Analysis Of American Drug War: The Last White Hope

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The film, American Drug War: The Last White Hope was directed by Kevin Booth. He lost four close people who were addicted to alcohol, nicotine and prescription pain killers. Through this film he portrayed how the war on drugs in the United States is a way for those in power and on wall street to profit meanwhile incarcerating the poor people who sell to get food on the table or are addicted to drugs. President Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Agency and the scheduling of drugs eventually declaring a war on drugs. Since his presidency the American government has been in a state of war on the fight against illegal drug use. There has been no advancements in this war, if anything the drugs are winning. It was stated in the film that there are …show more content…

Many people who sell drugs are people whom don’t want to live in poverty and have no other means to get food on the table. Ricky Ross is a great example of this since he himself said that he would have never imagined becoming a drug dealer and actually wanted to be a cop or a firefighter growing up. However, he needed a way to get food on the table without having to steal it from stores and get himself out of poverty. When crack cocaine hit the streets and was being advertised on every new media outlet as being the cheapest and strongest drug out there and people should stay away from it, he got into the drug business and started using marketing tactics and making turning himself into something of a person to look up to on the streets because of his success. Several people throughout the film said that the war on poverty was replaced with the war on drugs and the war on drugs is America’s last hope in combating poverty and those who live in poverty. Drugs come from poverty because it inspires crime and thus reducing confidence and pride in low income areas. It is also known that the war on drugs give people the power to sell drugs in particular neighborhoods, where it is harder for the people in the city to keep drug dealing from being done out in the open and paraphernalia from littering the streets thus making it a norm so drug dealers can go to these areas know they’ll get

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