The House I Live In (2012) User Reviews

Well-crafted advocacy piece with a few distracting flaws.

[imdb-480-136149 · 8/10 · 19 September 2012]

The House I Live In is a very informative work of advocacy that's only thinly masquerading as a documentary. It's a more reformed, nuanced version of a Michael Moore piece that has a clear point of advocacy aimed squarely at whatever practical center still exists. It doesn't hit you over the head with a message or misleading facts but squarely lets you arrive at the conclusion that the drug war has failed.

It's not an anti-corporate rant with a clear villain to rally against. I left thinking that there was enough material and story there to easily fill a mini-series or a Ken Burns style documentary without getting preachy or creating fatigue.

It has enlightening and entertaining moments, but there are many flaws in the storytelling. Many characters are introduced, many of which with too much or not enough background, and seem to float around their promised purpose without really landing at a point or purpose. (Given the ending theme of the work, perhaps this is intentional.)

David Simon's incredibly powerful monologues bring a saving grace to moments in the film that tend to struggle, especially moments where the director awkwardly inserts himself into the film.

Unlike a lot of similar works, you could probably take your Republican parents to see it without the evening being automatically ruined.

Unlike almost every other advocacy piece I've seen, it achieves its goal of starting a conversation, rather than ending one.

A Moving and Informative Introduction to the Untold Story of the Drug War

[fob199 · 9/10 · 17 April 2013]

The House I Live In takes the complex issue of the failed war on drugs and breaks it down to a level that is both digestible and striking nonetheless. The film provides substantial historical evidence to make a powerful argument against the American war on drugs. The House I Live In exposes the many flaws of current anti-drug policies and strategies from a multitude of perspectives, drawing from historians and academics to front- of-the-line law enforcement and correctional officers alike. The film brilliantly ties these perspectives in a way that can effectively inspire viewers from all backgrounds to take a stand in confronting this largely unrecognized national issue.

The film provides an impressively broad set of data and evidence that cohesively screams one message—the war on drugs is a failure to the American public. As the first film focused solely on the subject, The House I Live In is undoubtedly one of the decade's most important films.

Our deadening country.

[peacecreep · 8/10 · 2 April 2013]

Eugene Jarecki's frightening and important film is a thorough investigation of the prison industrial complex and the "war on drugs" i.e. the war on poor people. It's a fair and balanced look at how it subsidizes thousands of jobs and locks up millions of innocent people. Unfortunately he misses a key argument against this war: adults should have the right to sovereignty over their consciousness. Drugs are slightly demonized throughout- the fact that the drugs themselves are inherently good- its people with no self control that give them a bad name- is never explored. Regardless, this is a fascinating look into a sick society in a dead and deadening country. Recommended.

"Free" Enterprise at It's Finest

[zippyflynn2 · 10/10 · 13 October 2012]

What's really fueling this law and order hysteria and the draconian prison sentences for relatively minor, innocuous and even non-existent "crimes" is the extraordinarily profitable Prison for Profit system. What's interesting and extremely frightening is most Americans are oblivious to it. Combine this with a large number of the public being largely uneducated and on a continual sadistic hunt for scapegoats, those who profiteer on the modern day slave trade have a willing public as unwitting accomplices.

It's interesting the director, Eugene Jarecki, also did "Why We Fight", one of the best documentaries to expose the crimes being committed by the blood money Military Industrial Complex. The public is also largely oblivious to that evil profiteering monster and also happily supports it to the point it thinks murdering and dying for it is a good thing. Jarecki makes some of the most important and enlightening documentaries of today. It's an alarming shame and tragedy that the predominately ignorant and not very mentally healthy general public aren't watching them, let alone able to comprehend how it hurts everyone except the bank accounts of sociopathic "business" men and women.

Perhaps the common denominator is the same fuel that's driving half of the present day voters in the Presidential election: hatred and the eternal search for scapegoats. It would make an excellent documentary to tie these core driving forces together, a task I think Mr. Jarecki is capable of doing well. It probably won't make much of an impact beyond preaching to the choir but then again none of his other fine offerings have fared much better and those are still greatly appreciated by thoughtful and humane audiences.

The House I Live In

[kmartin108 · 10/10 · 14 October 2012]

This is a compelling documentary. Please see it. The drug war that results in mass incarceration is probably the most critical emerging issue of our time. If you care about humanity, and if you care about the economics of our country, then go see this film.

The filmmakers seamlessly describe the complexities that underly the drug war and mass incarceration. Then they show the devastating unintended consequences of this misguided policy approach. Finally, they raise important questions that will help to craft a new way forward.

