House I Live In

Year: 2012

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Jarecki

Review

documentary about the war on drugs. on the one hand the war on drugs has been a massive failure. this is in part due to the gradual move away from rehabilitation. nixon started the war on drugs and foolishly called it the number one threat to america or some such nonsense. but he also did a good thing by spending 67% of the funding on rehab. now, though, the war on drugs has been a war on drugs, rather than a war on drug abuse. i have a little to no problem with a war on drug abuse, which i do view has highly corrosive to the economy, the family, and individuals. i’ve seen it first hand and i can safely say it’s not as simple as “just let adults make their own decisions.”

unfortunately what we have now is an overly punitive and simplistic system that looks at any relationship with drugs as a bad one. it criminalizes every aspect of being around drugs (which suits the hard ass politicians and jail builders just fine) and does little to nothing to help people who need help. the film also points out the obvious things like the racism of drug policies – heroin is legal when white housewives are doing it to escape their shitty lives, but when the chinks do it it’s awful and should be outlawed. cocaine is fine when the wall street types are doing it in their porsches off some chick’s tits, but when a black guy adds baking soda (thereby making it crack) and smokes it, then it’s 100 times worse. what can i say? we’re racist assholes i guess.

it also claims that crack is actually used at the same rate in both the black and white communities, but that blacks are prosecuted for something like 90% of the crack crimes. this seems so racist and contrary to popular belief that i find it hard to believe. i’d like some corroboration on those facts. regardless, it’s clear that non-whites get the shaft, as do men, when it comes to the administration of justice in this country. it’s just much easier for people to believe that a black person or a man is guilty than it is to believe that a woman or a white person is guilty.