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Finished in November 2006:
Damage Done: The Drug War Odyssey
Sometimes breaking the law is the only way to uphold it
Conceptafilm recently finished production on a feature documentary,
in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada,
a film about cops who are against the drug war. (Official
Press Release)
Cops Say 'No' to the War on Drugs
After 30 years of drug war, illegal narcotics are decreasing in
price, increasing in purity and demand continues to surge. The heroes
of this film are veterans of the drug war and they urge us to consider
ending drug prohibition. They have had a complete revolution in
their thinking. Now they are working to end the War on Drugs. Find
out what happened to change their minds.
Viewing this film may change your answers to these questions: Should
law enforcement officers be expected to enforce laws that don't
make sense? What happens if the police don't believe in the laws?
What if nobody believes in them?
Does drug prohibition actually do more harm than drug use?
Our primary characters, all current or former law enforcement officers,
say that as much as 80% of all felony crime is caused by drug addiction
prohibition. "Legalize, regulate and tax" is their mantra
now. Our heroes believe that all illicit drugs should be under the
control of government, not left in the hands of criminals.
Let's meet a few of these mavericks:
Peter Christ retired as a police captain after a 20-year
career enforcing the drug laws. Peter originated the idea of creating
LEAP: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. "What we come together
at in LEAP is on the fact that prohibition has to end."
Frank
Serpico; legend, former NYC cop. Took a bullet in the face for
exposing corruption in his own department. "I think it's time
to stop the hypocrisy."
John Gayder is a constable with the Niagara Parks Police
Department in Niagara Falls, Ontario. He
cannot represent his employer in our film. "Throughout my career
I've seen nothing that would lead me to believe that our current
approaches to narcotics work. They're not effective; in fact, they're
making things worse."
Norm Stamper, former Chief of Police in Seattle, Washington.
"As with all wars, number one you have to have an enemy. That
enemy turns out to be our fellow citizens."
Terry Nelson is a 32 year veteran of Border and Customs
Patrol, which eventually became part of
Homeland Security. "Each year we would seize or assist in seizing
mega-ton loads of cocaine, and it
was making absolutely no difference."
Howard Wooldridge drove highway patrol in Michigan for 18
years. During the summer of 2005,
he rode his horse Misty across America to protest the drug war.
Howard says: "I want to educate Americans as to the full range
of the unintended consequences of this policy of drug prohibition."
Tony Smith was a cop in Vancouver for 28 years."We
can give the drug industry to three groups of people: we can give
it to private enterprise, we can give it to the government, or we
can give it to the criminals. And we've made the worst choice, we've
given it to the criminals."
Judge Jim Gray is a former drug warrior; he held the record
for the largest drug prosecution in the central district of California
in Los Angeles. "What you need to do with regard to the criminal
justice system, is to hold people accountable for what they do:
hold people accountable for their actions, instead of for what they
put into their bodies."
Walter McKay walked a beat on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver
for 12 years. Now he's
working on a PhD in the Philosophy of Law Enforcement Ethics. Walter
says: "We were making
anywhere from 8 to 11 arrests a night. And did we make a difference?
Did we win the drug war? We
didn't do anything."
Senator
Larry Campbell, former Mayor of Vancouver, former Coroner, former
drug cop. A Canadian icon. "Let's legalize marijuana. Let's
just legalize it, OK?"
Jay Fleming was an undercover narcotics officer in the Northwest
States for 12 years. Jay says:
"Undercover is a dirty, nasty, business. You have to get to
know someone, you get to know their family. Then you have to go
back and destroy that family."
Cele Castillo is a 20-year veteran of state and federal
law enforcement, having served 12-years with the Drug Enforcement
Administration. Cele was the whistle-blower in the Iran-Contra Affair.
Now his own son is in trouble with the law for getting caught with
a roach in his ashtray. "I strongly believed, and I put my
life on the line, that I would make a difference. And obviously
that was not what it was all about."
Find more info about this documentary and the people feature at
www.drugwarodyssey.com
An imX communications and National Film Board of Canada Co-Production
www.nfb.ca
www.imxcommunications.com
© Conceptafilm
2003
All images © Conceptafilm, cinematography
by Kyle Cameron
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