This new documentary on the history, status and impact of the drug war in America will leave you in a state of anger. The House I Live In is presented in a way that leaves very little doubt that the entire effort and all the countless dollars that have gone into this “war” were not only wasted but also, very likely, not even really even spent in the name of stopping the use of drugs. Instead what we’ve done is become the worlds leading jailer even though our population is just a fraction of many larger countries.
This film will challenge everyone to consider the true deeper impact of the policies we’ve enacted especially when it’s clear that the war is lost. Drugs are no more out of reach today than when we started the battle in the early 1970’s. In fact, they’re more readily available and comparatively cheaper than ever before.
But again, the movie’s main point is that the war continues unabated because it’s taken on a life of its own and really isn’t using drug use as a metric for its success if, indeed, anyone is even bothering or desiring to measure its effectiveness at all.
The political and economic corruption the film exposes is hard to ignore. I spent much of the film considering its vantage point and political bent and with each segment my concerns were washed away by pure disgust from every angle.
The messages presented (and there are several that reverberate) demand a deeper discussion and it’s one we all should be having regardless of political party or position on drug use.
