In response to a recent article about Carl Hart, who says the harmful effects of drugs have been overstated, Dorm Partner and Chief of Clinical Services Amanda Fialk, PhD, LCSW, LICSW responded in a Letter to the Editor featured in The New York Times.
Dr. Fialk’s important and significant response noted the over 760,000 lives lost to addiction since 1999, deaths that represent mothers, fathers, sons, daughters and students. “As a recovering addict and treatment provider for young adults, I am compelled to call out Dr. Hart’s message that ‘most’ Americans who use an illegal drug have an ‘overwhelmingly positive experience’ as dangerous. I fear that many will die because they will seek to follow in the footsteps of an admired and inspirational university educator,” she said.
“While I agree with his position against the criminalization of drug use and the impact the systematically racist war on drugs has had on communities of color, what this article posits is not a solution to that problem. Instead, it glorifies false hope and severely downplays the very real and devastating disease of addiction.”
She concluded, “With a platform as far-reaching as his, and with his young adult students listening and watching closely, Dr. Hart has a responsibility to provide a full-picture view of addiction and its impacts, including the tremendous suffering it causes individuals and communities. In this article, he has failed to do just that.”
This Letter to the Editor was featured in the Metropolitan section of The New York Times Print Edition on April 25th, 2021.