I am going to do my part to get as many people that I can to see this film. I'm posting it on Facebook, I'm writing reviews, and I'm telling people about it in my capacity as a trainer in child welfare.

The filmmakers deserve a huge thank you for calling out the ugly truth of the drug war in a way that we can understand it, and do something about it.

The Slow-Motion Holocaust

[winston9109 · 10/10 · 11 November 2012]

If you've been a student of most public schools you've learned about slavery.

There's a lyric I remember that says "I hate it when they tell us how far we came to be - as if our peoples' history started with slavery." Well, the history of subjugating minorities has not ENDED with slavery either, and retrospective condemnation of racism serves the purpose to perpetuate the racism embedded and invested in our country today.

The most important mistake is to confuse failure with success in regards to the apparent shortcomings of our establishment. I again use the example of public schools because the recent documentary "Waiting for Superman" did a fantastic job in addressing the "failures" of schools to educate children. It takes a book like James Lowen's Lies My Teacher Told Me to recognize the grand success of our school's indoctrination process: to teach obedience, not intelligence. It takes a documentary like The House I Live In to vocalize the airtight success of our administration in conducting the 41 years' drug war.

Logic should compute. If more money has been spent (a trillion dollars since the '70s,) the prison population has skyrocketed (2.4 million people incarcerated) and no progress has been made in keeping drugs off the streets, (similarly with our schools, with reform after reform we continue to perform beneath the feet of most industrialized countries,) you have to start looking at things a little differently. It is hard to see the exit of the maze when walking within its walls. This documentary helps to see things from the outside.

This film brings to light a lot of revealing facts that have been swept under the rug, like how opium wasn't an issue until Chinese started climbing the success latter in San Francisco, or how the police in border states can directly siphon the money from drug busts to reward their outfit. Mostly, it encourages a comparison between the way minorities have been apprehended with drug abuse and the apprehension of whites (who hold equal if not higher drug abuse statistics but make up a minority of the prison population.) And it encourages comparison between past, mass scale subjugation (often with eventual extermination) and, to quote the film, the slow-motion holocaust happening in our own country.

It recognizes the drug epidemic as an economic issue and a medical issue, not a racial issue. It recognizes the drug WAR as the glaring rash of vibrant racism, and the brutal front of a class war in a society where profits come first, human beings second. More to this point, it eludes to the country's prime motivation, net gain and increased GDP, and the plethora of companies from Sprint Mobile to GM to privatized prisons such as CCA, all of whom depend on the drug war to maintain stock value.

To quote ousted investigative journalist and ex-LAPD narcotics officer Michael Ruppert, "A snake eating its own tail is not nutritious."

Though it is outside the periphery of the film's focus and beyond the pale even for a documentary of this substance, the issue of international drug trafficking, and facilitation it has received, at times, from both the financial sector and intelligence agency of our country, was never brought to light in this film. Despite whether this topic is to be written off as conspiracy theory or submitted for further analysis, a film that introduces our economy's dependence on drug dependence and the targeting of minorities in an everlasting drug war, has a duty to at least address the controversy. I suggest raising the question on discussion boards and at Q&As, as my screening was lucky enough to have.

We live in a country that is infested with racism, now as much as any other time. Our economy depends on it, and the drug war has fertilized it. It is time to end it.

Best Drug and Prison Documentary I Have Ever Seen

[jason-leonidas1984 · 10/10 · 30 September 2013]

This needs to be seen by every law officer, every judge, every college student and beyond. This is a VERY powerful documentary that doesn't just paint a black and white picture telling us that drugs are acceptable or that drugs are bad, it talks about the HUNDREDS of elements which make up the complex drug and prison system we know of today.

Some of the top minds in the industry on both sides give the best and most insightful talks, this has really been an eye opening film for me.

I wish I could mass produce this DVD for free and mail it to every citizen of the US. We need to change this system, it's broken and heading down a very scary path. Most people think that drugs and prisons don't affect them so why bother with the issue, you couldn't be any more wrong. Thousands of times a day the authorities are searching people and seizing property without due process, many times never finding anything. A man was killed after a raid and nothing was found. This IS RELEVANT TO ALL CITIZENS OF America. The Constitution is our savings grace, don't let it burn to ash along with your freedom.

Please watch this, even if you don't agree with everything, I feel like you can still learn something and apply it to your community and the ballet box to make a positive change in the right direction.

