Writing at the Huffington Post, Logan Nakyanzi Pollard says that "this punitive war has only served to ensnare working poor and minorities, particularly blacks."
The House I Live In seeks to chronicle the inconsistent and discriminatory history behind drug policy, showing how the poor and people of color have been unequally treated under the law. It suggests that we need better laws and treatment alternatives for those impacted.
And yet, as someone who lived near and in some of the drug-ridden neighborhoods in New York and Connecticut the film talks about, I feel conflicted. While I was living in these places, I was deeply fearful of drug dealers and the crime they amplified in the neighborhood.
I do not think this is an issue of whether the drug war has failed, or how unfair the laws are, but how we as a culture can deal with what drives people to do drugs — and to sell them …
But, in the final analysis, is the War on Drugs a failure? Of course it is. And this punitive war has only served to ensnare working poor and minorities, particularly blacks, in a cycle of self-destruction as men and women get lost to incarceration.
Read Logan Nakyanzi Pollard's entire piece at the Huffington Post.
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