Tras El Grito - Johann Hari.epub Apr 2026

: Immediately after her performance, Harry Anslinger —the head of the newly formed Federal Bureau of Narcotics—sent a message to Holiday: stop singing that song .

: A former Baltimore police officer who realized that arresting addicts only made their lives worse and deepened racial inequality, leading her to join the movement to end the drug war. Tras el grito - Johann Hari.epub

: Hari highlights the work of scientist Bruce Alexander, who discovered that rats in a "happy" cage with friends and toys shunned drug-laced water , while isolated rats in bare cages became addicted. This led to Hari's famous conclusion that "the opposite of addiction is not sobriety; it's connection". : Immediately after her performance, Harry Anslinger —the

: The story of how Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001, choosing to spend money on housing and jobs for addicts instead of prison—a move that saw addiction and overdose rates plummet. This led to Hari's famous conclusion that "the

In his book Tras el grito (originally published as Chasing the Scream ), Johann Hari explores the history of the war on drugs through deeply human, often tragic stories. One of the most haunting and central narratives in the book is the systematic "hunting" of jazz legend by the man who launched the modern drug war, Harry Anslinger . The Story of Billie Holiday and Harry Anslinger

The book uses several other narratives to illustrate how the prohibition of drugs creates violence and deeper addiction:

: Even after her release, Anslinger continued to pursue her. When Holiday was eventually hospitalized, dying of liver and heart failure, Anslinger's agents handcuffed her to her hospital bed and arrested her for drug possession after allegedly planting heroin on her. She died while under arrest in that hospital bed at only 44 years old. Other Key Stories from Tras el grito