Quotes from Carl Hart

Most of the stuff that parades as drug education in this country is just rubbish with no foundation in evidence.

All children will do things that you may not want them to. That's part of parenting.

It is always a good time when I visit the 'Melissa Harris Perry Show' on MSNBC.

The notion that scientists are dispassionate - first of all, that's wrong. Scientists are extremely passionate.

I had a grandmother who was really strong, who doted on me, who wanted to make sure that I didn't go off the beaten path, although I did.

When you go to jail, you are under the supervision of the state. You are housed with people who are criminals, so that becomes the expectation. People learn to become better criminals in jail and prison.

If you are funding researchers to look primarily for pathology, not surprisingly, that is what they are going to find and report on.

I did most of my Ph.D. in Washington. They used to bring black kids through the lab for tours, and I was one of the few black researchers.

Drug reformers need to be hyper-vigilant. I understand that when you've been oppressed so long, so thirsty for truth, that when someone comes along and gives you a sip of water, you think that they're the savior. But in that water there may be cyanide.

When patients reject official advice and proved medicine, they become more susceptible to quackery.

In the mainstream, I'm suspect because I'm black. I have dreadlocks, I have a goatee. I mean, I'm just suspect. In my classroom and at Columbia, I'm not as suspect because it's clear I know what I'm doing, but I am still suspect.

Disregard belief systems that aren't based on empirical studies.

Drug reformers get seduced by politicians who co-opt our language but who make no meaningful change. And when we don't hold politicians accountable, we contribute to harm.

If politicians did care about their constituents, they would work harder to seek out people like me. They don't.

I grew up in the hood in Miami in a poor neighborhood.

It takes some courage to say you were wrong.

I had to go to England to really learn about American racism in a way that corroborated my reality. That was critical.

All of my childhood, we were on welfare. My mom received Aid for Families with Dependent Children - welfare. Without that, we wouldn't have had subsidized housing. Most of my childhood, we had a two-bedroom apartment, but eventually we got into the projects, where we had four bedrooms. That was great.

If drugs are bad, any respectable society should do something to deal with them.

My research has taught me many important lessons, but perhaps none more important than this: drug effects, like semesters, are predictable; police interactions with black people are not.

I am certain that my white colleagues, when faced with an emergency situation, wouldn't think twice about calling the police. This, however, may not be the case for their black and Latino students.

You don't have money, you can't do science. But that's part of the price that I pay.

The way we have been thinking about brain science is that people show you pretty pictures, pretty images, and you think that that tells you something about how they behave. It doesn't.

My critique of how we deal with drugs in society is just that - that we use these anecdotes to apply to everyone and the anecdotes are not representative.