The War on Drugs in America

While watching The House I Live In, I was instantly engrossed into Jarecki's documentary on the "war on drugs" in America. This film has an interesting view on the increasing drug problems in the United States. It states that the "public enemy number one in America is drug abuse." This itself may not be a new idea, but Jerecki's take is that for many people it's a lifestyle that they are born into and is very hard to escape. The film walks you through various communities whose economy is based on the sale of drugs, and in his view, they almost have no other choice. Watching the interviews with the people in his film, gives you a sense of compassion for the problems these communities face, and can make you understand how they got sucked up into these choices in the first place. Having you go through these emotions with these communities, he now brings up another problem; the increasing population in America's prisons.

This increase in our prisons, is directly related to the crack down of the "war on drugs." America has the largest population of drug related convictions in our jail systems; however, it isn't working. The amount of crime related to drugs, and drug abuse itself, continues to sore in our county. This makes you think, should we do something to change it? Most often, drug related crimes, drug sellers, and drug users are often punished the same. This makes me wonder if there should be another approach. The fact is, when people are heavily addicted to drugs it often leads to other serious crimes, which should in fact be punished; but, should the less serious drug crimes be punished to jail?  Before watching this documentary I believe I would have answered yes, of course, but the way the information in this film is presented, has me thinking otherwise. Is America's "war on drugs" really about getting drugs off the streets, or is it about making a profit for our law enforcement systems?   I'm not really sure what the answer to this question is, but it does have me wondering. If our current system is not working, we need to look at other approaches. I like the idea of  putting more money into drug treatment, rather than drug enforcement. Treating the root of the problem, instead of just punishment, seems to make a lot more sense.

I believe a lot more research, on my part, needs to be done to fully understand the complexity of this situation. I think Jarecki's point is presented effectively; however, I'm not sure how much is true without further investigation. The fact that he has me thinking about so many other views on this situation, has definitely changed my thoughts on the problem with drugs in America. Before, I thought of any drug offender as just a bad person, but I now understand that there is much more to the story than that. I do believe drug crimes need to be confronted, but in Jarecki's view, it's the unfair punishment that needs to change.