Week 5, The House I Live In

This week we watched the film The House I Live In.  It is about the failure of the war on drugs in America.  The filmmaker, Jarecki, points out that in the last 40 years America has spent $1 trillion dollars of government spending on the war on drugs and holds the most prisoners in the world.  Despite all the time, money, and efforts, drugs in America are very prevalent and relatively cheap to get.  The film explains that the war on drugs is not working and we need to fix drug policies in America.  Jarecki makes an argument that drug use should be considered a public heath issue and not a crime issue for law enforcement to handle.  I’m not sure I entirely agree with Jarecki.  I do think that drug use is a personal and public health issue and should be addressed as such as long as there is no violence or other crime associated with it.  I think that more rehabilitation programs should be set in place and funded by the government in order to help people overcome their drug issues.  The film presents another argument that the drug issue is a political and financial issue.  Presidents in the past have used the war on drugs as part of their campaign to get elected or reelected into office.  In addition, many companies today such as taser companies and health care companies have become dependent on prisons being their biggest customers.  Prisons also employ a large number of people.  If the drug laws would change they would cause a lower number of prisoners and prisons in the country and many towns along with the residents would face a financial crisis.  However, you could fix this problem by opening more rehabilitation programs around the country.  These rehabilitation programs could employ many people not needed by the prisons.  The programs would still need health care products and other services that could replace the business done with the prisons.  I think the extra programs are the best way to improve the progress of the war on drugs in America and they would help prevent individuals from going back to their old ways.