A must-see documentary

[rogerdarlington · 19 January 2013]

In 40 years, of America's 'war on drugs', more than 45 million arrests have been made. The approach has made the United States the world's largest jailer with almost 2.3 million individuals incarcerated. This means that the USA has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world with about 1% of all adults in jail. African Americans comprise less than 14% of the US population but almost 40% of those in prison. Hispanic Americans comprise just over 16% of the US population but around 20% of those in prison. African American males are jailed at about six times the rate of white males and three times the rate of Hispanic males.

Against this background, Eugene Jarecki has written, produced and directed this striking documentary examining the impact of the war on drugs in America. Starting with the black woman who was his childhood nanny, he interviews an eclectic cast of characters with different experiences of the problem: the drug dealer, the policeman, the judge, the prison guard, the life prisoner with no chance of parole, and – most eloquent of all – the creator of the television series "The Wire".

Until recently, the drug problem has been seen by many Americans as a black and brown issue and the strong emphasis on enforcement measures, with a growing use of mandatory minimum sentences, has led to a swollen ethnic prison population that, for many whites, has swept the problem off the streets and out of sight. But the availability of different drugs and the loss of manufacturing jobs has led to more white, working class men being caught up in this destruction of both personalities and communities. So, at its core, this is not an issue of ethnicity but one of poverty.

The film argues that the policies of the last four decades have failed and need to be fundamentally rethought. Drug use should be considered as less an issue of criminal justice and more a matter of public health. Many drug users are not evil or selfish but victims of poverty and deprivation who are trying to find some income where there is little employment and some solace when life is so miserable.

This is a stunning documentary that raises profound issues – and not just for Americans. It will not be an easy film to see at the cinema, so catch it on television (as I did) or buy or rent it.

America's flawed war on drugs

[maccas-56367 · 7/10 · 28 September 2019]

This is a mostly well-made, engaging documentary about the US failed 'War On Drugs' and its surrounding issues. It's definitely thought-provoking. If you're not from the US, (or don't know anyone directly impacted by the war on drugs), then you may find it a bit boring or not applicable to you. It's very America-centric, particularly in its prison system and sentencing laws.

There are some really tragic personal stories here, as is usually the case with lives impacted by drugs. Some of the US politics explored were a bit boring and pedantic (for me as an outsider), but I recognised their importance in creating this mess itself.

The film got me thinking a lot about my friends currently incarcerated in the US prison system due to drugs. That made me feel frustrated and emotional. Some of the statistics presented were jaw-dropping. Either way you look at the film and issues discussed, "injustice" is the key word throughout and mandatory minimums are insane.

The socio-economic and racial issues underlying the war on drugs are also explored, and probably the strongest point of the film. I felt the film got slightly 'preachy' towards the end though, and it failed to provide any solutions to the problem. Anybody can pick apart the flaws and issues within a system, but it takes innovation, effort and intelligence to provide a range of viable solutions and alternatives. I don't think these were properly explored and the film suffered as a result.

Good look at the pros and cons of the drug war, it feeds off of class, race, culture and society.

[blanbrn · 8/10 · 14 November 2012]

No matter what side of the drug war your on even if you want legalization or the total ban of all drugs, one thing for sure it's an interesting and tough topic that splits many. "The House I Live In" the eye opening new documentary from Eugene Jarecki looks at the many sides of U.S. drug policy and how it interacts and feeds off one another from the street dealer to the narcotics officer to the inmate and federal judge. It's true that the use of illegal drugs has destroyed many countless lives, yet still the media, and political people have overblown the drug problem into a money making business. Making the jobs of law enforcement employees very hard as much of their focus is now on fighting drugs instead of trying to solve more important crimes like murder. And the lock up rate has grown crazy as the U.S. now has 25% of the world's prison population. It's an easy game lock up someone quick and easy for a drug possession crime and spend more tax payer money build more prisons and more lock ups as prison and crime is now a money making machine that makes a job for someone. As evidenced from the correctional officer that was interviewed during this doc.

Even more revealing is how Eugene Jarecki examines the history of drugs and how it's always been more the case that the poor and those that are black will be arrested for drug crimes. It's clear that many that live in a race and culture of downtrodden ridden history and black have simply became a statistical number for law enforcement to arrest. All while politicians on both side profit and get fat from fighting the drug war. Clearly they don't understand they need to stop locking people up for small drug offenses to save prison space for more serious criminals. Overall good doc that questions the way we are handling business in fighting the drug war it's educational and thought provoking no matter what your stance on the drug policy is.

It's nice

[sophiarodriguez-86742 · 7/10 · 25 June 2019]

Nice documentary. Didn't bring a clear message with it, but it's interesting to see a different angle about the war on drugs.

