Johann Hari on his book "Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs"

Host Doug McVay speaks with Johann Hari about his best-selling book "Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs."

It is now 100 years since drugs were first banned in the United States. On the eve of this centenary, journalist Johann Hari set off on an epic three-year, thirty-thousand-mile journey into the war on drugs. What he found is that more and more people all over the world are beginning to recognize three startling truths: Drugs are not what we think they are. Addiction is not what we think it is. And the drug war has very different motives to the ones we have seen on our TV screens for so long.

Hari's history begins with his discovery that at the birth of the drug war, Billie Holiday was stalked and killed by the man who launched this crusade – while it ends with the story of a brave doctor who has led his country to decriminalize every drug, from cannabis to crack, with remarkable results.

http://chasingthescream.com/