20130823: Documentary Review--Breaking the Taboo

Breaking the Taboo

1. American live action documentary, 53 minutes, 2012, NR, narrated by Morgan Freeman.
2. IMDB: 7.4/10.0 from 342 users.  Seen on Hulu+
3. The documentary starts with the beginning of the 'war' back in 1970 when Richard Nixon was president.
4. The war was not just in the USA; the US encouraged parallel repression in drug-producing countries such as Colombia.  The action continued during the Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama presidencies.
5. Interviewees included Fernando Cardoza, the president of Brazil 1995-2002, Cesar Galviria, the president of Colombia 1990-94, US presidents Carter and Clinton, Swiss president Ruth Dreifus (1999).
6. The film sets context: 40+ years long; ascending violence in Colombia, Mexico, the USA.  The size of the US drug habit creates a sucking vacuum for production of drugs (heroin, cocaine, marijuana, et cetera).  After the US invasion, Afghanistan has become a huge producer of heroin.  As in Colombia, the farmers get much more money for drug crops than non-drug crops.  Russia has suffered a large increase in drug use since 2001, in part because of the rise of heroin production in nearby Afghanistan.
7. The war on drugs in the US has not done well in decreasing drug use in the US.  Hence more arrests are made.  Also, the PSA (public service announcements) saying drug use is deadly, has produced a credibility gap since lots of people use drugs and enjoy it without dying.
8. Prisons: 1970, the US had 330,000 criminals in prison; in 2012, 2.3 million.  There are more prison guards in the US than US Marines.  This does not look like success.  Also, drug us is rampant in prisons, and many new addictions occur there.  Drug habits translate into money need, and that need is often met by ongoing criminal activity.
9. Violence: A high proportion of violent crime in the USA is directly related to drugs.  In Mexico, the local war on drugs has resulted in 40,000 drug related murders in less than one decade.
10. Spread of AIDS: Repression of drug consumption has promoted the use of dirty needles, which leads to increased disease transmission.
11. Comparison to alcohol prohibition (early 20th century USA): Prohibition produced a huge rise in alcoholism, in bootlegging, in the profits of racketeers, and the admiration by the young for criminals.  After Prohibition, US governments various levels made money by taxing alcohol.  Estimates about additional revenues obtained by legalizing drugs runs in the tens of billions.  Also, organized crime is strongly enriched by illegal drugs; legalization would likely lessen this greatly.
12. A quote from the film: Tony Papa: If you can't control drug use in a maximum security prison, how can you control drug use in a free society?
13. The current US president, Barack Obama, declared the war on drugs a failure while a candidate.  As president, he has done little to change this war.
14. The film notes that several countries that have suffered the most from the war on drugs are starting to change their policies independent of the USA.
15. Five stars of five.  It's a time-worn point of view, but this is a good presentation of it.

Cinematography: 8/10  Archival footage is of lesser quality, but the new footage is excellent.

Sound: 10/10

Acting: N/A

Screenplay: 10/10 The film makes a good case for the war on drugs (as it has been done) made things worse: more drug usage, more people in prison, higher production of drugs abroad to fulfill US drug habits.  Few politicians have the courage to oppose the war on drugs.  Ron Paul is one of the few to take it on, and it's probably the single biggest reason that Ron Paul makes little traction as a Presidential candidate.  Jimmy Carter advocated decriminalizing marijuana, with some success, but this contributed to his massive loss in the 1980 election.