Jarecki’s Response

Eugene Jarecki point of view is the war on drugs has resulted in more than 45 million arrests, $1 trillion dollars in government spending, and America’s role as the world’s largest jailer. “Forty years ago, President Nixon called a press conference to tell the American people that their “public enemy #1.” - Eugene Jarecki
Yet for all that, drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available than ever. The House I Live In shows the daily life from the dealer to the grieving mother, the narcotics officer to the senator, the inmate to the federal judge, and offers a penetrating look at the profound human rights implications of America’s longest war. The War on Drugs is a big thing going on around the world. Now it’s being legal and people in jail are suffering inside for what they have done in the past and they can’t be set loose because the laws have changed.
The presidency of Ronald Reagan marked the start of a long period of skyrocketing rates of incarceration, largely thanks to his unprecedented expansion of the drug war. The number of people behind bars for nonviolent drug law offenses increased from 50,000 in 1980 to over 400,000 by 1997. -Ethan Nadelmann, JD
The film recognizes drug abuse as a matter of public health, and investigates the tragic errors and shortcomings that have resulted from framing it as an issue for law enforcement. It also examines how political and financial corruption has fueled the war on drugs, despite persistent evidence of its moral, economic, and practical failures. The drug war in America has helped establish the largest prison-industrial system in the world, contributing to the incarceration of 2.3 million men and women and is responsible for untold collateral damage to the lives of countless individuals and families, with a particularly destructive impact on black America.
Instead of questioning a campaign of such epic cost and failure, those in public office generally advocate for harsh penalties for drug offenses, at least they would be perceived as soft on crime. Thanks to mandatory minimum sentencing, a small offense can put a nonviolent offender behind bars for decades or even life. Many say these prisoners are paying for fear instead of paying for their crime. Being in jail can mess with your mind it’s not fun being in there because you start to change, your body feels different it’s like being in a whole new society and once you get out in the real world it’s a whole different situation. That’s what Jarecki wants to not mess with the mind of the prisoners and physiologically ruin their lives and rather give them a chance.
But there’s a growing recognition among those on all sides that the war on drugs is a failure. At a time of heightened fiscal instability, the drug war is also seen as economically unsustainable. Beyond its human cost at home, the unprecedented violence in Mexico provides a daily reminder of the war’s immense impact abroad, and America has at last began to take the first meaningful steps toward reform. At this pivotal moment, the film promotes public awareness of the problem while encouraging new and innovative pathways to domestic drug policy reform.

The House I Live In. Eugene Jarecki. Film. <http://www.thehouseilivein.org/get-involved/drug-war-today/>

Nadelmann. JD. Ethan. A Brief History of the Drug War. Print.