Summary of Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong | Johann Hari

00:00:00 - 00:10:00

The speaker discusses research that shows addiction is not caused by chemical hooks, but by loneliness and lack of social connection. He talks about how Portugal changed their approach to addiction and provided jobs and microloans to addicts, which led to a decrease in drug use. This is an alternative to the current system that's being implemented in the US and Britain, which typically focuses on punishment and disconnection.

• 00:00:00 One of the earliest memories Johann Hari can remember is of trying to wake up one of his relatives, and not being able to. He then realized that his family had drug addiction, including later cocaine addiction. Hari researched addiction and found that almost everything we think we know about addiction is wrong. He traveled to different parts of the world to learn more about addiction and its causes. One of the things he learned is that addiction is not caused by chemical hooks, but by loneliness and lack of social connection. This led him to study the Portugal drug decriminalization experiment, which showed that people who are exposed to all types of drugs do not become addicted.
• 00:05:00 In the 1960s, soldiers in the Vietnam War were using loads of heroin. When they were followed home, 90% of them just stopped using. Johann Hari explains that addiction isn't about your chemical hooks, it's about your cage and your environment. This has significant implications for the War on Drugs, which typically fails to help addicts. Portugal changed their approach and instead provided jobs and microloans to addicts, which led to a decrease in drug use. This is an alternative to the current system that's being implemented in the US and Britain, which typically focuses on punishment and disconnection.
• 00:10:00 The speaker discusses research that shows addiction is down in Portugal, by 50 percent. He goes on to say that one of the implications of this is that disconnection is a major driver of addiction. He talks about how reality TV has influenced how we view addicts and how we should shift our perspective from addiction being a problem to being a problem that we need to solve.