A film on the DRUG WAR. Looks important.
For over forty years, America’s “War on Drugs” has accounted for 45 million arrests, made America the world’s largest jailer, and damaged poor communities at home and abroad. Yet for all that, drugs in America are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever before. Filmed in more than twenty U.S. states, THE HOUSE I LIVE IN captures heart-wrenching stories at all levels of America’s drug war – from the dealer to the grieving mother, the narcotics officer to the senator, the inmate to the federal judge. Together, these stories pose urgent questions: What caused the war? What perpetuates it? And what can be done to stop it?
hat tip: The Guardian
From the article at the Guardian:
Are you for decriminalisation or legalisation?
I’m for decriminalisation but I don’t care. I don’t want anybody in jail for using drugs. I think that’s a waste of our money. A waste of resources that could be used elsewhere. I think it’s treating a symptom. Drugs are a destructive force in human lives and I’ve seen what they can do, but the war against them has wiped out whole communities. If it was draconian and it worked, that would be one thing. But the purity level of drugs after half a century of this crap is higher than ever. They haven’t taken back a single drug corner in my city [Baltimore]. All it’s done has burden us with the highest level of incarceration in the world. We have more people in jail than China. Not higher per capita but in total. (read the whole article)
Related posts from Beyond Meds on the topic:
- We have a drug problem in the USA (whether the drugs are legal prescriptions or illegal “street” drugs)
- Power of addiction and addiction to power — everyone is addicted to something at one point or another in their lives…we’re all very similar that way.
Everything Matters 