Mama Tried

[valis1949 · 9/10 · 13 July 2013]

THE HOUSE I LIVE IN (dir. Eugene Jarecki)

America has more of its citizens behind bars than in any other nation on the planet, and we presently have more Blacks incarcerated than were slaves in the Confederate States of America during the 1850's. And, America's misguided approach to the issue of illegal drugs is the single most important reason why so many of us are in prison.

These are only a couple of startling revelations from Eugene Jarecki's riveting documentary about America's terribly misguided War On Drugs. Clearly we have chosen to solve a health issue by creating a ridiculous legal and political policy based on an oxymoron called, 'the criminal justice system'. Racial scapegoating and a system based on 'prisons for profit' have allowed us to spend billions, yet more people use illegal drugs today than when the drug war first began. And, the quality of these drugs is infinitely superior.

No one, not the authorities or the criminals, seem to be satisfied with the status quo, and readily admit that the whole affair is an abject failure. But, the film shows how this suicidal social policy remains locked in place with no end in sight. Politicians campaign on making this nation drug free, and addiction rates soar and we can't seem to build jails quickly enough to fill them.

If there was ever a solution that was immeasurably worse than the problem, it is The War On Drugs. ABSOLUTE MUST SEE

If it ain't working, why do we keep doing the same old thing?!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 26 January 2015]

"The House I Live In" is a frustrating film to watch. This is because the first 75% or so of the film has a lot of great content and the film makes its point. Too bad they didn't STOP the film, as the last 25% actually will alienate many people who agree with the film's initial message.

When the film begins, it presents a very convincing argument that the American government's so-called war on drugs is a complete failure. Important facts such as the nation leading the world in incarceration rates, the predominance of poor minorities serving time for drug possession and the violence associated with drugs are all very, very compelling arguments to say that what we are doing currently is not working. Then, instead of presenting a great argument for legalization or partial legalization, the film goes off on an argument about class warfare (sounding rather Marxist) and drawing parallels to the drug war with the holocaust (and when you start comparing ANYONE to the Nazis, then you've lost the legitimacy of the argument--which is often referred to as 'Godwin's Law'). The bottom line is that the film didn't know when to quit when it had presented a great argument. Its final overall argument is one that would alienate many libertarians and conservatives (folks who you might be able to convince that we should abandon this war on drugs and its disproportionate effect on the poor) and appeal more to a socialist and far-left crowd.

While I DO agree that poor people get a bad shake and serve far, far more time than rich folks who can afford better lawyers and gain more sympathy from juries, resorting to the class warfare argument will appeal to many and alienate just about as many. And reserve the term 'Holocaust' for the Holocaust!!

Overall ratings: For the first 75%--9; For the last 25%--2

Strong Case for "The War on Drugs" effect on Class, Poverty and Crime.

[rafaelcortina · 9/10 · 2 September 2013]

Eugene Jarecki was a Caucasian boy who thought critically about the struggles of his family's black employee and later, as a grown man, why exactly his life turned out so differently than her sons'. Jarecki is the filmmaker of "The House I Live In", a poignant documentary that shines a big bright discerning light into the shadows of America's "War on Drugs." Within the opening chapters of the film, he voluntarily empties his pockets, disarms us, and identifies his proximity and interest in the topic.

Professor after Intellect, Prison Guard after Police Officer, stories unfold and cold hard empirical statistics enforce the cyclical nature of class, race, poverty and crime. Heartbreaking accounts of systematic inequities are detailed from in the prison cell and outside. From behind the court bench and below it.

Jarecki's storytelling is artful and slightly waxing poetical—in an effective manner I might add. He utilizes monologues in the film to humanize the numbers we see and discussions we hear with criminals we come to know over the course of the film; the same criminals we ultimately sympathize with by the end.

Do not get me wrong, this is not a straight up "world against them" diatribe. David Simon, the man behind HBO's the Wire, has a number of well spoken and intelligent insights. He tells us, "what drugs haven't destroyed, the war against them has." This statement is referring to the futile attempt at eradicating drugs from the U.S. for the last 30 years. More black men are going through the legal system (prison, parole, and prosecution) than there were slaves in America 200 years ago. The film indicates a strongly biased machine that affects the entire lower class, but disproportionately the black population.

Near the conclusion of the documentary Simon suggests the "War on Drugs" as a major factor contributing to the cyclical nature of social class. Although never uttered on screen, in many accounts it is implicit that the "War on Drugs" has also been a proponent of racism; the suppression and oppression of the minority populations in America.

"The House I Live In" is a well groomed film. Very little fat and a lot of substance. Easily the most thorough screen analysis of America's current socioeconomic situation that I have discovered to date. This should be the "Super Size Me", the catalyst, for discussions around class in our country. Unfortunately, the same dominant system and mentality that works against many subjects in the film, does not appear to be concerned with fixing what is broken.

