The author continues his mission of writing movie reviews on the IMDB for all films that exploit the Drug War without pointing out that it is just plain wrong. This review was posted for the 2012 film entitled Drug War, aka Du zhan.
Drug War movies 123 are just modern Gladiator Shows for American Drug Warriors. Producers of such films exploit the violence created by the absurd Drug War for personal gain. Americans, used to urinating for employment, fail to realize that the Drug War is simply the enforcement of Christian Science Sharia -- Christian Science: the religion that says we have a moral obligation to renounce the medicines of Mother Nature. The Drug War is corrupt. No other society has ever scapegoated substances like this to turn ordinary people into criminals. Producers should stop exploiting it. And movie reviewers should stop treating these movies as if the Drug War that prompted the action was somehow moral and common sense. Thomas Jefferson didn't think so -- and he was rolling in his grave when the DEA confiscated his poppy plants, the same DEA that has been lying about psychoactive plant medicine for the last 50 years. Enough Drug War propaganda movies , already.
August 23, 2022
Charming as this broadside no doubt was, it failed to get down to brass tacks viz. specific movie titles, no doubt because the hypersensitive author was so pissed by the tyrannical principle at play here that he pettishly recoiled from even contemplating such irritating specifics, let alone enumerating them, in the same way that the hypochondriacal Roderick Usher recoiled from hearing anything but the "peculiar sounds" of certain stringed instruments. So to demonstrate that Brian knew whereof he spoke (whereof he positively raved), we adduce the following recent feature titles which promote the drug-war ideology of substance demonization: Crisis, Running with the Devil, The Runner, and Four Good Days. These titles are the most obvious offenders that come to mind, but let's face it: almost any modern movie that mentions "drugs" (as that term is hypocritically defined by Drug Warriors) tends to promote drug-war ideology, if only by associating substance use with scoundrels and/or by otherwise enforcing the standard drug-war narrative that the use of demonized substances can only result in heartbreak and sorrow.
SPOILER ALERT: Warning! Pretty much any movie that involves arguments over a huge amount of cash is going to end up being a Drug War propaganda film at some point, if only by tacitly associating violence and hedonism with "drugs" (never mind the fact that the association is a product of the drug-war itself). I'm a bit of a horror buff myself, but I'm turned off when flicks gratuitously bring "drugs" into play, as in otherwise promising flicks like "Don't Say Its Name" and "When Darkness Falls." Take the latter Scottish-based title, for instance: The suspenseful and scenic caper had snagged my undivided attention for at least 80 of its 105-minute run time, but when that bag full of money was discovered in the abandoned house toward which the two hapless female hikers had been journeying, I said to myself, "Oh, here we go. All the evil of the movie will be tacitly ascribed to 'drugs.'" In fact, I actually turned the movie off at that point. But then, reflecting that I may have been rash, I continued to watch, after which I was relieved to find that the term "drugs" was never even mentioned in the film (although there was a post-it note in the money bag which made it clear that the booty therein came from a dirty evil rotten (and bad) drug deal. As for "Don't Say Its Name," it supposedly had to do with a Native American curse, but I flicked it off in less than 25 minutes when one of the apparent stars started ranting about the opioid crisis, in such a way, of course, as to imply that it was caused by dirty evil "drugs" rather than by a dirty evil Drug War -- a war that outlawed all safer means of self-transcendence which had been legal since caveman days.
For more on "drugs" in the movies 4 , one could do worse than click on the following:
It is a violation of religious liberty to outlaw substances that inspire and elate. The Hindu religion was inspired by just such a drug.
In a sane world, we would learn to strategically fight drugs with drugs.
The media called out Trump for fearmongering about immigrants, but the media engages in fearmongering when it comes to drugs. The latest TV plot line: "white teenage girl forced to use fentanyl!" America loves to feel morally superior about "drugs."
The Drug War shows us that American democracy is fundamentally flawed. Propaganda and fearmongering has persuaded Americans to give up freedoms that are clearly enunciated in the U.S. Constitution. We need a new democracy in which a Constitution actually matters.
Ann Lemke's case studies make the usual assumptions: getting free from addiction is a morality tale. No reference to how the drug war promotes addiction and how banned drugs could solve such problems. She does not say why daily SSRI use is acceptable while daily opium use is not. Etc.
It is folly to put bureaucrats in charge of second-guessing drug prescriptions: what such bureaucrats are really doing is second-guessing the various philosophies of life which are presupposed by the way we use psychoactive drugs.
In the board game "Sky Team," you collect "coffees" to improve your flying skills. Funny how the use of any other brain-focusing "drug" in real life is considered to be an obvious sign of impairment.
Addiction thrives BECAUSE of prohibition, which limits drug choice and discourages education about psychoactive substances and how to use them wisely.
Drug testing labs should give high marks for those who manage to use drugs responsibly, notwithstanding the efforts of law enforcement to ruin their lives. The lab guy would be like: "Wow, you are using opium wisely, my friend! Congratulations! Your boss is lucky to have you!"
Being a lifetime patient is not the issue: that could make perfect sense in certain cases. But if I am to be "using" for life, I demand the drug of MY CHOICE, not that of Big Pharma and mainstream psychiatry, who are dogmatically deaf to the benefits of hated substances.
It is a violation of religious liberty to outlaw substances that inspire and elate. The Hindu religion was inspired by just such a drug.
