Self-Defense & Violence Prevention Blog

Lockdown, USA, and How Drug Laws Increase Violence

Posted by Scott on March 26th, 2009 — Posted in Politics & Commentary

A gentleman contacted me from Article 19 Films, who produce socially responsible documentary features. He told me about a documentary called Lockdown, USA that they recently released. It chronicles Hip-Hop impresario Russell Simmons’ campaign to reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws, the controversial New York State laws created in 1973, which became the foundation to the War on Drugs in the United States. Here is the trailer from YouTube (contains explicit language):

I like that trailer. Please consider ordering Lockdown, USA. The movie not only interests those already familiar with the flaws of the war on drugs, but the movie also informs those not as familiar and inspires people to get more involved in the campaign for reform.

I have often posted about the war on drugs on this blog because of the way that drug prohibition increases violent crime and hinders our ability to fight violent crime and victimization–similar to alcohol prohibition. Take a look at these posts:

• U.S. Incarcerates Most Non-Violent Offenders
• Reduce Violent Crime by Repealing Drug Prohibition
• Let’s Stop Violence and Victimization not Victimless Crimes
• State Focuses on Pot Users Instead of Violent Criminals
• Crack Gets More Jail Time Than Manslaughter
• Connecticut Still Wastes Its Resources
• Dems Seek Tax Funding For Crime Prevention (Why not stop wasting funds on drug prohibition instead?)
• Do I Want to Prevent Crime?
• The Lost War
• Funding Security
• Most Important Elements of Violent Crime Reduction

What do you think? Please post comments!

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