The war on drugs

[Skybird]

I saw a documentary on the so-called war on drugs in America this evening, a 105 minutes program that was indeed mindblowing: "The House I Live In". It is made by the guy behind "Why we fight", which was a stunningly good documentary on the Iraq war years ago.

It was broadcasted on German-French TV channel ARTE, and will be repeated again on July 8th, 2 a.m. in the morning.

It gave insights and empirical data that not just linked contexts and facts that you would not expect to learn easily, and presented an amount of critical self-reflection and criticism of the installment of this war on drugs that is rare on TV these days, at least by German standards. The war on drugs has turned into an economic profit-making business branch that has already changed society as a whole, and not for the better, it has negatively affected the self-understanding of the police and the relation between police and civilian society, and has given the law system an unbelievable spin that send it pretty much off balance. That there also is an empirical link between the criminalising of certain drugs and the wanted "ghetto-isation" of certain minority groups to ban them from competing on the labour market, was not clear to me, not in that clarity at least.

The film does a very good job in explaining that the whole thing is far more complex and multi-levelled than ordinary pub-discussions usually recognize. And it paints a frightening picture of the future. Frightening not because of drugs, but because of what the society and the state is turning into.

The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival 2012.

This is the trailer.


And an introduction by The Guardian:


The official website:
http://www.thehouseilivein.org/

Highly recommended to see the whole show.

P.S. On a sidenote, I found it ironic that it was especially Nixon who seem to have understood the real complexity and nature of th problem better than any politician before and after him. Of course, cheater that he was, this insight did not stop him from nevertheless acting in violation of his understanding, for opportunistic powerpolitical reasons.

No pleasant outlook. And the American way to tackle the problem simply is very unjust, racist, and profit-led. It seem to aim at noit solving it, but to intentiknally boost and foster it to make the imprisonment industry (that'S what it is for sure: an industry) a regular branch of the ordinary economy.

[mookiemookie]

Sounds interesting, and not simply because I already agree with its premise. You can be sure if the government declares "War" on a nebulous concept (drugs, poverty, hunger, etc), we're in for wasted time and money and no real progress made on the issue at all.

I'm happy to see that decriminalization of marijuana is beginning to take a foothold in this country. I'm not a user anymore, so I don't have a dog in that hunt (aside from my tax dollars) but the idea of "reefer madness" is so archaic and outdated as to be laughable.

I think in my lifetime we may see minor drug offenses turn into something akin to a speeding ticket. I believe our society will be better for it.

[CaptainHaplo]

For once, I agree with Mookie on the whole governmental "war on ________" is a waste.

To that end, lets end the war on poverty. Stop "fighting" against it with welfare.

[Wolferz]

The governments war on drugs is and has always been a pathetic excuse to incarcerate people into what has become a for profit prison system and it's cottage industries within the walls that need slave labor to fill the workforce.
When you get ten years for two joints something just ain't right.
Then there's a darker side to the whole mess. A side that I doubt the documentary even mentions. Legal drug dealers called big Pharma and a shadow government within the legitimate one, controlled by the worst drug pushers on the planet. Skull and Bones.
The old guard is finally beginning to wane and be replaced by those with more open minds.

[Armistead]

Yep, it's amazing our last 3 presidents admit to drug use, they win the highest office in the world, why millions doing the same go to jail.

[Skybird]

what stunned me was the link between ethnic minorities becoming a competitor on the job market, and tackling them by not discriminating them - formally - for being that ethnicity, what would have translated into unhidden racist arguments, but by criminalising them by criminalising previously legal consummation of typical drugs. To get rid of Chinese workers, smoking Opium was criminalised. To get rid of Mexicans, smoking cannabis was criminalised and called Marihuana. To get rid of Blacks, cocains negative effect was blown beyond proportion by raising a hysteria over "crack". The weight of the empirical links and evidences stunned me, I did not know that it all was SO MUCH pushed off balance.

reminds a bit of how beer producers demonised a threatening rival to their profits when it emerged - the "green fairy", absynth. Even the original unfiltered drink never was that great a health danger to the public, as the horror stories implied and that got started by beer producers when they had already lost 15 percent of their market to the producers of this new drink.

Frightening path the US society has embarked on. The monetarian business model of changed police rules of operation, due to declaring a policy of war on drugs, only detoriates things.

The problems are so very much homemade. Haplo, you shoot not far enough - wellfare is not the root of this evil, but the simple fact that at various points of US industrial history masses of employees suddenly were not needed anymore and thus threatened the privileged majority of workers still having jobs, which corresponded with skin coloer very much. See that film in full. There are some things to see and learn that you will not like to hear about - nevertheless are true.