America's Longest War: A Film

[RainDog]

Here's a link to the full movie. Can't post in video/media b/c it's not on YouTube. The film was produced by Reason Magazine.

http://reason.com/archives/2014/06/04/americas-longest-war-a-film-about-drug-p

Drug prohibition has failed. Drug usage rates have not declined, and illegal drugs are more available—and cheaper—than ever before. At the same time, the costs of the drug war are staggering. More than $1 trillion taxpayer dollars have been spent. More than 50,000 SWAT raids occur each year. Hundreds of thousands of non-violent drug offenders are wasting their lives away in prison at our expense. And more than 60,000 people have been murdered in Mexico over the past six years.

AMERICA'S LONGEST WAR provides a brief history of drug prohibition, beginning with Nixon's declaration of war in 1971 and ending with Obama's broken promise to allow states to determine their own medical marijuana policies. AMERICA'S LONGEST WAR chronicles how, over the past 40 years, the drug war has escalated from a small domestic program mostly focused on treatment to the multi-billion dollar international war it is today.

There are many victims of the drug war, and AMERICA'S LONGEST WAR tells some of their stories.

In 2001, Cory Maye, a black man in Mississippi, shot and killed an intruder while protecting his 18-month old daughter. The intruder turned out to be a white police officer conducting a raid, and Maye was sent to prison for murder. Maye was ultimately released in the Summer of 2011.

[CanSocDem]

1. Well, that was excellent!

Great documentary. They kept saying it was a "global" problem when in fact it looked like it all started with the US-DEA (POTUS seems to have little say...). Canada and Mexico (like "Ciudad Juarez&quot were vibrant, functioning (post hippie) communities enjoying life, where in Canada we were distracted only long enough to declare Marijuana Is Safe.

Then the right wing in the USA made it "political" and that cancer has indeed become "global". The film seemed to be suggesting that the USA isn't far from becoming the lawless war on society that we pretend isn't us. Our governments in Canada have bought in, unashamedly pursuing political agenda's that directly contradict known social and medicinal value.

For the moment we are in a slightly better place in regards to cannabis. We still have various levels of government waging their private political war on pot smokers but overall, not counting our commitment to build more privately operated prisons and arrest anyone driving a vehicle with cannabis in their system, it is still easy after 40 years to buy a bag of good pot.