It starts with the director's, Eugene Jarecki, interest in his childhood nanny's family. What he ends up with is a study of America itself, economic, social, and racial, through the medium of the war on drugs and drug laws.
The drug laws target minorities; opium laws in California were targeted against the Chinese minority in the 19th century; cocaine against blacks in the industrial cities in the 1930's; marijuana laws against Mexican agricultural workers in the south west; crack-cocaine laws against inner city blacks (again) in the 1980's. Now methamphetamine laws are targeting poor white people: one chap was in jail for life without parole for trafficking 3oz because he had two previous convictions (the "three strike" rule).
It's also interesting to see who benefits from the war on drugs, with one commentator saying that for some it's been a success.
It's a very powerful and thought provoking film that I think anyone who has an opinion on drugs, from whatever direction, should see.
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