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Analysis Of The House I Live In

726 Words3 Pages

In the 2012 documentary, The House I Live In, by Eugene Jarecki, the impact of the war on Drugs on American households is shown in a new light. Despite the efforts of the American government, drug use and sale has continued to rage within our country and indicates no downtrend in the future. This year alone, the drug industry is expected to expand by 5.39%, even with the latest attempts of government control such as increasing laws against drugs and sharpening the penalties against caught individuals. There are many factors as to why drug use and sale trends continue to skyrocket. For instance, addiction is fierce. Even when people try to fight addiction in order to stop drugs, it feels near impossible, so when people who have no interest …show more content…

Together, the two are responsible for high incarceration rates and violence. Drugs cause altered mental states which can numb the rational part of the brain and make users more likely to respond in violent manners. The war on drugs feeds on money and when that is unavailable, violence usually breaks out. Also, drugs affect the status of a community. A community that is largely involved in drug activity or the war on drugs tends to be impoverished, with lower quality education opportunities and employment opportunities. When people are raised in this environment, it often stunts their perspective of the future and can cause them to aim to achieve …show more content…

The American approach to face the Drug crisis is to combat new drugs with harsher laws with the hopes of scaring people away from drugs. What they do instead, is target underprivileged communities. The film also acknowledges the upper class privilege to buy their way out of a drug related crime, when impoverished communities cannot and are met with longer sentences and more severe penalties. While the film described Nancy Reagan’s approach of “just say no” to drugs as motherly, it also highlighted her husband's contrasting methods. Ronald Reagan talked of using organizations such as the FBI, immigration and naturalization service, marshall services, and the coast guard to strong arm the drug problem away. This is how experts in law enforcement and court positions viewed these inconsistencies. They thought a show of nationalistic strength would solve the problem, instead of taking a rehabilitation approach, which was thought to be weak. They believed and continue to believe that harsher punishments will help stagnate the drug crisis and business. Ironically, years have passed and not much has changed. The war on drugs and the drug market is thriving and people of poverty are still

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In his article, “Toward a Policy on Drugs,” Elliot Currie discusses “the magnitude and severity of our drug crisis” (para. 21), and how “no other country has anything resembling the American drug problem” (para. 21). The best way to describe America’s drug problem is that it is a hole continuously digs itself deeper. America’s drug issues were likely comparable to other country’s at one point in time, but today it can be blamed on the “street cultures” (para. 21) that continue to use and spread the use of illegal drugs. These street cultures transcend the common stereotype of drug users, such as low income communities in cities or welfare recipients, and can be found in every economic class and location. They are groups of people who have

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