The War on Drugs (2007)

More than three decades have passed since Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs. Today, drug trafficking exceeds 7% of global trade. The film shows how the war is being waged by examining... See full summary »

Director:

Sebastian J.F.

Writer:

Fate

Stars:

Sharanda Jones, Richard Paey, Jorge Enrique Botero

Cast

Credited cast:
Sharanda Jones	...	Herself
Richard Paey	...	Himself
Jorge Enrique Botero	...	Himself
Kevin C. Whaley	...	Himself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joe Arpaio	...	Himself (as Sheriff Joe Arpaio)
Francisco Santos Calderón	...	Himself
Antonio Maria Costa	...	Himself
John Flannery	...	Himself
James M. Murphy	...	Himself
Ethan Nadelmann	...	Himself
Linda Paey	...	Herself
Jorge Enrique Robledo	...	Himself
Flora T.	...	Herself
Sanho Tree	...	Himself
Kevin B. Zeese	...	Himself

Storyline

More than three decades have passed since Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs. Today, drug trafficking exceeds 7% of global trade. The film shows how the war is being waged by examining the situation in Colombia and the United States. The spearhead in the war on drugs is the U.S. police force, DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration). In Colombia, the U.S. fights this drug war by attacking the supply chain. Under a large offensive named Plan Colombia, coca and poppy growing areas are sprayed on a huge scale to eradicate the crops. However, many years of fumigation has not reduced the extent of the growing areas. In many remote sections of Colombia, the peasants have no viable alternatives to cultivating the coca plant. The coca plant is the only sustenance product there. In the United States, drug prohibition is enforced by imposing harsh prison terms for drug law offenders. The fates of Richard Paey and Sharanda Jones show the social, political and personal implications of these ...

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Plot Keywords:

drugs | colombia | prohibition | prison | drug war | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Austria

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

12 October 2007 (Austria)

Filming Locations:

Colombia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Parallel Universe

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Kevin C. Whaley: I would not have chosen the slogan war on drugs. The reason I say it was not a good choice: Wars have beginnings and endings. Our struggle with the drug problem will never end...

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Soundtracks

When Johnny Comes Marching Home
Music and Lyrics by Louis Lambert (as Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore)
Written and Performed by Dopeamin

User Reviews

Unwrapping another flagrant nexus of power, politics and big money.

The new film from Sebastian J. F., The War on Drugs, finds him purposefully unwrapping another flagrant nexus of power, politics and big money. This time, it's the U.S. government's vaunted battle to control recreational drugs; a campaign that increasingly appears more significant for the government to maintain than to prosecute fully and conclude. The film questions agents of both the government and the underground cartels, and includes lucid analysis of how the self-supporting legal and penal systems in the U.S. complement one another. Then, in a series of interviews with individuals who've fallen prey to long-debunked government principles such as mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offenses, The War on Drugs hits devastating emotional pay dirt with a young mother sentenced to life, innocent but caught in the crosshairs of a TV star's publicity stunt.

Following his exposé of Internet misregulation, info wars, Sebastian J. F.'s new film takes a sobering look at a U.S. obsession gone wrong. By looking at both the local and the systemic pictures, The War on Drugs indicates that a struggle has been established that wins by losing, and that is creating a new "criminal" class to populate the nation's gargantuan (and increasingly privatized) prison labor system. In the hopes that information is itself a source of power, Sebastian J. F. has tapped into an unnerving and vital story.