High Price how he his family often perceived that he was acting superior to them because of the language patterns and style of life he was living.^[6]

He ends the book with an argument for decriminalization of drugs. His research has shown that the dangers associated with drugs are largely misunderstood, and a decrease in stigma and increase in conversation would likely decrease the amount of drug related deaths. Misconceptions about hard drugs are common, and countries such a Portugal and Thailand have decriminalized and begun the process of decriminalizing hard drug use.^[22]

Policy implications of his work

Hart recognizes how drugs have been criminalized in the United States to target Black and Brown bodies so he is working to decriminalize drugs within the United States and create policies that are scientifically-based rather than heavily influenced by social determinants of the time.^[23] Hart also works to decriminalize the use of drugs world wide. He has lectured in Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America and has testified before the United States Congress as an expert witness on psychoactive drugs.^[23]

Personal life

Hart lives in New York with his wife and their three sons.^[24] In 2000, Hart learned that as a teenager, he had fathered a son who had been previously unknown to him. By the time Hart discovered that he had a third child, he also found out that this son had dropped out of high school and become involved in illegal drug sales. His recently discovered son also had been charged with a cocaine offense in the state of Florida.^[25]

Awards and honors

• Columbia University’s Preside
• Humanitarian Award from Mothers Against Teen Violence
• 2014 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award for High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society^[26][27]

References

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN