: 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.
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. Tras el grito - Johann Hari.epub
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 : A former Baltimore police officer who realized
: 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 . In his book Tras el grito (originally published
: Anslinger , who held deeply racist views and hated jazz, assigned a Black agent named Jimmy Fletcher to stalk her for two years to find a way to arrest her. Fletcher eventually found her using drugs, and she was sentenced to a year in prison.