165.5 Rat Park (2019) an interview with Shawney Cohen

This week, Becky chats with documentarian Shawney Cohen about his new film, Rat Park.

Content Warning. We’ll be discussing addiction, drug use, murder, overdoses and police brutality.

Can we ever solve the global drug crisis? In 1978, Canadian psychologist Bruce K. Alexander conducted a radical experiment involving rats and heroin that would revolutionize the way we understand addiction. Thirty years later, this timely and conversation-worthy VICE doc connects the long-forgotten “Rat Park” findings with three stories taking place 10,000 miles apart—revealing why addiction is not really about the substances, it’s about the cages we live in. In the aftermath of the futile war on drugs, a world where narcotics are legalized might be the only option.

Rat Park will be screening at the HotDocs cinema in Toronto November 1st then streaming on Crave across Canada.