Review of The House I Live In (1957) by Peter I — 05 Dec 2013

While this documentary opens your eyes to a debate that may not surface too often and lays down some pretty horrifying facts, the argument that's taken at the end is quite appalling. I walked away feeling that the documentary wanted us to view the war on drugs as a negative impact to society.

So much so, that people using drugs should be an OK thing and people dealing drugs should be punished lightly (if punished at all). Each individual in this film seems to forget that drugs ruin lives. Drugs ruin the lives of the user, their families, and everyone and everything around them.

The whole story is based off of the director's "nanny" who lost her child to drugs. While she claims that she "never understood the war on drugs" as she mourns her son, she is forgetting the fact that he ultimately made the wrong decision to use and unfortunately paid the ultimate price (death).

To look back on his life and blame "the system" is ignorant and irresponsible. The war on drugs is also not forcing a specific race, color, gender, etc to sell or abuse drugs (which is another argument in this film).

Its up to the individual to make the right decisions in life. Users and dealers know the criminal penalties related to drugs and don't have a right to complain when they go to jail for a long period of time.

While the jail time is definitely harsh and outdated, it is there to protect society from people that could potentially harm it. In the end, I came away more upset and angry towards users and dealers because their lack of judgement, moral character, and responsibility is ultimately what hurts society.

Not the war on drugs.