The film "Breaking the taboo" primarily reveals the global drug menace and the continued failure of the policies adopted against drug use and dealing. According to the film, the United States first took the wrong turn when President Richard Nixon embraced the misguided policy of repression that ever since has become the global drug policy. Instead of the efforts cutting down the use and trafficking of drugs, these policies have created a massive prison industrial complex that has risen the levels of incarceration from 300,000 to 2.3 million prisoners from 1970 to 2012. The saddening part of the repression policies is that they exacerbate the situation. For instance, according to Antony Papa, a reformed ex-convict, the minor offenders sentenced for low-level and non-violent drug offences usually get out of the prison with addictions because the drugs are plentiful. The fact that the current policies cannot prevent drug use in a maximum prison facility, it is ironic to presume the same strategies would be effective in a free society.
Fundamentally, drug addiction is a medical rather than a criminal problem. However, the US has treated as latter resulting to cut of job opportunities and critical support services to the drug addicts. The lack of income forces them into drug trading which expands to the entire community and worsens the drug situation in the country at large. To echo the words of the former president, Bill Clinton, rather than trying to fight against drug menace using repressive and military approaches, which only leave long death tolls, America should take a less repressive strategy.
According to the film, the most effective non-repressive strategy against drugs is actually decriminalizing and regulating them. The strategy has worked in various countries. For instance, in Portugal which has decriminalized all the drugs, when one is arrested with drugs, rather than going to the court, the person is taken to dissuasion board comprising of psychiatrist and health workers. The meeting allows the authority to grasp the concerns and needs of this person and consequently facilitate the help they need. The approach's effectiveness is phenomenal. According to the film, a decade after the decriminalization has seen a tremendous drop in illicit drug use in Portugal and dropped the drug concern from number 1 in 1997 to 13th among the country's political agenda. This just shows how the efficiency of drug decriminalization in the war against drugs.
While countries such as Portugal and Switzerland have made remarkable strides towards a solved drug problem, the political class in the US has been stuck with the failing repressive policies. Political leaders fear to bring up such policy for fear of losing their popularity. The misguided population view decriminalization of drugs as a taboo and anyone one recommending such a radical approach is considered an enemy of American morality. However, the truth is that the current methods of punishing addicts are doing more harm than good. It is hard to help a person struggling with a drug problem if they are afraid of being arrested. The film Breaking the taboo is basically advocating for a change of thinking. Instead of viewing the decriminalization as a divergent and unacceptable radical strategy, they should embrace it as a way of reaching out to the addicts and trying to bring them out of the drug pits.
Conclusion
To sum it up, the film has predominantly given the audience a picture of the drug situation under repressive and non-repressive war strategies against the drug. the repressive measures have exacerbated the situation while decriminalization, considered as a taboo in the US, has greatly lowered the statistics of drug use in the communities that have embraced the approach. The only sustainable way of addressing the drug problem in the country is to bring addicts to a safe space where they do not have to fear incarceration.
Reference
OHM2013. (2018). OHM2013: Breaking The Taboo (With QA) (film screening) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/D3T311201308022000BreakingTheTabooWithQaAmandaFieldingAnnieMachonJohnGilmore#
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