: 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 .
: Holiday, who had suffered extreme childhood trauma (including being forced into prostitution at age ten) and used heroin to "stun her grief," refused to be silenced. Tras el grito - Johann Hari.epub
The "war" didn't start with a focus on health, but rather with a specific target. In 1939, Billie Holiday stood on a stage in New York and sang a powerful protest song about lynchings in the South. : Immediately after her performance, Harry Anslinger —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 In 1939, Billie Holiday stood on a stage
: 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".