nickshanagher

Politicians and public health officials should watch The House I live in by Eugene Jarecki because it makes some interesting points about the war on drugs that could improve the debate about the war on tobacco. The documentary is very powerful and Jarecki demonstrates the way that ideas can drive political action. Tobacco control is being driven by health concerns, which are no longer controversial. Drug control, Jarecki suggests, was driven by racial concerns. Opium, he suggests, was outlawed so that Chinese labour could be disrupted. Cocaine to crack down on black people. Marijuana, Mexicans. However, once the public imagination gets hold of the idea that drugs are a threat to their lives and that people who sell drugs are dangerous, then public policy against drugs is driven by a punishment of users rather than treatment. And politicians are afraid to speak against the prevailing wisdom. When Nixon launched the war on drugs, two thirds of the money the US government spent was...