The Failed War on Drugs From Past to Present with Johann Hari

The drug war’s racist, unlikely origins with Billie Holliday, and how modern society continues to ignore the problems that feed the prison industrial complex is explored with CHASING THE SCREAM author Johann Hari. From drug policies that work (Portugal) to examples of what is wrong with the war on drugs (Arizona), and the personal motivations for the examination of society’s self-destructive need to medicate, profit and prosecute. Has America learned anything from the trillion dollar drug war? Will legalization solve the problem? Get deep in the drug war in this Lip News interview, hosted by Jackie Koppell.

Guest Bio

Johann Hari is a British journalist. He has written for many of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Le Monde, the Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, the New Republic, the Nation, Slate, El Mundo, and the Sydney Morning Herald. He was a lead op-ed columnist for the Independent, one of Britain’s leading newspapers, for nine years.

He was born in 1979 in Glasgow, Scotland, and has lived in London since he was a baby. His mother is from the Scottish tenements and his father is from the Swiss mountains. He graduated from King’s College, Cambridge with a double first in Social and Political Sciences in 2001.

Johann was named ‘National Newspaper Journalist of the Year’ by Amnesty International twice. He was named ‘Environmental Commentator of the Year’ at the Editorial Intelligence awards, and ‘Gay Journalist of the Year’ at the Stonewall awards. He has also won the Martha Gellhorn Prize for political writing.