“The House I Live In” Drug War Documentary Screening THIS FRIDAY at V.I.P

On FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 13TH at 7pm Valley Improvement Project’s “Dinner & a Movie Night” will feature the new documentary from Eugene Jarecki (Reagan, Freakanomics, Why We Fight, The Trails of Henry Kissinger) and was executive produced by Danny Glover, Brad Pitt, John Legend, and Russell Simmons.

From thehouseilivein.org: “As America remains embroiled in conflict overseas, a less visible war is taking place at home, costing countless lives, destroying families, and inflicting untold damage on future generations of Americans. Over forty years, the War on Drugs has accounted for more than 45 million arrests, made America the world’s largest jailer, and damaged poor communities at home and abroad. Yet for all that, drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever before. Filmed in more than twenty states, The House I Live In captures heart-wrenching stories from individuals at all levels of America’s War on Drugs. From the dealer to the grieving mother, the narcotics officer to the senator, the inmate to the federal judge, the film offers a penetrating look inside America’s longest war, offering a definitive portrait and revealing its profound human rights implications.

While recognizing the seriousness of drug abuse as a matter of public health, the film investigates the tragic errors and shortcomings that have meant it is more often treated as a matter for law enforcement, creating a vast machine that feeds largely on America’s poor, and especially on minority communities. Beyond simple misguided policy, The House I Live In examines how political and economic corruption have fueled the war for forty years, despite persistent evidence of its moral, economic, and practical failures…

Since Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs 40 years ago, millions of people have been incarcerated for low-level drug law violations, resulting in disproportionate impacts on poor and low-income communities and communities of color, a growing epidemic of drug overdose fatalities, and increased rates of addiction and misuse. The drug war plays a major role in feeding the crisis of mass incarceration, where an ever-increasing number of Americans are imprisoned or placed under criminal justice supervision for low-level offenses – costing taxpayers billions of dollars every year. It will take a drastic shift in public consciousness and perception to create the change needed to effectively and successful end the war on drugs. The House I Live In provides an opportunity to educate and engage policymakers, faith and community leaders, and individuals working in the public and private sectors about the colossal failure of the drug war.”