Crime and Social Control in Africa.

Drugs: Americas longest war.

A the moment it is possible to watch a documentary on Arte+7 with the title “Drugs: America’s longest war”. The documentary elaborates a lot of facts, which underline the complexity of the issues debate. In this connection the documentary reflects the history of drugs, the policy as well as the political awareness regarding the fight against drugs and also individual stories in which the effects of the fight against drugs and the judicial effects are described. 

In America people consume illegal drugs for more than ten billion dollar yearly. The fight against drugs is not only composed with an obligatory minimum penalty but also applies to special groups of people so that it is necessary to speak about stigmatization. Criminal law is used disproportionately high against minorities and especially in drug business against Afro-American. In dependence on Paul Hilberg a researcher mentions that this process can be divided in four steps: Identification, proscription, attachment and concentration. These steps are part of the visualization of a problem: President Nixon for example was the first one who spoke from a war against drugs. So with that an agenda was built and political as well as economical interests interfered with each other. For me the documentary shows a reality of brutality, defective policy and a huge dose of lobbyism.