Bronx drug dealer Shanequa Benitez tells us, "They view you as, 'damn you live over there?' But they don't bother to ask, 'damn was it your choice?'" With a jaded resolve Benitez points out the irony in the questions we typically ask regarding social issues. See for yourself if Jarecki is asking the right ones.

The real-life "The Wire"

[RainDogJr · 9/10 · 2 March 2013]

Cinema and literature have explored the themes of THE HOUSE I LIVE IN many times before. If you talk about "war on drugs" you'll inevitably find that everything is related, from the kid who wants to follow the steps of the most recognized gangster in the ghetto (something similar to one of the stories in Garrone's GOMORRA) to the penal system debate (not long ago Werner Herzog touched this theme with INTO THE ABYSS).

THE HOUSE I LIVE IN, documentary about the war on drugs in the United States, take us to many states, shows us the perspective of all the involved in this complex situation, from the recluse that trafficked with methamphetamines to the cop that appeared in the series COPS. Even when the documentary's duration is only 2 hours, it seems that director Eugene Jarecki had enough material for a 10-hour miniseries, so with a single viewing it may be a bit difficult to retain every one of the stories here featured.

Jarecki began his project thanks to a personal issue: the African American woman that took care of him when he was a child saw her family being destroyed by drugs. The director quickly delimitates his theme and decides only to explore his country – the Mexican war on drugs, for instance, is mentioned only once, simply to conclude that the problem is much bigger in the United States. Jarecki never questions where the drugs that enter to his country come from, or why people use them – that's somewhat clear: people involved in the drug traffic or use do it "out of pain", as one of the interviewed persons remarks. So, the objective of the documentary is to find out what causes that pain.

We get concise answers and thoughts, that shows an impressive brutality and at the same time contradict the final message, sort-of encouraging, of the film. That message is, by the way, illustrated with the image of an African American woman watching on her TV, with a smile, the first victory of Barack Obama back in 2008. Yes, the same woman that took care of young Jarecki.

THE WIRE (2002-2008), brilliant but not very popular American series, has been described as a cop show that doesn't move fast, with tons of action and gunshots. The series' big amount of information can be a little difficult to digest at the beginning, but we are talking of an ambitious project that starts with a simple detective case and ends exploring many aspects of the American society (in Baltimore specifically), being the drug trafficking one that stands out.

One of the interviewed persons with more presence in the documentary is actually David Simon, former police journalist for the Baltimore Sun and also creator of the mentioned TV series. Undoubtedly, Simon was a huge inspiration for Jarecki, and both works, THE HOUSE I LIVE IN and THE WIRE, complement each other. If you know the fiction, watching the documentary is like returning to the same places (the housing projects) and also to some situations (the cops that prefer doing quick drug-related arrests rather than working on bigger, more important cases).

Another person that stands out is one historian with an expertise on Abraham Lincoln. With his look from those civil war years, this man take us by hand to give a look to the history of drugs in the United States, going till the days when the Chinese people (who were directly related with the use of opium) began to took the jobs of the white Americans. The stock footage shows us the classic American propaganda, and Jarecki finds some answers and parallelisms in the type of political speech that was used by someone like Nixon.

Like I already mentioned, the principal virtue of THE HOUSE I LIVE IN is that it provide us concise answers – even a theme like the origin of the ghettos is explained better than ever. In fact, this Lincoln look-alike man is who concludes in a brutal way the war on drugs theme, and more than Jarecki's own sort-of conclusion, this is the one that will stay with us – the war on drugs is an holocaust that, unlike the other holocausts, has evolved and no longer distinguish races, only social classes.

*Watched it on 16 February, 2013

an outstanding look at how our prison system has changed under the War on Drugs

[eick-753-969269 · 10/10 · 1 August 2013]

This outstanding documentary is being shown across the nation in prisons, watched by guards and inmates. Including inmates, prison officials, and scholars of corrections, this documentary is riveting. It exposes what mandatory sentencing for drug use and sale, victimless crimes, has done to fill our prisons and promote expansion and privatization. It is an excellent companion piece to Michelle Alexander's outstanding book, The New Jim Crow. Its findings show the personal impact of the US having one of the largest prison populations in the world and paying $24,000 per inmate to incarcerate rather than funding programs, including job training, and policies including a higher minimum wage and changing sentencing so that victimless crimes do not net a felony conviction, that would help offenders function in the outside world. It is a must see!

Sometimes a documentary will introduce you to the one person that can change your life.

