The House I Live In
Movie Review #1
The house I live in:
This documentary follows the War on Drugs and the devastating impact that this political agenda has had over millions of Americans. This documentary specifically follows the lives of individuals directly affected by the War on Drugs and agents of law enforcement who are involved in the legal process of catching and convicting drug abusers.
David Simon, the creator of the Wire, discusses the impact of the War on Drugs and says “It is absolutely true, that drugs have destroyed lives. Heroin, cocaine, for example, do nothing to engender individual dignity. But, while covering the drug war as a journalist for over a decade, I came to understand that what drugs have destroyed, the War on Drugs has.”
The Drug War has revolved around policies that continue ruining families and tearing communities a part rather than being a helpful aid in rehabilitation or a deterrence of drug use. Ultimately, the films points to how this nation feeds off marginalized communities of intersecting identities. Structural inequalities hinder people of color and those of lower socioeconomic status, and the effects of these institutional inequalities can be seen in modern day policies around policing and drug prevention.
The criminalization of drug use and abuse was the central aspect of this movie. The War on Drugs gave the American people a false sense of security that our nation was “tough on crime.” The War on Drugs costed us more than we know. Since 1971, it has costed us over $1 trillion and resulted in more than 45 million arrests. During this time, illegal drug use remains at the same levels. One of the women whose stories was followed specifically mentions how cops view drug use. She says cops don’t bear in mind that selling drugs is not a choice, it is a matter of survival. Law enforcement believed that communities are completely corrupt and that everyone is living off drug money and that there is no moral center. They see communities that blame everyone but themselves for what is going on. However, communities riddled with drug activity believe law enforcement use policies around drug use to their benefit to destroy communities.
The problem here is that we treat drug abuse as a legal issue than a health issue. It is important to discuss who is being directly harmed by both the War on Drugs and drug abuse in general. Understanding how it criminalizes and dehumanizes people of color and those of a lower socioeconomic status is crucial, and the ways this concept manifested within this documentary was shocking. What specifically disturbed me, was when the cop whose story was being followed stated that the black community, specifically black folks who use illicit drugs, should “not be allowed to reproduce” and that they should be “forced into being sterile or getting vasectomies”. I was absolutely disgusted that a law enforcement agent would say something so horrendous, and it was a reminder of the American eugenics movement. The fact that this cop casually joked about genocide and the adoption of eugenics policies is telling of the dangers of criminalization. Another aspect of who is being directly impacted is by noting the United States is the world’s largest jailer, and that people in prison are disproportionately black. There is a disparate amount of people of color affected by the War on Drugs, specifically black folks, and it is crucial we recognize that these laws disproportionately affect communities of color.
When looking at how this film is connected to our text, the Rational Choice Theory was most applicable. This was because sociologists in the film explicitly mentioned that drug dealers were making rational choices to fit their circumstances. The rational choice theory is the view that “crime is a function of a decision-making process in which the potential offender weighs the potential costs and benefits of an illegal act.” It is important to note that selling drugs is a part of a cycle, and this is oftentimes the only choice for people from communities of a lower socioeconomic status. Sometimes there is no other way out and people just want to make ends meet to feed their families. This endless cycle can be the only rational choice for people.
I believe that as a society, we should do exactly what the creator of show The Wire had mentioned: treat drug abuse as a health issue, not a legal one. Educating the public about the dangers of drug abuse is the first step in the right direction. I also believe that we must fix the impacts of the War on Drugs. This means actively undoing policies and legislation that criminalizes certain kinds of drugs. This would include legalizing marijuana. Also, according the Fernando Henrique Cardoso of the Huffington Post, is it imperative that we focus on “reducing the power of criminal organizations as well as the violence and insecurity that result from their competition with both one another and the state.” This means that the government needs to reshape crackdowns that may exacerbate illicit drug use.
I think most of all, we need to understand drug use and abuse through a sociological lens, this could mean, for example, understanding this as a form of “deviance.” We can study historical examples of countries that tried criminalizing certain kinds of activity and it would make matters worse. This can be seen through the failures of Prohibition era. To create sustainable change, it is crucial that we study history.