Tonight & tomorrow on Frontline: The War on Drugs

October 9, 2000 2:58 PM

Tonight & tomorrow on Frontline: The War on Drugs The PBS show Frontline is airing a four hour special on the (first?) 30 years of the War on Drugs, split over tonight and tomorrow nights. Advance coverage in today's Boston Globe indicates that it is well worth watching with interviews from leaders of the DEA, the Columbian cartels and everyone "in between".
posted by sylloge (10 comments total)

The Tory's 'zero tolerance' cannabis policy has blown up in their faces. If only we could have something similar happen in the U.S. By 'zero tolerance' logic, both Dubya and Al Bore should be in jail since they've used illegal drugs. Oh wait, I forgot, rich white boys don't go to jail on drug charges, only minorities and the poor do!!!
posted by Mr. skullhead at 4:31 PM on October 9, 2000

Something something Robert Downey Jr something something.
posted by shylock at 5:27 PM on October 9, 2000

Let's not forget that Mr Downey Jr is a habitual offender. Any average person would be in jail for life by now, unlike Mr Downey Jr.
posted by Zool at 5:32 PM on October 9, 2000

Also note it’s a five part series (ending Friday) on NPR’s All Things Considered. Listen to the first part. Go ahead, it’s only twelve minutes long.

Terribly interesting to note so far: cocaine prices are at an all time low, heroin purity is at an all time high and users spend more on drugs (4 million addicts spending the majority) than the US government on the “War”. The last two both estimates, obviously.

I think they said they’re going to explore why treatment was under represented in all the legislation that passed a few years ago. A must hear.

Thanks for posting this sylloge.

Seen on a tshirt, in all its NY irony: REHAB IS FOR QUITTERS.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 6:29 PM on October 9, 2000

30 years of the war on drugs...what did people battle before it started (since appearently nobody used drugs then)?
posted by jaz at 10:36 AM on October 10, 2000

Reefer madness, jaz. Reefer madness. I think that was the fifties and sixties, anyway.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 1:03 PM on October 10, 2000

Captain: no problem.

The first episode was really good (and remarkably unbiased).

On another note, am I one of those "relentless demagogues"?
posted by sylloge at 3:43 PM on October 10, 2000

If you’d like to be you’re certainly invited to come on down and listen the original relentless demagogues at Nader NY. My favorite episode tonight was a guy running in and yelling “Liberals are terrible!” then running right back out.

“Who buzzed that guy in?”

Oh, and fuck right back at ya.

I don’t suppose you heard tonight’s NPR story?
posted by capt.crackpipe at 11:50 PM on October 10, 2000

Nope, I've been in airplanes (and missed the second night of frontline). Got home to dead DSL so looking at the the NPR and PBS sites will have to wait as well -- hopefully they'll have most of it streaming ...
posted by sylloge at 10:55 PM on October 11, 2000

I missed tonight’s broadcast, only heard part of the previous night and the night before that hardly had anything new to say.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 2:47 PM on October 13, 2000