[Lawsonk-1 · 10/10 · 18 May 2013]

Wise men know that they don't know everything. That is the genius of the US Constitution... it can change. Our society changes. Sometimes, clear and concise argument can make flip-floppers of any of us. "The house I live in" was just such a film to me. In one segment of a solving the problem sequence, Gabor Maté MD, came out of the dark like an archangel from a stormy sky and slew my concepts of education and happiness.

How he changed me, was as profound as Mark Twain's War Prayer where he brings forth the idea of a spoken prayer and a silent prayer. God hears both and from his grave Twain's writings elevate my humanity. I considered the education system as the last hope for a dysfunctional nuclear family bereft with poverty, low wage and poor nutrition. I now agree with Maté (BTW é is: alt0233) that without out a good family life, without the stressors that make you watch the horizon for wolves, you can't learn. And while the education system says it can control the home life, all it's slogans, money and pedagogy... it is doomed to failure. The Prison Industrial complex is made clear as Richard Mitchell makes clear the Graves of Acadamie. The drug war funds lots of retirements and has to be stopped because the metrics say so and we say so. It's a good path if you want a lot of your injured soldiers to find work when they come back, brainwashed in the pseudosuccess of authoritarianism never reading 2 time medal of honor winner Smedley Butler. These systems of control are very fragile and close to falling... support this film, learn from this film and push back. You'll be amazed at the happiness right around the corner, IMHO. Thank you so much, to all who took part in making this film. Lawson di Ransom Canyon 2013

Epic Truth - Welcome To The Invisible Circle

[MichaelVintage · 8/10 · 14 June 2013]

• The Real Ongoing War On (poor) People...(no no)...I mean "Drugs".

Words That Come To Mind: - Profound - Deep - Meaningful - Long Sighted - Well Rounded - Amazing Real Stories - Real People - Planned Social Injustice - Flawed Criminal Justice System (with proof) - Poverty - Immoral Prison Profits - Invisible class discrimination

• This is a Must See

• Well produced in Depth Documentary with will open your eyes not with anger but with compassion. Compassion IS the agent of change.

• I believe someone said "It is ones Civic duty to watch this doc" and while I found that a bit forward at first I now agree.

• Addicts need help not prisons however I personally believe our system is set up this way on purpose.

• Enslaving the poor with laws designed to target them and further more private prison systems to profit of of the enslavement. Invisible Social Injustice.

• Highly Recommend logging onto YouTube and watching some of Dr. Gabor's videos on addiction. He is almost mathematical about it...blew my mind. He is a credit to the community as a whole.

• Whatever Happened To THE WAR ON POVERTY? (now that's a war for me).

Stinging critique of an overzealous criminal justice system

[soadhead88 · 9/10 · 23 February 2015]

I'm primarily writing this review in response to "Totally Biased Anti War on Drugs Film" review. It is a great film that argues for a change in US drug policy because it has not only failed to control drug abuse, but has made things worse for the drug users and their families than drugs would have alone.

To rebut the above mentioned review, I would like to point out two things. There were no made up facts. First of all, the third offense was not a "traffic offense". It was a drug trafficking offense that will result in a life sentence. Second of all, civil forfeiture laws do allow the seizure of property without a criminal charge. If you can prove that the property that was seized was not involved in any type of criminal activity then you have to pay for you own attorney in a legal fight. Whether or not the state will pay your legal fees in the case that you win depends on the judge's ruling.

"The government simply files a civil action in rem against the property itself, and then generally must prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the property is forfeitable under the applicable forfeiture statute. Civil forfeiture is independent of any criminal case, and because of this, the forfeiture action may be filed before indictment, after indictment, or even if there is no indictment. Likewise, civil forfeiture may be sought in cases in which the owner is criminally acquitted of the underlying crimes..."

—Craig Gaumer, Assistant United States Attorney, 2007

Impact of Drug Use Missing in this Movie

[user-762-721100 · 5/10 · 11 August 2013]

This movie fails to address the impact of drug use itself on people, families and society. In fact, it portrays opium use as a harmless past-time that the government only cracked down to eliminate or subdue the Asian workforce, especially in CA, who were competing with whites for jobs. Heroin is a devastating drug that is highly addictive and alters a person's brain chemistry as well as their physical health. A heroin addict becomes zombie-like and their only interest is getting their next fix. They barely even function...they can't hold down a job, they barely eat, their hygiene is horrible, and they lie, cheat and steal...and yes they end up selling drugs to support their habit. It is a total spiraling downwards.

