Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Chasing the Scream, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Drug Legalization and U.S. Policy
Addiction and Human Connection
Prohibition and the Cycle of Violence
Stories and Human Psychology
Summary
Analysis
In his research so far, Hari has learned about the perspectives of doctors, law enforcement agents, and addicts—but not drug dealers, who were naturally much less likely to leave records behind. The exception was Arnold Rothstein, a brutal, powerful gangster who stroked his ego by doing interviews with journalists. Through these interviews, as well as biographies and the last available copy of his wife’s memoir, Hari has reconstructed Rothstein’s life story.
In the introduction to this chapter, Hari reaffirms his commitment to presenting as many perspectives as possible on the drug war. If Anslinger, Holiday, and the Williams brothers created the template for law enforcement officers, drug addicts, and humanitarian doctors in the war on drugs, then Rothstein became a model for the gangsters who would benefit most from drug prohibition. Rothstein’s willingness to publicly talk about his life and crimes shows that he didn’t fear retaliation from the government—he knew that he was above the law. In turn, this shows how the drug trade gives organized criminals so much power that they can easily corrupt and hollow out the government.
Themes
In the 1920s, Arnold Rothstein spent his days hanging around Times Square, waiting to collect on his debts. While small and unimposing, he was still “the most feared man in New York City.” From a Times Square café, he coordinated a vast criminal network that involved everyone from gangsters and boxers to actors and police officers.
Readers may notice that Arnold Rothstein sounds a lot like Harry Anslinger: he had a similar kind of far-reaching power and wielded it in a similarly brutal way. He ignored other people’s wants and needs, and he stubbornly used violence and coercion to get his way, no matter what stood in his path. This similarity suggests that the drug war strongly rewards ruthless violence.
Themes
The son of a respected Jewish cotton merchant, Rothstein was a math whiz from an early age. As a teenager, he started stealing money from his father to play craps. When he realized how profitable the gambling industry was, he started setting up underground casinos. He was obsessive and humorless about making money. He started rigging his betting tables. Then, in 1919, he famously paid the Chicago White Sox to throw the World Series.
Rothstein’s adult obsessions can be traced back to his childhood—just like Anslinger’s. Rothstein approached organized crime with the cold, calculating attitude of a profit-driven businessman—which shows that the illegal drug trade is similar in structure to the legal market. Of course, the difference is that Rothstein didn’t face any legal constraints on his behavior.
Themes
During Prohibition, Rothstein got into the alcohol business. He soon expanded into drugs, shipping heroin in bulk from Europe (where it was still legal) to New York. He built a ruthlessly efficient drug gang around the same time as Harry Anslinger was shutting down legal heroin clinics. In other words, Anslinger’s policies passed control of the drug trade from doctors like Henry and Edward Williams to gangsters like Rothstein.
Hari emphasizes that prohibiting drugs doesn’t destroy the drug trade—rather, it just moves it underground, out of the purview of experienced professionals and regulators. Meanwhile, Rothstein’s rise to power shows that there are unbroken links between alcohol prohibition, which funneled vast resources to gangsters like him from 1920–1933, and drug prohibition, which has done the same ever since. If the U.S. gave up on alcohol prohibition because of the harms it caused, Hari asks, why won’t it do the same for drug prohibition?
Themes
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Rothstein hated addicts as much as Anslinger did, but the massive profit margins made up for it. He threatened and paid off the police, who turned a blind eye to his crimes. Then, he started killing. He even murdered Alfred Lowenstein, the world’s third-wealthiest man, right after striking a business deal with him. Sociologists know that criminals protect their drug supply chains by creating “a culture of terror” through extreme violence. Rothstein did this so effectively that nobody messed with him. For example, a pickpocket stole his pearl tie pin but mailed it back when he learned who Rothstein was.
The similarities between Rothstein and Anslinger continue to multiply: both were interested in the drug trade primarily as a source of power and profit, and both used drug addicts as mere fodder in their battles for control. The drug market’s “culture of terror” is really the product of prohibition: in the black market, sellers must resort to violence in order to prevent others from overthrowing them through force. In a legal, regulated market, the judicial system can protect sellers. However, Anslinger’s tactics show that law enforcement agencies often reward violence and terror just as much as the illegal drug market does—just not as openly.
Themes
Meanwhile, Rothstein treated his wife, Carolyn, like a prisoner: he didn’t let her talk to anyone or leave the house. When he came home in the early morning, he would binge on cake and milk to deal with his anxiety. He knew that his days were numbered, and he started hallucinating about attempts on his life. He was shot and killed in 1928, just after Carolyn divorced him. Ironically, he died bankrupt. The police were afraid to investigate his death, and the murderer was never caught.
Rothstein’s personal life shows how the black market’s “culture of terror” infiltrates the lives of those who participate in it and comes back to bite even those who most benefit from it. Rothstein’s life shows that the drug trade is like a pyramid scheme of violence: whoever uses the most violence gets rewarded, but eventually, the entire enterprise is bound to collapse.
Themes
Hari calls the shooting that killed Arnold Rothstein “the bullet at the birth of drug prohibition.” This is because, after Rothstein’s death, other gangs started competing for control of the drug market. Over time, the most vicious won out. The same is true of law enforcement. This is why, over the decades, the level of violence has continued to escalate in the war on drugs. And it’s also why Hari sees Arnold Rothstein, Harry Anslinger, and Billie Holiday as the three key people who can help us understand it.
Common wisdom suggests that killing high-level gangsters will reduce conflict, but actually, just the opposite happens: it creates a golden opportunity for other people to seize power through brutal violence. Thus, far from eliminating drug-related violence, the drug war actually creates a cycle of escalating conflict over time, because the black market has no way to regulate itself besides brute violence. Thus, later participants in the drug war have simply relived the dynamic between Anslinger, Rothstein, and Holiday—only with far higher stakes.
Themes