I'm not saying that the drug laws are fair, however, and I think that much more could be done to rehabilitate people who are incarcerated for drug-related crimes. Much shorter jail sentences and vocational training while inside could help mitigate the revolving door problem of repeat offenders. Let's stop throwing people away with this arrogant attitude that we're so much better and more deserving than they are. They are us and we are them. We're all in this together.

As I said before, though, the movie really minimizes the effects that heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines have on the people that use them. They're not harmless. It's not OK to use them just because you're down and out and can't find a job. If there's a conspiracy to wipe out the lower classes through incarceration for drug offenses, as this movie suggests, then stop using and selling drugs! They really are not OK.

Marshal Trump is cracking down on crime

[Dr_Coulardeau · 10/10 · 21 January 2017]

The film is clear, at times slightly long, maybe repetitive, but clear as crystal. The war on drug was first declared by Richard Nixon in 1971 in the midst of the final sinking phase of the USA in Vietnam, of course to hide the shameful defeat in a war in which the USA should never have put their nose. But this process of declaring war on something that is as badly defined as drugs, heroin, cocaine, crack, methamphetamine, etc., or on something as emotional and sectarian as terrorism meaning Islamic terrorism, meaning Islam, has been a central characteristic of American politics for a very long period of time and as soon as they get out of one war they have to get themselves into another one. [...]

This documentary concentrates on one war waged inside the USA, the war on drugs.

With 5% of the population of the world the USA have 25% of the incarcerated population of the world. And most of the incarcerated people are for drug related offences, most of the time possession of small quantities of some drug or personal private use. The Black users of crack in America are 13%, just the same proportion as the black population in the USA, and yet they represent 90% of the incarcerated people for crack connected offences. The easy conclusion is that it is a war on drugs that targets the blacks. Wrong. Absolutely wrong. It is not the primary objective. It is the vicious consequence of the primary objective of the war on drugs.

First the American society has been under a vast transformation of gentrification of many urban areas and the rejection of those who cannot afford these urbanized areas into derelict and dilapidated urban zones that become real ghettos for the poor, not racial ghettos, but ghettos of the poor. There can even be some whites, and in the apocalyptic de-industrialized urban areas in the USA, ex- blue- collar working class neighborhood the white population may be the majority of these abandoned, unemployed people.

It is just a consequence of this ghettoization of rundown urban areas in which the poorest population find themselves locked up and under constant police surveillance if not harassment, the only economic activity is producing, distributing and selling drugs, and the only compensation for the feeling of complete abandon is using drugs.

Add to that the fact that mandatory sentences have been instated for drug offenses by the various state legislatures and by federal Congress, under Democrat or Republican congressional majorities or Presidents, that make drugs the main cause of imprisonment and the guarantee that you will spend a great number of years in prison for a nonviolent offense that does not draw blood from anyone, except in a metaphorical sense.

Even worse they have established extremely heavy (twenty times heavier, sentences for smokable cocaine (crack) as compared to powder cocaine, and there a social preference is clear that becomes racial. Crack is a street drug essentially used by the poorest in a society, hence in the poor ghettos where the majority of the population is black. Just raid these ghettos and you'll get your victims. Powder cocaine is middle-class and upper class, hence mainly white.

Even worse. The policemen in the various Police Departments get extra premiums for the arrests they make: a raid on drugs in one ghetto is going to bring an easy fifty or more arrests, fifty or more premiums shared by the various cops, whereas the Crime Investigation Service might make only one arrest in one week or one month. They do not wear uniforms, they are paid better, but premium- wise they do not have the proper end of the stick. That encourages the uniformed policemen to arrest as many drug offenders as possible, even for possession when they find one gram of crack in a pocket after searching someone who was just passing by.

The last vicious element is that they are building prisons for an ever and fast increasing population. Once the prisons are built, they have to be filled. They are often Public Private Partnership managed as industrial units by the private partner who guarantees a vast profit shared between the local public authority and the private partner and becoming the first employer of the community, hence and thus untouchable.

Here you have the full recipe for success: let's get rid of the poor by putting them away in concentration camp called prison where they can generate a profit for the community and some private concerns, where they will stay for long periods of time and come back after a short recess of freedom, and the vast majority of the population in these prisons will be black: a vengeance of the USA on their ex- slaves, five generations later, on these rowdy people who dare demonstrate and fight for human rights and civil liberties.

The war on drugs is the way the USA are eliminating the poor by incarcerating them, with the secondary effect of hitting the black population first of all and thus de-structuring that population thus forever doomed in their Post Traumatic Slavery Stress Syndrome. And Trump has just said it: no discrimination will be tolerated but this is not discrimination. This is the war on drugs and crime, hence a holy war at least at the same level as the war against Islamic terrorism, as Trump as said again. And God is on his side, he said too.

Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

Excellence

[missreneb · 9/10 · 1 May 2023]

I have become an admirer of Eugene Jarecki, who is the director of this film.

This movie is so extremely important for everyone to watch as it deals with the horrible reality of institutionalizing humans. Such is the system and it does not require a huge amount of time marinating on the subject to know the truth of it all, the truth this film presents is real.

How might I know? My husband is a teacher in a juvenile detention facility in Ohio for close to 20 years. Children, as young as 13 up to 21 receive sentences into this machine and most are there repeatedly and soon move onto adult prisons.

One year when the population was down, a neighboring drug rehab was closed down. Their numbers were always full, helping kids however remarkably (sarcastically said) numbers at the juv. Det. Facility began to rise substantially.

This film is VERY informative and brings into clear and bright light that the drug war is full of horse **** and should have been called the culling of the poor and folk with black and brown skin.

I truly hold director Eugene Jarecki in very high esteem. Watch this film and others by him. He is amazing.

The War on Drugs...is not about Drugs at all

[MissOceanB · 9/10 · 1 March 2016]

This sobering documentary is a must-see film certainly by all Americans and the rest of the world as well. We see how (now illegal) drugs were sold and used in pharmacies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There is excellent historical footage and documents, not to mention stories from those who were deeply affected, simply by their poverty level or the colour of their skin. Ronald Reagan, despite waging the "war on Drugs", made the entire situation much worse and ignored statistics. Throughout the film, we follow the narrator through his personal experiences as well as the drug issue on a wide-scale, looking into prisons and how the system is completely prejudicial. A VERY important film.

"A Holocaust in Slow-Motion"

[view_and_review · 9/10 · 8 January 2022]

While "Cocaine Cowboys" and "Cocaine Cowboys 2" focused on the millionaires and billionaires of drug trafficking, "The House I Live In" focused on people a lot further down the economic ladder. It's an introspective look at the 40 year war on drugs and how it disproportionately affects one segment of society. From the beginning of the "war on drugs" to mandatory minimums, this documentary gets statements from judges, police, lawmakers, and regular citizens about how the "war on drugs" has been a colossal failure.

Startling documentary, with some very interesting points to make

[wellthatswhatithinkanyway · 9/10 · 24 February 2016]

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Since President Nixon announced a crackdown in the early 1970s, the 'War on Drugs' has been probably the main source of arrests in the United States, caused families across the country to fragment and fall apart, and made America the country with the highest jail population in the developed world and beyond. This hard line stance, that serves to illuminate a particular section of society and make them scapegoats, is designed to act as a moral standpoint that appears to be acted on, but is actually doing more harm than good, creating criminals out of otherwise law-abiding, non violent people, and targeting America's black population more than any other. Eugene Jarecki delves headfirst into the front line of those affected by this war, from the low level dealers and their families, academics, those involved in treatment, but more startlingly even those on the other side of the fence, such as a host of disillusioned lawmen, judges and penal workers, whose opinions have also shifted to the more liberal way of thinking.

Independent film is easily the best way to express an opinion artistically that mainstream cinema would not comfortably touch with a bargepole. While usually in America it comes from expressing an opinion that others would consider unpatriotic, here Eugene Jarecki has created an in-depth, thorough assault on a moral standpoint that has been the word of law for several decades now, and that other countries soon followed suit with, such as Britain with the Misuse of Drugs Act. The most high profile contribution comes from David Simon, the creator of highly successful cop show The Wire, and it's most startling that we hear from a series of cops who question the validity of what they're doing.

It plays almost in the manner of a prosecution barrister acting against the War on drugs in court. We hear evidence that it has racist origins from the last century, that play into its racist nature today, which disproportionately targets black communities more than any other, that judges are not free to use their own discretion and judgement when sentencing, but are instead saddled with guidelines that they must obey without fail, that unscrupulous cops can use it to boost their arrest rate and even steal property through civil asset seizure, and that it's all just basically an excuse to do away with those who those in power don't see as having any use to society, beginning with the black community in the 80s with crack cocaine, before progressing to white trailer parks in more recent times with crystal meth.

Jarecki has studied the evidence, and knows which cards he's chosen, and what has to be admired is the sheer thoroughness and depth with which he's presented his case. If people who are meant to be on the front line can have their opinions swayed after years of bitter experience, surely a casual viewer who maybe has an unsympathetic view to drug addicts can. The only ones who surely never will (in public, anyway) are the self serving, hollow politicians who would never risk their careers by saying what they truly think. ****